I loved this book, despite the unnecessary twist at the ending.
It was both a page turner and an emotional drama. I read it in one sitting.
That was back in the days when I still had time to read books in one sitting. ;)

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About the book:

"On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings."

Source: Amazon Review by Brad Thomas Parsons

Offering this book as an international bookring.

Sign up by posting in this forum, PM me if I miss your post:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/451182

Dimensions (measured in cm): 11 x 17.5 x 2 cm (4.3 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches)
Approximate weight (according to Amazon): 204 grams (7.2 ounces)

Ring rules:
1) Journal the book when you receive it.
2) Place the book at the top of your TBRs (under the rings and rays received before this one).
3) Try to read it within a month, it's an easy and speedy read once you start.
4) If for any reason you get backlogged (work, private life, Mt. TBR...), let us all know of the delay by making a new journal entry.
5) PM the next person on the list for their address when you receive the book so you're ready to ship by the time you finish reading it.
6) Make a controlled release note when sending the book on, preferably using your country and city so that the book can some day maybe be tracked on a map.
7) Have fun and enjoy the book! ;)

Thanks! :)

Participant order may change as people sign up, depending on shipping preferences, which I will try to accommodate but can't guarantee anything - the ring is international so be prepared to ship international if you sign up.

Participants:
• duskiska (Finland - anywhere) ... READ
• Jo_an_a (Finland - anywhere) ... READ
• 2012 (Finland - anywhere) ... READ
• marijketje (Netherlands - Europe) ... READ
• teggers (UK - UK/EU) ... READ
• LilliFortune (Germany - anywhere) ... READ
• Nakipa (Portugal - anywhere) ... ASKED TO BE SKIPPED
• goldenwattle (AUST - AUST/NZ/Asia/US/Europe) ... WITHDREW
• BSAChris (USA - anywhere) ... SKIPPED - NO ANSWER TO PMs
• valpete (USA - anywhere; lower on the list) ... SKIPPED - acquired another copy while this one was stalled
• Then back to vedranaster (Croatia) .......... It's home! :)

The book is now in the hands f the Post Office,
on it's way to duskiska as part of this bookring.

Enjoy! :D

I got the book today, thanks a lot! :) Will start reading right away. I have PM'd Jo_an_a for her address.

Phew, I finally finished it! It's funny how you have all the time in the world when there's no rush to get a book read, but the time somehow disappears if you actually have to finish a book... x)

In the beginning I had time to read only short sections at a time, which took something away from the experience. Once I really got to reading, the book was hard to put down as I was anxious to see what would happen next. I also thought the characters in the story were well developed and they felt alive.

All in all I did like the book, but somehow it wasn't such a huge hit for me as I had expected. It may be partly because of reading in a foreign language. The Finnish name for this book is, by the way, "Oma taivas", which could be translated as "A heaven of her own". I like that one better, the English one just didn't open up for me. It did have some meaning that I can't remember anymore, but during the whole reading I kept thinking, "What's so lovely about a murdered girl's bones, huh?".

-------------------SPOILER ALERT-------------------

















What I didn't like about this book was the ending. Susie had the opportunity to let her family know where her body was and give them a sort of peace, but she didn't do it. I was soooo annoyed by that. Also, I was expecting the whole time for the killer to be caught and having to pay for what he did. Damn it!

The book is now off to Jo_an_a.

Received the book today!

Wow, it seemed to take me ages to finish this book, I have been reading it for so long, I've grown attached to the characters, and I am sad to let the book go! I have mixed feelings about the book. I liked the beginning, found some bits in the middle a bit tedious, but the story picked up again towards the end.

---SPOILER ALERT---








The whole time I actually felt the story was not told by Susie but Ruth, as an observation of an awkward outsider teenager with a vivid imagination, and who feels life is not really happening to her, but to everybody else. So when in the end Susie "became" Ruth, I was like HA, was right! ;) My favourite character was Grandma Lynn, and I found her relationship with her own daughter and the family one of the most interesting threads to follow throughout the story.

This book is now travelling to 2012.

Thank you! Reveived the book yesterday, will read it after the one I'm reading at the moment.

Interesting and unique book. I agree with duskiska about the points she mentioned in her spoiler alert part. :) I also expected similar conclusion.

Will be sending the book to marijketje soon.

Sent to marijketje.

Wow the book got here fast! Anyway, thanks for sending it to me 2012! I'm looking forward to reading it, but I have one other bookring I have to read first.

I didn't like the book. I found it too depressing. Ofcourse I didn't think it would be a happy book since it's about a murder. But a sad book can still be moving or a nice book or you can still enjoy reading it. I didn't found this one moving or nice, just simply depressing.

on it's way to teggers

Received in the post this morning. I have one book to finish up first and then I will get to this one. Thanks for offering it vedranaster!

I just finished reading this yesterday. I'm not really sure how I feel about this book, I found it very very sad but not depressing as others have said. I have to say I think I quite enjoyed it, I always love when the narration coming from an unusual source actually works really well. I hadn't read anyone's reviews before because I tend to be swayed but now that I have the idea that the story is actually narrated by Ruth rings true for me too.

For me the characters were very full bodied and demanded that I actually felt for them. All in all I think is was a good portrayal of a family struggling with a great tragedy and how that can destroy them but also has the potential to forge them into new and better people. I think my favourite character was Grandmother Lynn.

I already have LiliFortune's address so this will be the post this week.

Off to the next reader, happy reading.

Got it this week, started to read and already enjoy it.

Even if 'nice' and 'lovely' are not the right words to describe the story, I enjoyed the book. Easy and fast to read. I agree the others with the ending.

Well, 6 years after sending this little book out as a ring, and 3 years after it was last logged, I am finally giving up hope of it ever finishing its journey and returning back home, as it seems to have become permanently stalled.
Hopefully, it's on a shelf somewhere, or finding new readers.

A very good book with a heartbreaking story

Safe and sound back at home.
Thanks for keeping it safe while you dealt with life, LilliFortune. :)