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Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones *spoilers*

MonkeyCatcher said:
Plus, I have an interest in serial killers.

How can anyone not be interested? So evil and yet so common.

Plus, I like my bad guys bad. Realistic, three dimensional, complicated, yes, but a villian whose biggest crime is only tipping 10% doesn't appeal to me.
 
Peder said:
BTW there is an encyclopedic site devoted to fact crime which I can scare up and post in case you are interested.

Peder
If it's the Crime Library then I already have it added to my favourites :D

Thanks for the offer, though :)
 
MonkeyCatcher said:
If it's the Crime Library then I already have it added to my favourites :D

Thanks for the offer, though :)

MC
That was it!
You really are up on evil in the world! :D
Peder
 
Doug Johnson said:
Don't you want to know what you don't believe in is like.

I can't know what something's like if it doesn't exist. People's notions, I suppose, may possibly interest me.
 
CDA said:
Actually Peder, I don't think I can ad anyting to my last response to you.

:)

CDA
That's fine; glad to hear from you anyway!
Thanks for thinking to post.
I hope you are having a nice day over there. :)
Peder
 
CDA said:
I can't know what something's like if it doesn't exist. People's notions, I suppose, may possibly interest me.

A school for Wizards doesn't exist. It's still interesting to find out what its like.
 
Doug Johnson said:
A school for Wizards doesn't exist. It's still interesting to find out what its like.
Something would have to exist for you to find out what it was like. You never find out what a Wizard school is truely like, because it doesn't exist. All we get is merely an author's interpretation of what they /think/ it would be like, not the true reality.
 
Is this for ladies only?

name said:
My mom recommended that I read The Lovely Bones and I have to admit that I was skeptical about it at first. I trust my mom though, and like a good son, I did as I was told. I'm glad that I listened as I absolutely loved the book. Is it chick lit? I'm not sure, but if it is, then I guess I like chick lit. :) Now I'm reading all sorts of good reviews of The Secret Life of Bees and they all seem to be written by women as well! Have any of you read this book? Any scouting reports would be much appreciated.

Mike
I am 43 yr old man and I loved this book. I have even stood in book shops, seen people mulling over the idea of buying it and convinced them to go for it. Could be just me being in touch with my fem side...

I have just bought the Time Traveler's wife, meant to be similar.:) :)
 
I am roughly 50 pages from finishing this book. An interesting facet for me is the setting is all in a 50 mile radius of where I live. A few of the "murder victims" were from Delaware.

Adds a twist to everything when you can honestly visualize some of the settings because you've actually been to the specific place thats described.

I've had to struggle to not read this thread as I've been making my way through the book. :(
 
I finished the book. Upon closing the thing for the last time I immediately gave it to my 13 year old to read. She, without hesitation, opened it up and started in on it.

I think some poeple might have a problem with
the fact that the killer never gets caught, that the family never really gets revenge, or even any sense of real closure for that matter regarding the murder.

It is a different story. One that certainly tugs at heart strings and may have a stronger pull on parents of daughters. I loved the slightly unorthodox description of heaven and how things were there. If the book had gone too religious I would have probably put it down, but that's not where things went. It was a pleasant surprise.

Much like Life Of Pi I found the writing style easy to read, and even if you don't come away loving this book it probably won't be much of a struggle to get through it, and it won't demand a huge commitment of time.

I say it's worth the read.
 
Motokid said:
I think some poeple might have a problem with
the fact that the killer never gets caught, that the family never really gets revenge, or even any sense of real closure for that matter regarding the murder.

I think that's probably one of the books messages. I think it's saying that it's pretty rare for their to be any real closure and that life just goes on.
 
Motokid said:
It is a different story. One that certainly tugs at heart strings and may have a stronger pull on parents of daughters. I loved the slightly unorthodox description of heaven and how things were there. If the book had gone too religious I would have probably put it down, but that's not where things went. It was a pleasant surprise.

i agree. it was a smart direction to write in
 
I really enjoyed this book and found it very moving and poignant. I think this is because, like Susie, I am the eldest in my family, with a slightly younger sister and a much younger brother. So the book really hit home with me, particularly the grief of Susie's family.
But did anyone think that the Heaven of the novel was a bit self centred? Everything seems to revolve around Susie's tastes and needs - her duplex, her gazebo, the high school where she never has to attend class, etc.
I think the main point of the story is that she learns to outgrow this self centred heaven and by the end she is able to enter what she calls her "wide, wide heaven"
 
Why shouldn't each person's heaven (or the first level or whatever it is) be self-centered? Isn't that the point of going to heaven-most people think of it as a place they create themselves. I wouldn't want to go to heaven if it was run like a boot camp.
 
Miss Shelf said:
Why shouldn't each person's heaven (or the first level or whatever it is) be self-centered? Isn't that the point of going to heaven-most people think of it as a place they create themselves. I wouldn't want to go to heaven if it was run like a boot camp.
I agree. Heaven is meant to be the best place you can ever go, a "reward" for living your life for God, yet different people would think different things as "best" would they not? For heaven to be heaven for everyone, then I think that surroundings would have to be tweaked for each individual person, otherwise it would not be the perfect place that it is said to be.

Hope you can understand something I was trying to get across throughout all that rambling :D
 
I disliked this book. It started well, I liked the description of Susie. I liked the description of all of the characters, even her mum (well, apart from the killer obviously) and I liked the description of Susie's heaven.

I think the plot was infallible, we already have a plethora of novels based on a murderer's view, his reasons for what he has done, and many from the view of the victim's family, detailing the aftermath, but none from the view of a dead victim.

But that somehow it was written completely wrongly. I can't really explain what was wrong, and how it could have been better, but I know that it was an upsetting, uninspirational, depressing and pointless read, for me.

In real life, many rapists and murderers probably aren't caught, families do break apart in the aftermath of such tragic circumstances, and eventually, life does go on. But Susie was never happy, not even a little, and I think that was my main problem with the book - had she have been initially confused, traumatised, distressed etc, but then settled, and been happy in her new heaven, maybe with the company of other family members, it might have been different...

But somehow it feels like an anticlimax that hasn't yet happened to me (being dead).

So, I didn't like it, and wish I had never read it.
 
MonkeyCatcher said:
I agree. Heaven is meant to be the best place you can ever go, a "reward" for living your life for God, yet different people would think different things as "best" would they not? For heaven to be heaven for everyone, then I think that surroundings would have to be tweaked for each individual person, otherwise it would not be the perfect place that it is said to be.

Hope you can understand something I was trying to get across throughout all that rambling :D

I think that's the bit I just don't get. We all have dreams and aspirations, but for suddenly those dreams to all come true, would be a bit of an anticlimax, I would imagine. You would get bored, you hear of these lottery winners who sink into deep depressions because they just can't deal with having what they have never had before. Famous people and other rich people are the most depressed and messed-up of all of us.

Maybe it's a little less material... but Susie had no family around her. She wasn't happy, despite her ideal surroundings. She had to watch her family suffer, watch her 'boyfriend' move on and form an attachment to someone else.

I just don't get this idea of a 'perfect place'. But then, maybe that's the whole point.
 
I think that heaven isn't something you "win" like the lottery. It's not material, and it's not a place where your fondest wishes come true. It's a place where you can be at peace, you don't have the same wants and needs and desires as when you were a living breathing person. You might see your loved ones, but you accept that you can't do anything for them, change anything for them, because only God has that power. If you believe in the Heaven as depicted in the book, she is calmly watching her loved ones, knowing that life goes on without her. I didn't sense too many emotions in her, you'd think she'd be angry at her killer, but she wasn't.
 
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