The Lovely Bones

If you liked...Suggestions for further reading

The Lovely Bones

• Jeanne Braselton, The Other Side of Air :A Novel (2001)
  A deceased librarian watches her family from the other side as they struggle to find love, happiness and closure.
• Leif Enger, Peace Like a River (2001)
  In 1960’s Minnesota eleven year old Reuben Land undertakes a heroic quest with his miraculous father Jeremiah and his precocious sister Swede. Although there are not many plot similarities to The Lovely Bones, Reuben’s young but wise narrative voice will appeal to many readers of Alice Sebold’s novel.
• Chris Crutcher, The Sledding Hill (2005)
  Young Adult novel. Billy Bartholomew and Eddie Proffit meet on the sledding hill. They are inseparable buddies even though Billy is dead and Eddie is still alive.
• Joyce Carol Oates, We Were the Mulvaneys (1996)
  The Mulvaneys had everything a family could want and then something terrible happens to 16 year old Marianne Mulvaney on Valentine’s Day 1976. Afterwards, the Mulvaneys must learn to become a family again.
• Elizabeth Berg, Durable Goods (1993)
  It is the early 1960’s and plucky Katie Nash appears destined to spend another Texas summer waiting for her adolescence to began and for her troubled father to come to his senses, until she decides to follow her older sister Diane on a life changing adventure.
• Alice Sebol, Lucky (1999)
  Ms. Sebold’s fiercely observed and searingly honest account of her own rape as a college freshman has been called “powerful” and “skillful”.

Major Character List

The Lovely Bones

• Susie Salmon—The main character, a 14 year old murder victim who watches her family and friends from heaven.
• Lindsey Salmon—Susie’s outspoken and strong younger sister. She must work to overcome comparisons to Susie.
• Jack Salmon—Susie’s loving father who has trouble letting go of Susie’s memory.
• Abigail Salmon— Susie’s mother. Susie’s murder forces her to confront her doubts about her identity as wife and mother.
• Buckley Salmon—Susie’s little brother who is only four when she is killed. He becomes very protective of his father Jack Salmon.
• Grandma Lynn— Abigail’s flamboyant and elegant mother who comes to take care of the Salmons after Abigail’s departure. She has a difficult relationship with her daughter.
• Len Fenerman —detective who doggedly attempts to follow the leads in Susie’s case; a sad person because he has experienced much loss; attuned to the suffering of the girls and women around him.
• George Harvey—Susie’s killer. While he is considered quirky by neighbors and the police, he manages to hide his murderous impulses behind a mask of jovial cooperation.
• Ruth Connors—Susie’s classmate; becomes acutely aware of Susie’s presence after Susie’s murder; attuned to the suffering of women
• Ray Singh—gives Susie her first and only kiss; Susie observes him from heaven; remains aware and open to the connection between the living and the dead

Discussion Questions

The Lovely Bones

1. In the first chapter, we learn that 14 year-old Susie Salmon narrates her story from heaven. What makes Susie’s heaven less than perfect? Why? What would your heaven look like?
2. What role does God play in Susie’s heaven? Why?
3. Why do you think Ms. Sebold chose to set her novel in suburbia? How does the suburban setting affect the characters and their ability to heal after Susie’s death? Why do you think that the writer chose to set the book in the past?
4. How does Susie’s sister Lindsey internalize the violence and uncertainty of her sister’s death? Does she become stronger or is her toughness just a mask? Do Abigail and Lindsey have similar coping mechanisms?
5. After Lindsey hands her father a drawing that she stole from George Harvey’s house, Jack Salmon says, “There is no condition one adjusts to so quickly as a state of war”. How does this quote sum up Lindsey’s reality? How does this quote reflect Jack’s and Abigail’s reality?
6. Why do you think Len Fenerman is more attuned to the suffering of others? What does Len Fenerman provide for Abigail Salmon?
7. What do you think of the way Abigail, Susie’s mother, copes with her daughter’s loss? Why do you think she makes the choice to leave her family? Can you sympathize with this choice?
8. What is the author trying to tell us about the face of evil? Why does she spend so much time examining the character and background of Susie’s murderer, George Harvey? Why does George Harvey build doll houses?
9. During a rare moment of family happiness after her death, Susie observes “the fine wavering line that still tied my sister to my father. The invisible chord that can kill.”(p. 245) Why does this chord have the power to kill?
10. Why do you think that the author has Susie come into such immediate contact with Ray Singh again? How does this encounter affect Ray? How do you think this encounter will change Ruth’s life?
11. Is there any justice in Mr. Harvey’s death? Does this death satisfy the need for revenge?
12. What elements make the Lovely Bones a coming of age story? Who comes of age?