Nothing happens in a small town.  The children grow up, settle down in the next street over, married their high school sweetheart and repeat the process. In a small town everyone knows everyone, and the community is super tight.  When tragedy does stick, it takes time for the community to move on. For this small neighborhood they will never forget Susie. Walking home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") got held up in the corn field by her strange neighbor Mr. Harvey. Finding herself trapped with him in an underground cell he built, he then brutally raped and murdered her. Collecting her body bits in a bag and throw them in the town sink hole. This is only the beginning of a very long dragged out book.

If you though that paragraph was full of spoilers, it sadly was not. You learn all of that within the first chapter of the book.  The book is from Susie’s point-of-view, but because she spends the whole book in haven spying on her family, the story is not even about her, but the idea of her. The books about her family having to move on, her father figuring out Mr. Harvey was the one who killed her, Her younger sister Lindsey is doing the things she could never do, and the youngest Buck trying to grow up in this broken home.  All of this Susie watches from her gazebos in heaven as her family falls apart, being put back together, finding and losing themselves.

This is the longest book in the world. It is just so drawn out, that even years go by. I believe by the end of the book Susie has been dead for around ten years. And that entire time Susie sits and watches, not even exploring her heaven, but watching her poor family and friends struggle. Yet not only was this a terrible book, but a terrible movie as well. The Lovey bones hit theaters in 2009 and receiving poor review and only getting a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. Obviously Saoirse Ronan, who played as Susie, did not do such a great job.  Honestly without the concept being so messed up, the characters were not even that built. Yes, it’s true that the death of your child is the worst things that happen, but for the Salmon family; it’s like without Susie they could not function.  It’s a sad but terrible concept, with terrible writing, with non-developed moody characters. Overall a terrible, terrible book one I would not recommend to anyone.