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The Lovely Bones
Susie Salmon is just like any other young girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead.
Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Her father, Jack is obsessed with identifying the killer. Her mother, Abigail is desperate to create a different life for herself. And her sister, Lindsay is discovering the opposite sex with experiences that Susie will never know. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them…
Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this unforgettable play about life after loss.
229 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 25, 2018
242 people are currently reading
1268 people want to read
About the author
Bryony Lavery
40 books12 followersBryony Lavery is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play Frozen. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 12, 2020
I don’t think I will have the heart to ever read this again!
October 27, 2025
The Lovely Bones, based on the novel by Alice Sebold
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
The Lovely Bones is a very good drama.
It has accents pf Fantasy and elements of horror.
With a metascore of only 42, it has not overwhelmed critics.
But it did get 45 nominations and 10 wins.
The Lovely Bones received three of the most important nominations in the movie industry, all for Best Performance in a Supporting role:
- The Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, all for Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an excellent actor, although he was restricted to supporting roles, with very few notable exceptions:
- Big Night is one that I remember and perhaps his role in Julie & Julia could be considered as more important
Notwithstanding the fact that Stanley Tucci definitely deserves more chances to play in a lead role, he also makes a strong case for supporting roles.
For although considered not a “leading role”, his rendition of the character of George Harvey is crucial for The Lovely Bones.
There is so much attached to this part that I would plead for a reconsidering of supporting vs leading roles.
Yes, the duration of the presence of an actor on screen is relevant, but I see the part of George Harvey as deserving more attention.
The director of this intense drama is Peter Jackson, who is of course internationally famous, but for a different kind of film
- When you say his name, the various Lords of the Rings and Hobbits come to mind
- And the associated Oscars
But Peter Jackson is not just a creator of the Hobbits’ worlds, in fact one of his early notable productions has been:
- Heavenly Creatures, a crime story with Kate Winslet at the center and included on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list
The other members of the cast for The Lovely Bones do a great job:
- Mark Wahlberg, albeit not a favorite of mine is good as the father of the killed girl and Rachel Weisz is also giving a strong performance as the mother, with Susan Sarandon bringing an element of fun as Grandma Lynn
- Saoirse Ronan is the star of the show, nominated for a BAFTA, in the role of the teenager Susie Salmon -killed by the monster George Harvey
The audience learns very early about the fate of the poor girl, who is just “starting her life” as the cliché would have it.
Susie Salmon has just found a young man that she is attracted to and enjoys a good family life when disaster strikes.
She tells her story from between heaven and hell and tries to or thinks about interfering at times in the life of her family.
The parents, police and most people are terrified about what happened and try to find the monster that did it.
We know all along.
It is the man who lives next door and who appears to be “normal”, even somewhat friendly and decent.
This makes for an even more challenging part for Stanley Tucci, who has to move from one personality to the other.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is the role of Susan Sarandon as the grandmother who has to bring some balance:
“Jack Salmon: [Jack has invited Grandma Lynn to stay with them or awhile. He brings two suitcases in from her taxi] Is this all there is?
Grandma Lynn: Don't be ridiculous; that's just my makeup.”
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
The Lovely Bones is a very good drama.
It has accents pf Fantasy and elements of horror.
With a metascore of only 42, it has not overwhelmed critics.
But it did get 45 nominations and 10 wins.
The Lovely Bones received three of the most important nominations in the movie industry, all for Best Performance in a Supporting role:
- The Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, all for Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an excellent actor, although he was restricted to supporting roles, with very few notable exceptions:
- Big Night is one that I remember and perhaps his role in Julie & Julia could be considered as more important
Notwithstanding the fact that Stanley Tucci definitely deserves more chances to play in a lead role, he also makes a strong case for supporting roles.
For although considered not a “leading role”, his rendition of the character of George Harvey is crucial for The Lovely Bones.
There is so much attached to this part that I would plead for a reconsidering of supporting vs leading roles.
Yes, the duration of the presence of an actor on screen is relevant, but I see the part of George Harvey as deserving more attention.
The director of this intense drama is Peter Jackson, who is of course internationally famous, but for a different kind of film
- When you say his name, the various Lords of the Rings and Hobbits come to mind
- And the associated Oscars
But Peter Jackson is not just a creator of the Hobbits’ worlds, in fact one of his early notable productions has been:
- Heavenly Creatures, a crime story with Kate Winslet at the center and included on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list
The other members of the cast for The Lovely Bones do a great job:
- Mark Wahlberg, albeit not a favorite of mine is good as the father of the killed girl and Rachel Weisz is also giving a strong performance as the mother, with Susan Sarandon bringing an element of fun as Grandma Lynn
- Saoirse Ronan is the star of the show, nominated for a BAFTA, in the role of the teenager Susie Salmon -killed by the monster George Harvey
The audience learns very early about the fate of the poor girl, who is just “starting her life” as the cliché would have it.
Susie Salmon has just found a young man that she is attracted to and enjoys a good family life when disaster strikes.
She tells her story from between heaven and hell and tries to or thinks about interfering at times in the life of her family.
The parents, police and most people are terrified about what happened and try to find the monster that did it.
We know all along.
It is the man who lives next door and who appears to be “normal”, even somewhat friendly and decent.
This makes for an even more challenging part for Stanley Tucci, who has to move from one personality to the other.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is the role of Susan Sarandon as the grandmother who has to bring some balance:
“Jack Salmon: [Jack has invited Grandma Lynn to stay with them or awhile. He brings two suitcases in from her taxi] Is this all there is?
Grandma Lynn: Don't be ridiculous; that's just my makeup.”
July 16, 2019
I bought the hard cover copy years ago but never got to read it and when I moved my bumbling packing assistant seems to have given it over to charity (not that it's a bad thing but when it's something you wanted to keep because you haven't read it, not very nice).
So I ordered another copy, paperback from EBay. It actually has on the cover Suzie's and Mr. Harvey's encountering in the cornfield so making it even more tragic.
I saw the film a few years back and to this day it is a favorite of mine. Peter Jackson, though some may not agree, did a wonderful job, depicting Suzie's heaven, turning an horrifying tragedy into something somehow beautiful. Saoirse Ronan was simply incredible as Suzie and Stanley Tucci is probably the scariest serial killer ever.
I just read the part where Suzie's dad goes into the cornfield with a baseball convinced it is Harvey's there up to no good but actually it is Suzie's friend Clarissa with her boyfriend who beats poor Mr. Salmon nearly to death.
I'm happy that this part did not make it into the movie. Abigail, Suzie's mom, seduces the policeman Len and starts an affair with him while her husband lies in a hospital bed. This made me hate her for doing that. She bails out of the situation, trying to get away from remembering she lost a child. She seems so cold and distant that when her mother, the flighty grandma played by Susan Sarandon tries to talk some sense in her, you feel the wacky grandma is more mature than her daughter and so is Lindsay, Suzie's young sister.
The book as some had told me was very graphic in the details of what happens to poor Suzie. We were spared those in the film but were reminded of her fate by the blood, the clothes, the bracelet he keeps and the safe where he kept some of her remains.
Not so with the novel. He rapes her, wants her to tell him she loves him and then savagely enough butchers her so much so that in the book it is an elbow they find, not just her hat.
Suzie felt that she should have run, not even talk to him but she is obviously too nice a person. Many people are like her, failing to listen to the little alarm bell which rings in our brain when we sense danger and dismissing it. Those who listen to theirs are deemed to be paranoid but in the end it is not paranoia simply common sense that if we feel some unease, we should move away from whoever or whatever makes us feel uneasy. It is what keeps us alive.
Had Suzie ran and not talked to him, she would have lived but of course there wouldn't have been a book, a story to tell.
Even in the beginning of the novel after it has been established that Suzie is dead, her younger sister Lindsay is already preparing to avenge her.
I'm at the point where Lindsay goes back to school and teachers and students try to show their sympathy but Suzie tells us from her heaven that her sister is becoming an expert at looking through people. We are even told that one teacher has a couch that he will eventually replace with chairs because the couch is not politically correct and the way he puts his hand on the knees of girls could be construed the wrong way.
Lindsay is the youngest of the 2 Salmon girls but somehow she is the bigger of the 2 and the taller in the film at least and also the one who trusts her sixth sense and does not trust people easily.
When I saw the movie and I know they added a bit more to Suzie's flirtation with Ray than what is in the book but I actually wished she could escape her killer, survive to live a normal life like so many teens and live her first love with Ray.
I haven't looked at Stanley Tucci quite the same since that film and yet I have seen him playing Paul Child, julia's husband in Julie and Julia and in there he is a very harmless kind man. I remember that at the time the film came out, he talked how hard it had been for him to play such a character being a father himself.
I'm presently at the point they are preparing a memorial for Suzie. We learn her sister Lindsay is in love. One scene that made it in the movie when the boy she loves gives her a half-heart pendant makes it earlier in the book and he meets her family. We also see just how zany Susan Sarrandon's character of Grandma Lynn really is. We're told she is so skinny she has no hips and can wear just about anything and look great. She is the one introducing Lindsay to makeup for the first time. Where I am in the book right now, Lindsay is looking into Suzie's closet to find a beautiful dress to wear so she will look beautiful for her boyfriend.
The book is more graphic than the movie. Peter Jackson toned it down wanting us to see that the after-life could be beautiful especially is you were an innocent so vilely murdered.
I also read in the book that Suzie got kissed by Ray behind the stage at school and that doesn't happen in the movie. She also befriends Ruth Graham who in the movie has those clairvoyant powers and is the one Suzie brushes by after realizing she has been murdered. Ruth in the movie lives with her dad who owns the dump where the vault containing Suzie's remains are and of which Harvey disposes of as he fleeing after Lindsay found the proof to expose him. In the book Ruth's dad doesn't own the dump, that is another family who owns it. Also in the movie, Harvey keeps the vault with Suzie's remains till he flees and then he pays to have it put into the dump as it was about to close for winter.
Clarissa who seems to be such a good friend of Suzie in the book is hardly seen or mentioned in the movie except for the scene where she comes face to face at her locker with Ray and they're about to kiss and we see Ruth being scolded for her drawings being too accurate, well we see Clarissa with one blond haired guy jock who doesn't seem happy that Clarissa was talking to Suzie. In the book, it seems, they loaned to each other clothes. One dress Lindsay wears from her sister's closet for the memorial is actually one dress Clarissa loaned her so when she sees Lindsay wearing the dress, she is about to say something about it but refrains from doing it because of Abigail's reaction.
Grandma Lynn in the book at the memorial points out to one person at the back of the church saying "It is the man" and that man she points out at is Harvey who had the gall to show up at the memorial of his innocent victim.
I am so happy this didn't make it into the movie: Abigail has an affair with Len, the detective, while her husband lies in the hospital fighting for his life after he mistook Clarissa and her boyfriend for Mr. Harvey. I find that despicable of Abigail, what a weak person she is to risk her marriage and the respect of the 2 remaining live children just so she can forget she lost a child. To me it is unforgiveable.
One character that is hardly in the film except when we see her with her husband and son is the mother of Ray, the boy in love with Suzie. Ruana is a fascinating character. Both Suzie's dad and mom get to talk to her.
In the film we are never told that the girl who can see dead people, Ruth, is a lesbian but in the book she is but she is willing to try and have sex with Ray in the book.
Incredible when you look back at the film and see how young Saoirse Ronan was and now she's a grown woman playing such roles as Lady Bird, the young Irish woman in Brooklyn as well as Mary Queen of Scots.
I finished the book on July 11th and I am amazed on how different it can be from the movie. I'm not sure I liked Abigail having an affair with Len, the detective or her coldness about losing her daughter. We are told only near the end of the book that she is finally ready to accept and finally mourn appropriately.
We saw in the movie how Lindsay fell in love, snippets of it, even when she is pregnant in the last scenes of the movie and I must say it was far more pleasant to see that development in the book. After all Lindsay isn a kind of heroine, she is the one risking her lifen to try and convict Mr. Harvey. He might not take flight in the book for the same reason and in the same way in the movie as compared to the book, but he still feels targeted and starts seeing others looking at him in a suspicious way thanks to Lindsay.
Now that was interesting. In the movie, Susie and Ray kisses through Ruth when her remains are being tossed in the sinkhole. Here in the book they make love. The sinkhole does not belong to Ruth's dad but rather they go there Ruth and Ray because it is going to be permanently sealed off.
Interesting that somebody does find Susie's charm bracelet and offers it to his wife.
I liked though the poetic justice that made it into the movie, Mr. Harvey slipping after being hit by an icicle and falling to his death.
Yes the book is far more graphic than the movie. Peter Jackson made it more poetic somehow. The whole rape and murder is somehow described in the book but we can only speculate about it in the movie and though I've lived long enough to be able to deal with the reality of such a gruesome murder, I prefer Peter Jackson's vision of it.
More later.
So I ordered another copy, paperback from EBay. It actually has on the cover Suzie's and Mr. Harvey's encountering in the cornfield so making it even more tragic.
I saw the film a few years back and to this day it is a favorite of mine. Peter Jackson, though some may not agree, did a wonderful job, depicting Suzie's heaven, turning an horrifying tragedy into something somehow beautiful. Saoirse Ronan was simply incredible as Suzie and Stanley Tucci is probably the scariest serial killer ever.
I just read the part where Suzie's dad goes into the cornfield with a baseball convinced it is Harvey's there up to no good but actually it is Suzie's friend Clarissa with her boyfriend who beats poor Mr. Salmon nearly to death.
I'm happy that this part did not make it into the movie. Abigail, Suzie's mom, seduces the policeman Len and starts an affair with him while her husband lies in a hospital bed. This made me hate her for doing that. She bails out of the situation, trying to get away from remembering she lost a child. She seems so cold and distant that when her mother, the flighty grandma played by Susan Sarandon tries to talk some sense in her, you feel the wacky grandma is more mature than her daughter and so is Lindsay, Suzie's young sister.
The book as some had told me was very graphic in the details of what happens to poor Suzie. We were spared those in the film but were reminded of her fate by the blood, the clothes, the bracelet he keeps and the safe where he kept some of her remains.
Not so with the novel. He rapes her, wants her to tell him she loves him and then savagely enough butchers her so much so that in the book it is an elbow they find, not just her hat.
Suzie felt that she should have run, not even talk to him but she is obviously too nice a person. Many people are like her, failing to listen to the little alarm bell which rings in our brain when we sense danger and dismissing it. Those who listen to theirs are deemed to be paranoid but in the end it is not paranoia simply common sense that if we feel some unease, we should move away from whoever or whatever makes us feel uneasy. It is what keeps us alive.
Had Suzie ran and not talked to him, she would have lived but of course there wouldn't have been a book, a story to tell.
Even in the beginning of the novel after it has been established that Suzie is dead, her younger sister Lindsay is already preparing to avenge her.
I'm at the point where Lindsay goes back to school and teachers and students try to show their sympathy but Suzie tells us from her heaven that her sister is becoming an expert at looking through people. We are even told that one teacher has a couch that he will eventually replace with chairs because the couch is not politically correct and the way he puts his hand on the knees of girls could be construed the wrong way.
Lindsay is the youngest of the 2 Salmon girls but somehow she is the bigger of the 2 and the taller in the film at least and also the one who trusts her sixth sense and does not trust people easily.
When I saw the movie and I know they added a bit more to Suzie's flirtation with Ray than what is in the book but I actually wished she could escape her killer, survive to live a normal life like so many teens and live her first love with Ray.
I haven't looked at Stanley Tucci quite the same since that film and yet I have seen him playing Paul Child, julia's husband in Julie and Julia and in there he is a very harmless kind man. I remember that at the time the film came out, he talked how hard it had been for him to play such a character being a father himself.
I'm presently at the point they are preparing a memorial for Suzie. We learn her sister Lindsay is in love. One scene that made it in the movie when the boy she loves gives her a half-heart pendant makes it earlier in the book and he meets her family. We also see just how zany Susan Sarrandon's character of Grandma Lynn really is. We're told she is so skinny she has no hips and can wear just about anything and look great. She is the one introducing Lindsay to makeup for the first time. Where I am in the book right now, Lindsay is looking into Suzie's closet to find a beautiful dress to wear so she will look beautiful for her boyfriend.
The book is more graphic than the movie. Peter Jackson toned it down wanting us to see that the after-life could be beautiful especially is you were an innocent so vilely murdered.
I also read in the book that Suzie got kissed by Ray behind the stage at school and that doesn't happen in the movie. She also befriends Ruth Graham who in the movie has those clairvoyant powers and is the one Suzie brushes by after realizing she has been murdered. Ruth in the movie lives with her dad who owns the dump where the vault containing Suzie's remains are and of which Harvey disposes of as he fleeing after Lindsay found the proof to expose him. In the book Ruth's dad doesn't own the dump, that is another family who owns it. Also in the movie, Harvey keeps the vault with Suzie's remains till he flees and then he pays to have it put into the dump as it was about to close for winter.
Clarissa who seems to be such a good friend of Suzie in the book is hardly seen or mentioned in the movie except for the scene where she comes face to face at her locker with Ray and they're about to kiss and we see Ruth being scolded for her drawings being too accurate, well we see Clarissa with one blond haired guy jock who doesn't seem happy that Clarissa was talking to Suzie. In the book, it seems, they loaned to each other clothes. One dress Lindsay wears from her sister's closet for the memorial is actually one dress Clarissa loaned her so when she sees Lindsay wearing the dress, she is about to say something about it but refrains from doing it because of Abigail's reaction.
Grandma Lynn in the book at the memorial points out to one person at the back of the church saying "It is the man" and that man she points out at is Harvey who had the gall to show up at the memorial of his innocent victim.
I am so happy this didn't make it into the movie: Abigail has an affair with Len, the detective, while her husband lies in the hospital fighting for his life after he mistook Clarissa and her boyfriend for Mr. Harvey. I find that despicable of Abigail, what a weak person she is to risk her marriage and the respect of the 2 remaining live children just so she can forget she lost a child. To me it is unforgiveable.
One character that is hardly in the film except when we see her with her husband and son is the mother of Ray, the boy in love with Suzie. Ruana is a fascinating character. Both Suzie's dad and mom get to talk to her.
In the film we are never told that the girl who can see dead people, Ruth, is a lesbian but in the book she is but she is willing to try and have sex with Ray in the book.
Incredible when you look back at the film and see how young Saoirse Ronan was and now she's a grown woman playing such roles as Lady Bird, the young Irish woman in Brooklyn as well as Mary Queen of Scots.
I finished the book on July 11th and I am amazed on how different it can be from the movie. I'm not sure I liked Abigail having an affair with Len, the detective or her coldness about losing her daughter. We are told only near the end of the book that she is finally ready to accept and finally mourn appropriately.
We saw in the movie how Lindsay fell in love, snippets of it, even when she is pregnant in the last scenes of the movie and I must say it was far more pleasant to see that development in the book. After all Lindsay isn a kind of heroine, she is the one risking her lifen to try and convict Mr. Harvey. He might not take flight in the book for the same reason and in the same way in the movie as compared to the book, but he still feels targeted and starts seeing others looking at him in a suspicious way thanks to Lindsay.
Now that was interesting. In the movie, Susie and Ray kisses through Ruth when her remains are being tossed in the sinkhole. Here in the book they make love. The sinkhole does not belong to Ruth's dad but rather they go there Ruth and Ray because it is going to be permanently sealed off.
Interesting that somebody does find Susie's charm bracelet and offers it to his wife.
I liked though the poetic justice that made it into the movie, Mr. Harvey slipping after being hit by an icicle and falling to his death.
Yes the book is far more graphic than the movie. Peter Jackson made it more poetic somehow. The whole rape and murder is somehow described in the book but we can only speculate about it in the movie and though I've lived long enough to be able to deal with the reality of such a gruesome murder, I prefer Peter Jackson's vision of it.
More later.
August 6, 2019
love this book i had read this story along with my classmates in my high school year in freshman. its very sad about how susie was trying to give her family signs, but it was hard. now we watched the lovely bones movie in class with everyone else after we finished reading the book. it was very beautiful at the end of the movie. she was with all the angels and smiling with no suffering,..
October 11, 2022
This book was absolutely amazing, it made me feel everything from happy to enraged. It's such an emotional roller-coaster, but that's what I loved about it. I especially enjoyed looking through both Susie's eyes and whoever she was shadowing's eyes simultaneously.
June 14, 2024
The Lovely Bones is a truly heart dropping book. The imagery, the heart break, and the suspense are all equally as beautiful. Throughout the whole book you’re left on the edge of this cliff, wanting to see whether or not you get justice truly making it a thriller. Im not one to really read this style of books but it has been a favorite of mine for years the authors depiction of young susie’s situation shows her passion in writing this novel. It was such a lovely experience I don’t think Ive hollered or cried at a book as much as I did here . I hope you give it a try.
February 16, 2025
I enjoyed this book, however it wasn’t what I thought I was getting into which was interesting. I thought it was going to be more centered around the murder, instead of the family dynamics after. I did think this was very interesting, and a realistic telling of what a lot of families go through. Overall it was decent. Made me feel like I need to talk to my family more, because I found myself missing them.
February 1, 2026
Susie Salmon is just like any other young American girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead.
Add: Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them... Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this unforgettable play about life after loss.
March 23, 2022
Lo lei hace varios años y aun lo tengo presente en mi corazón. La tristeza, el sentimiento de injusticia, la preocupación, el dolor de la separación, la inocencia robada, el amor que prevalece incluso después de la muerta.
September 26, 2022
I haven’t read the book but I watched the movie and I loved it so the people that give this only one stars are well I will be nice and say there idiots and I’m being nice believe me. Great movie so the book must be great too. Thanks bye.
June 24, 2025
5 stars. Screamed, cried, and almost threw up (I read the first 5 chapters in a public park and did almost throw up all over the picnic table). The book and the movie will both follow me for all my days in the worst and best possible ways.
April 29, 2019
This book was almost perfect. if you like weird things you might would love it but for me the strange final thing broke my expectatives. However, it is still a great book :)
December 16, 2019
Really liked this book. Read right through it.
Patsy
Patsy
December 29, 2019
I had high hopes for this book but was disappointed.
February 8, 2021
Excellent
Beautifully written and so different, from what you see in everyday books. You must read this book and watch the movie afterwards
Beautifully written and so different, from what you see in everyday books. You must read this book and watch the movie afterwards
April 24, 2021
The book was great when it came to visualizations and details but left me extremely unsatisfied at how it ended.
January 11, 2025
One of my favorite movies. Afraid the book didn’t quite meet my expectations.
August 2, 2025
One of my all-time favorite books to read. it is beautifully written and shares an incredible story. Can’t stop recommending it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2026
Film was different with movies. Just make sure it was the ordinary. We have been good by Madinah. Peace be upon him. Ahlussunnah wal jama'ah.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2025
‘’if I had but an hour of love,if that be all that is given me,an hour of love upon this earth,I would give my love to thee.’’
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews