The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, begins with a fourteen-year-old girl telling us about her life and death. The girl, Susie Salmon, is now in heaven as she watches down on her world as everyone copes with her death. One day as Susie walks home from school, a neighbor stops her while she is taking a shortcut. The neighbor takes Susie into a structure he has built within the ground where he rapes her and ultimately kills her. Days later, a neighborhood dog brings her elbow into sight causing a ruckus. As the police begin to investigate her murder, Susie watches from heaven as her family and friends suffer from her mysterious disappearance.

The book continues on for multiple years as Susie watches how her family and friends live without her. She sees her friends mature and develop into young adults. She must watch as her parents grow apart after her death and her younger siblings grow up without an older sister. The book then concludes years later when Susie sees her younger sister with her newborn baby. In the end we also watch as Susie sees an older man recover her long lost charm bracelet that we see on the cover.

Paperback, good condition 328 pages