The Lovely Bones

Voice. Voice. Voice.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold succeeds on so many levels, but first and foremost her narrator's mesmerizing voice lured me in and carried me through this amazing book.

Susie Salmon was fourteen when she was raped and killed by a middle-aged neighbor. She recounts the tale from her heaven. Checking in on family and friends, watching them cope with her brutal death, Susie weaves the tale of her murder, including her father's efforts to discern her killer.

The genius of Susie's position is that it empowers her to speak to very personal incidences from an omniscient perspective, something usually precluded by first person narratives.

A brilliant novel that I couldn't put down.