The Lovely but Mystery Bones

Justin Butts

Professor Zipperer

English 101

19 July 2017

The Lovely but Mystery Bones

 We are in love with stories about dead girls. From Gone Girl to Dead Girl Walking, we can’t get enough about them. It is not surprising that The Lovely Bones is an extremely popular novel. The Lovely Bones is an excellent novel because it tells a great mystery and it is full of imagery.

The story takes place as a 14-year-old girl named Susie Salmon living life and dealing with average 14-year-old girl problems. One afternoon Susie Salmon is convinced by George Harvey, her killer, to go to his underground house to explore. Susie doesn’t know that he is tricking her so that he can rape and kill her. After Susie Salmon dies she ends up in heaven where she can still see everything on earth that is going on now that she is gone. In heaven she meets an older woman, Franny, and Holly a girl around her age. From heaven Susie see’s the burden her family and friends have now that she is dead. Although Susie cannot interfere with anything that is happening on earth, she still finds a way to feel and know what her family and friends are going through.

There is a lot of imagery in the book that makes the reader feel as if they are in the story seeing all of what happens first hand. The author decided to write the book in 1st person which makes the book so much interesting. One moment of imagery was when Susie said “The only sound I made after that was a weak tinkling of bells”. Another part of imagery is when Samuel Heckler (Lindsey’s Boyfriend) gives Lindsey (Susie Salmon little sister) half of a heart necklace. The imagery makes the book better because every imagery scene in the book makes me feel like I’m there with the character.  Being able to picture what is going on in the book is a great experience. The strong imagery made it seem as if the reader transported in the story and makes the reader feel a part of the story.