January: The Lovely Bones

Hey friends!



So I think I might still be recovering from this past weekend. When did I get so lame!?



Anyways, the sleepover was a great success! We managed to stay up until 4 am and in that time we managed to do none of the following: A) spend more than 10 minutes discussing the book B) pick a new book for next month or C) take a picture. What can I say? I can only speak for myself when I say I was too busy drinking and eating. Lovely. However, in that time, we managed to dance to my new favorite song ever "Don't Stop" by Keisha, hear some crazy stories, and catch up with everyone.



The book was pretty interesting. Of course since we were drinking and eating heavily, none of us voted(!), so I am not sure of the entire group's consensus. Personally, I thought the book was a good read. Although some of the chapters seemed to drag on with too much detail, I thought the general plot of the story was interesting and kept me involved.



In a nutshell, the book begins very quickly with a young girl's (Susie) vicious rape and murder. From the second chapter on, the book is told from Susie's perspective in Heaven. She follows her family and friends religiously from Heaven and yearns to have peace with her life's tragic events. She painstakingly watches her family deal with her death, each so different from the other - her sister dealing with looking exactly like her dead sister; her brother, too young to comprehend what happened; her father who knows who the killer is, but cannot make anyone believe him; and her mother, who after a couple of years, flees the remaining family to start over again in California.



I give the book a 4. I thought it was well written and very original. Writing the book from Susie's perspective in Heaven was very unique and made me think of what my own Heaven might be like. In addition, I felt like the character development was very realistic....I had a clear understanding of what each character was experiencing in the days, months and years after Susie's death. The only thing that made this a 4 instead of a 5 is that I really didn't like that the killer was never prosecuted. However, to play Devil's Advocate, events like this happen everyday in our life...not all killers are found and/or prosecuted, so it definitely was a different twist in the book.



So...I am really looking forward to our next meeting at Shana'a house and it looks like it will be another sleepover! Our book selection will not be determined until Thursday, so we will post that when the votes are in!