The Lovely Bones Readalong discussion

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for joining today! This thread is to discuss The Lovely Bones as we progress through the book. The purpose for this discussion board is to keep pace with the schedule posted.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks for the add!

Looking forward to reading this with you all!

A hard chapter to read. This first chapter may have been the reason I did not read this years ago.
How does someone dig up that much of a cornfield behind a subdivision without being noticed by neighbors?

Just read the first chapter and it reminds me of the movie so far and hard to put down.
Wish I had the physical book. Might see If my library has it.
(Im reading it on my kindle)

I generally don't like when the identity of the murderer is revealed at the beginning, but this is an unusual approach to a crime and I'm curious to know where the next chapters would take us.

Such a sad first chapter, but I feel the voice of our main protagonist, Susie, is captured so well and feels authentic. Of course, the words spoken by the killer are creepy, as I imagine the language of all people like that would be.

I’ve had a physical copy of this book on my shelf for years and always just bypassed it in my TBR pile. I never watched the film because I always wanted to read the book first so glad this group popped up and gave me the excuse to read it with others!

Such a dark and sinister first chapter.

I read this book maybe 10 years ago and remember being meh about it but I'm enjoying it more this time.

I was so hooked by the first chapter. Sorry 😐 I cannot put it down, so I read the second. (guilty). I never read this book before and did not watch the movie. In pure detective stories I don’t like when the killer revealed at the beginning. I have a feeling that it will be more than just a detective story. I’m dying to keep reading...

Recently, I was reading a book about storytelling, how authors have to decide where to start the story, the beginning, middle, or end. Most authors usually start in the middle (according to the author).

This book starts at the end. What other books have you read that start with the main character's death? The only other one that I can think of is The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world by Elif Shafak. It stars from the death. I liked this book so much.

I had forgotten how painful this first chapter is. What a horrifying crime. Carol - I'm not sure exactly how someone digs that behind a subdivision without being noticed but I remember a true crime case where a man had dug a bunker in the woods, kidnapped a girl and held her there for days. Similar to this story but she survived.

This was so jarring, so heinous, I was sick to my stomach. But I listened to this in the car, so the most hideous parts came through as I traveled through the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (toward my home in Brooklyn). There was nowhere to stop, nowhere to go. I had to push through. Kind of how I felt about this: I had the sense that better things, an explanation, an exploration, was on the other side. So I stayed with it.
That poor child. That call from Mom, "Dinner's ready, I've made your favorite, where are you?" I can't even imagine the pain, the horrible, horrible feeling. But it made me, again, want to stay, to hear from Susie again, to know if she's OK in heaven.
Fantastic writing.

…yes, there was a true crime story about a girl kidnapped in Georgia in 1968, buried in a fiberglass box awaiting the demanded ransom from her father…so many abductions. When it ends in murder, it is so hard to read/hear. I am glad THAT part is over and we can move on with the story!!!

quite a first chapter & need to sit with it a while...

This was a hard chapter to stomach. Imaging a little girl going through this. Just seeing it through Susie’s eyes thinking of her family was heart breaking.
It’s also hard because this may be fiction but this is something that obviously has happened in some forms to other children..

There are several mysteries by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell's other name) that start by telling us a person is dead, and then get to how they died as the book goes on. Or you know someone has died, but you don't find out till later which of the characters it is. She's of my favorite mystery writers.

Chapter 2 -

I loved the sister's reaction. It is in such sharp contrast to the other overreactions.

Isn't it incredible how we can start to dream of other things once we have seen them?

Have you ever held to a belief that you knew deep down wasn't true because you couldn't face the truth?

Heartbreaking as her parents try to believe she may still be alive and her sister's decision to show no weakness.

Lisa - As a survival mechanism, I have had something in my life that I lived in denial about for a little while. As far as this story, with the terror of losing a family member this way, I know I would want to hope for a miracle.

I like to think that the sister's reaction forced the principal to reconsider their template way to reach out to a grieving person.

Franny…an “intake manager”, and dreams realized in heaven. It would be frustrating and perhaps reassuring to see your family left behind and not be able to communicate with them.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but I do like how Susie is bored after only a few days in heaven. Have you ever achieved something in life, something that you thought would make your life perfect, only to grow bored or disappointed rather quickly?

Second, I found it interesting the contrast in parenting between now and the time of this story. Ruth comes in smelling of marijuana. Her parents say that they hope she is making some new friends. How do you think that the parents would react in 2022?

Chapter 2
This was a harder chapter than the first to see the parents hope die. That broke my heart.

Lisa-
I loved that Lindsay shocked the principal. Not everyone grieves the same and he was a bit condescending to me. Telling her she had to be exceptional in school basically for her sister. And talking about playing soccer when she is obviously dealing with trauma.

I consider myself a realist for the most part. But I did find myself not paying attention to signs in a particular relationship that was pretty toxic. I fooled myself into believing certain things weren’t possible.

Thought it an interesting take on the afterlife... and the family reactions were heartbreakingly sad

I like Lindsay's reaction too. And I like Ruth a lot.

I was a teen in the 70s and my parents would have come down HARD if I'd come in smelling of marijuana! I was told that if I were ever at a party where it was being smoked, to immediately leave because I could be arrested. As it was, my friends were all nerds who didn't indulge and I wasn't curious and didn't try it till years later.
I do know parents of teens now who would be cool with it, and others who'd be concerned mainly because teen's brains aren't fully developed.

Seeing souls leaving their bodies…
Brushing by Ruth and Ruth feeling it-chill bumps!
So sad that her dad broke all the bottles with ships…such despair.

I thought the part about her mom only being what she thought of as Abigail in one picture was interesting. In all the rest, she's playing a role.

Yes, I liked that part about the picture. And how her mother felt like a separate person for the first time.

Chapter 3

I love how Susie took the picture of her mom before she takes on her daily responsibilities for everyone else. That was interesting that she was able to notice that at 11. I also loved that she knew she wanted to be a wild life photographer. That is not your average 9-5 job. She had an artistic to be drawn to photography and making ships in bottles with her father. I think it’s so sad he smashed them all. But everyone processes and handles grief differently, in their own way.

My mom would have killed me if I came home smelling like weed, I would have been grounded for life!

I think parents nowadays would get their kids into therapy if they were having problems making friends and talk about the issues of smoking weed. My generation just got punished and there were no discussions. That was that.

I fell behind a bit:

Chapter 2

Such a scary, suspenseful chapter. You know what's happened, what's going to happen in a way, but to see things unfold - items recovered, police investigations, the principal's reaction - made me a little nervous. "Please don't find things," or "please find things," I couldn't decide. Again, I can't imagine going through that.

I love Lindsey. Great kid. I'd like to think that as the principal I'd be proud of her, to let her react as she chooses.

"Nothing is ever certain." Are they words just to provide some hope? Are they shallow, untrue? Can it be phrased differently, like, "We don't know yet," or "There's still a chance"?

Chapter 3:

I agree with the comments above: love that Susie wanted to be a wildlife photographer. I remember asking my parents if it were OK to want to be the shortstop for the NY Yankees and being told, "You can be whatever you want." Later, maybe much later than I care to admit, I figured it out: they knew that it was OK to dream, that dreaming would lead me somewhere, that life is long and I'd find a passion somehow. And as I thought about that, I felt miserable for Susie: she'd never get the chance to figure out what I did, to learn about life and see her passions morph and develop. Of course, in her heaven she finds bigger questions, which make this a magical novel.

I liked thinking about Abigail as a person, not always a mother. Creates some tension in the novel. Presenting it as a photo, as something Susie sees, was a nice touch. Susie saw her "in the wild," of sorts.

And: if we'd had another kid, I'd have recommended the name Suzanne to my wife. (We immediately agreed on "Rosemarie" the first time we talked about baby names.)

Chapter 4

A short chapter. Went through it quickly as I again listened in the car.

I really didn't want to hear things about Mr. Harvey. Just wanted him to be caught. There was a part of me that wondered why Susie was telling me this. Was this a mystery to be solved? Was it leading somewhere? But there was too much space left in the novel; I couldn't have expected him to be apprehended with 250 pages to go. Creepy as heck. Gruesome, another occasion where I felt a little sick.

I like the somewhat paranormal thing happening here. That Susie is reaching out to the living, to Dad, but not so concretely. There's a boundary there, and the novel lives in the real world still. It still feels, to me, like a real-life story of sorts, not having crossed over yet into magical realism, and I appreciated that. Susie doesn't seem desperate to connect, like a ghost, and we don't get a bunch of complicated rules explained to us in those spiritual novels I've read.

Boy, I don't like this Harvey guy.

(Question: Lisa, have I jumped the gun? Should I wait for an intro?)

Lisa of Troy wrote: "Recently, I was reading a book about storytelling, how authors have to decide where to start the story, the beginning, middle, or end. Most authors usually start in the middle (according to the aut..."

Great Question Lisa! I'm not sure if this counts but Truman Capote's In Cold Blood starts with knowing about the murder and you know who did it at the beginning but still is utterly suspenseful throughout. An amazing writer (with a more amazing friend in writing support with Harper Lee).

Helga wrote: "I generally don't like when the identity of the murderer is revealed at the beginning, but this is an unusual approach to a crime and I'm curious to know where the next chapters would take us."

I agree. You really have to have some writing chops to pull it off and keep the suspense.

Reading this story is definitely a roller coaster ride of terror, grief, confusion, and the eloquent writing just breaks your heart. Then Chapter 4 and you get pissed off real quick… all the momma and daddy bear feels come out.

I too love the parts of the story where the afterlife intersects with the living. A way of portraying things that are normally written off as a figment of your imagination or wishful thinking having actually been the deceased making an appearance. Yowza!

Watch out Mr. Harvey, you creepy ghoul!

Lisa of Troy wrote: "Recently, I was reading a book about storytelling, how authors have to decide where to start the story, the beginning, middle, or end. Most authors usually start in the middle (according to the aut..."

Perhaps not dead right from the start, but I love Rebecca. The TITLE character is dead and pervades the story. I'll say no more since I can't say anything without a spoiler!

Susie's dad is breaking my heart: Connecting with Susie in small ways, building that tent with his daughter's murderer, knowing that something is seriously wrong with Mr. Harvey.

Welcome to Chapter 4/Day 4!

Do you think Mr. Harvey will ever be found out? Will he face the criminal justice system?

How would Mr. Harvey know that the safe was "just air" if he lost the combination? Why do you think that Mr. Harvey accepted Mr. Salmon's help?

Do you think that Susie will ever be able to control the flowers in her father's world?

@Christopher - Please feel free to post at any time consistent with the reading schedule. Please don't feel that you have to wait for me to post!

Yes about Susie's dad. I was a daddy's girl too and have a good friend whose grown up daughter is the apple of his eye and it's heartbreaking to think of that loss.

Mr Harvey is a lying lierface and it doesn't matter whether he lost the combination or not. He accepted Mr Salmon's help as a one-up thing.

I think Susie isn't going to be able to control flowers or anything else on earth, sadly.

Chapter 4 was some seriously creepy serial killer vibes. And yes, there were some things that didn't add up. I was also amazed about the couple with the sinkhole, but I do know that the world was different back in the 70"s...

How can one explain death to a 4 year old child or any child for that matter ? This is so unsettling.

So creepy! I still don’t know how someone didn’t see Harvey collapsing the hole in the cornfield and carrying off bags. Wouldn’t that have been suspicious behavior? It just seems as though after a child goes missing all the neighbors would be on alert!!!
I think the owners of the sinkhole don’t really care what people dump as long as they get their money. I think it’s just their curiosity and a subject of conversation to ask questions as people dump their discards.

Chapter 4

I was eating a snack while reading and when it details Mr. Harvey putting Susie’s body in a bag in pieces I had to toss my food. And it wasn’t even gruesomely described but it just made me sick to think of a vibrant young girl with her whole life ahead of her killed that way. 😢

I think the dad already has an inkling about Mr. Harvey and will investigate. I hope he faces criminal charges but sometimes when the book talks about the future I wonder.

I think the family with the sinkhole really didn’t care what was tossed down they just wanted the money. And I think Mr. Harvey accepted Susie’s dads help because he realized he wasn’t going away and he wants to stay under the radar. Maybe he’s twisted and enjoys deceiving the family under their noses but I think it was more to not call attention to himself.

Yes I do think Susie will learn to control the flowers in her fathers world. She just needs practice.

@Lisa I think that Harvey enjoys contact with the family because he's gloating.

@Carol, YES! I would think people would already be watching Harvey because he's a little strange. I like your thoughts on the sinkhole owners, but that isn't how I saw them. I wonder if they're just that naive... like a childish inability to imagine that there's a dead body in the safe.

I think the family with the sinkhole didn't care because why should they? If they got suspicious that a body was in every discarded fridge or piece of furniture, they'd lose business. Plus how often does that happen? We know of this one instance but let's be realistic.

Chapter 5

Lindsey, wanting to get back to normal. Is that so wrong? Smart kid. I love this little love affair going on with Samuel; it's very sweet. Yeah, she wants to move forward, I get it.

Oh that Monopoly game breaks my heart. "Let's try to have fun." That answer to Buckley, "Do you know what that means?" I wonder.

And Abigail. She hated that yell, "Momma!" Reminded me a bit of the mom from The Poisonwood Bible: she felt kind of forced to get married, obligated to stay, have children, acted the part of the pastor's wife. Some characters have a hard time letting go of a previous role.

Welcome to Day 5/Chapter 5!

Mr. Salmon asks the police to investigate Harvey, and Samuel comes over on Christmas Day.

Have you ever been convinced of something, everyone thought you were crazy, and you turned out absolutely right?

Have you ever been deeply touched over a small gesture?

Time isn't standing still for Susie's family but figuring out how to cope is different for each of them. I know it's too early but I so wanted the police to find some evidence at Mr. Harvey's house.

I want Mr. Salmon to not just know that he is right but be able to move the investigation forward.

Lindsey and Samuel were such a nice way to move forward from the heaviness of explaining death to Buckley.

5:
The despair of losing a family member is sometimes eased by thinking that they are still there, if only in another form…watching over them. Susie’s father seems to have a better intuition than anyone else in the family. He senses Susie and the evil of Mr Harvey.

Chapter 5

Omg…I’m bawling over the Monopoly game with Buckley. 😭😭How hard to tell your young child that his sister, who he obviously adores is not coming home! On a separate note I’m excited for Lindsey to have her first love.

Also I can’t stand Mr. Harvey. Not just for the murder but how he is so calm and toying with the family and cops.


Yes I get intuitions about people and sometimes I’m doubted but I’m usually right.

I remember when my kids were very young 9 & 10, I was a single mom and some friends at work made up a movie basket for Christmas, with popcorn, hot chocolate, candy and A Christmas Story etc. That alone set me in tears it was so unexpected and wonderful but they also put a check in to help buy my boys Christmas presents. I will never forget that.