The Lovely Bones

By: Alice Sebold

Narrated by: Alice Sebold

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Now read by the author, this edition also includes an interview with Alice Sebold and the first chapter of her new book, The Almost Moon.When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public-service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed things like that didn't happen.

In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place where she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets.

With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief: her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor, and they begin the difficult process of healing.

This story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching narrative about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

©2002 Alice Sebold (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A stunning achievement." ( The New Yorker)
"A keenly observed portrait of familial love...a deeply affecting meditation on the ways in which terrible pain...can be redeemed." ( The New York Times)
"A personal and artistic triumph." ( Time)

My first Audible

I choose The Lovely Bones as my first audio book. I absolutely loved the book and a great recommendation for first timers. I noticed that a lot of reviewers did not like the narration. I didn't think it was that bad, but then again I can not compare to other narrations. The author sounds very somber but I think it fits the context of the book. Overall this was a great book and I hope to find other books which pull me in as much as this one did!

Audible should offer the other audio recording.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think from now on, however, I will be more cautious about buying books narrated by the author. Sebold's narration is uninspiring, to say the least. As an alternative, you might try instead the other audio version available, but unfortunately you can only buy it on CD (no digital downloads available that I could find). As for the story itself, I loved it all the way through but was a bit disappointed with the ending. It's hard to elaborate without giving away all the details, but I will just say that there was one major issue that really left me seriously unsatisfied. The character Ruth has a moment of clarity which would bring the whole family all the much needed closure they have been longing for, and then.... nothing.

I loved it

Better than movie and I loved the movie. loved the author narration good inflection in her voice, easy listen

Such a sad story!

What did you love best about The Lovely Bones?

It's hard to love anything about this story. It's such a hard topic to delve into, but the book was written very well, and told beautifully.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The father. He never gave up.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I wish authors would just not narrate their own stories. The few times I've listened to authors doing this I haven't been impressed. They lack the skill of a true performer. Well, some of them do.

Who was the most memorable character of The Lovely Bones and why?

Hard question. I want to automatically say the main character, but maybe it's Mr. Harvey. He's so creepy, and mysterious, and you kind of want to know more.

Any additional comments?

A hard read, but a good one.

This book is really interesting

This book so far is full of mystery and suspicion, and I also love how the book describes what her heaven looks like. It's a very pretty image.

It felt like I was right there with her!!

I read the book years ago (before audible) and liked it a lot, but now I love it! Thanks for bringing this to life for us all.

Accurately shows how people handle grief and loss

I don't think I've read a story like this before. This is pretty much a character study on how people handle the loss of a someone and how the grief can shape and define them. There no big surprises, narrative is interesting but not unique and there strong theme of feminism. I found most of the character reaction and development very believable.
Read this book for the psychological understanding and if your okay going to a dark place emotionally. Overall I liked this but I'm a bit bias as I often reflected on how similar my family was and still is affected by a family member's death. I may even now have a better understanding of it.

pretty good

It's incredibly detailed and really puts you into the scene where Susie gets killed. One of the issues I have is with the long pauses before each chapter. It seems like the book is over with how long the pauses go for. The overall book also goes on for way too long and they almost go into too many different directions with the story. There is too many similar names. Holly and Holiday. Lynn the grandmother, Len the cop and Lindsey the sister. They really couldn't have come up with at least a different name for the officer? Also I don't need to know every single side characters life story. They try to tell you about every person and I'm just sitting here thinking, "I don't care about them." Tell me about Susie and her family, and tell me about the killer. The only other group of people who I would want to know about would be the other victims of the killers. Overall it was well written and fascinating, but it had its issues.

Authors should not be the narrators

The story was fine but the authors voice while she read was so boring and monotonous it made it very hard to enjoy it

Strong start, slow burn.

The book starts off as a page turner. It’s suspenseful, interesting and well written. After that initial zing, the story devolves into information. You know, the part in books around chapter one or two where it’s starting to pick ups speed, but hasn’t gotten there yet? That’s what the rest of this book is. It’s a permanent chapter one. The story is interesting and I kept waiting for it to get as good as the beginning, but it never does. It goes the line on boring without ever crossing directly into boring.

There’s no real climax, which makes the end of this story somewhat unsatisfying. The ideas and concepts were interesting. The characters were mostly developed. It has an intentional voyeuristic feel to it that comes through pretty clearly. The saving Grace from boredom was how well the story jumps through characters, time, and location.

I would call the book pretty ok. Almost good. I don’t think I need to read it again, though.

ETA: For listeners of the audiobook, there was no real performance. The author reads the book. That’s it. No extra flair. Almost monotonous, but not exactly boring. Expect no bells and whistles. Whatcha see is whatcha get—an author reading her book aloud.