The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is a novel by Alice Sebold chronicling the death of Susie Salmon, who dies very early on in the novel. She is raped and murdered, which in some way was probably inspired by Alice Sebold's real life rape.

Susie Salmon narrates the story from heaven, telling the reader about her family, her school friends, and her killer, Mr. Harvey. When she dies, there is an investigation and her father, Jack Salmon, feels guilty that he could not protect his daughter.

We see that from this heaven Susie can see the thoughts of people on earth, and can manifest herself through concentration. She possesses the body of a former classmate, Ruth, and kisses her old crush, Ray Singh.

Susie sees that her family begins to crumble; her mother Abigail Salmon begins an affair. We also see that Susie realizes Mr. Harvey is a serial killer, having many other women victims. Susie's father gets sick and Susie feels confused, because she wants him to be with her but also realizes that his death will bring sadness to many people. I thought this was an interesting concept, because the narrative from heaven standpoint in a novel is very rare.

The novel concludes with Susie reaching a higher level of heaven, and she sees Mr. Harvey getting off of a bus. The reader is left to interpret Mr. Harvey's death by an icicle hanging as Susie's doing, which I believe to be the case.
The novel is very interesting because Alice Sebold's rape influences the style of writing when discussing Susie's death and how she realizes that life without her is different in the world. The writing is light in some places, and I think that more detail could have been used in certain parts of the book, such as when Susie's father gets sick. Also, Susie sometimes goes back and forth between certain periods of time, making the novel confusing at points. The book still was a decent read, however.