Reading - The Lovely Bones

I've just finished to read Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones. Susie Salmon (like the fish) is 14 when she is murdered by a man who lives in the neighbourhood. After her death, she looks back at earth from her own personal heaven, observing the lives of her loved ones, as they have to learn to live without her and cope with her death.

The front cover and the friends who had already read the book all told me it was one of these compulsive reads that can be devoured in a single sitting and on this subject I beg to differ. Even by my slow standards of reading, taking over a week to read one single novel is a little much.

I feel the characterisation is really the strong point of the book. That and, you know, the story's premise - it's original and gripping and beautifully well-served by Sebold's writing. For once, the back cover isn't exaggerating, the writing really is great. The characters' feelings, their reactions to the dreadful events dropped onto them, their relationships to each other, how they grow and degrade, all of this is masterfully crafted and feels incredibly genuine. I truly admire Sebold for that.

I found the story to be a little bit slow-paced and not just as great as the hype around it had led me to expect, but it should be taken into account that I was spoilt before reading the book. I also found the ending of the book to be quite weird and nonsensical and I liked the realistic elements of the story better than the few supernatural ones. I'm quite eager to see what the movie is like, now.