Novel Partner's Post #3

NAME Maddie Menke DATE 2/17/11 TITLE Lovely Bones TIME 2 HOURS

AUTHOR Alice Sebold PAGES 142-262 TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK 120

What exciting events just happened? Why?

     There are three main events that happened in this section of reading. The characters grew up the most in this part of the story. Life is beginning to go on for all of them. Lindsey is graduating from college with Samuel, and Buck is in middle school. Their mom, Abigail is still gone and by now the years have counted so they are getting used to the way life is. Susie is a memory now, she is not the center of every ones life anymore. The horror has begun to pass and the town is moving on. As the years go on, no one is forgetting Susie Salmon but she has become a lost paper in the folders and folders in peoples minds. The clutter is hard enough to sift through. She is growing weary of watching her family grow up and change with out her. She has watched them get over her death and move on with their life but every time she watches her sister now, she sees her sister go and do the things she never could. Grow up, the one thing that she never would. She liked to pretend she was Lindsey still living in the world and going through life. But the truth is, her life has ended. It was tragic and short but it happened. She will never live again and she needs to move on and let her family go. Let her friends go.

     In this section some main things that happened was there mother Abigail, moved away, Lindsey and Samuel are getting married, and Jack had a heart attack. That is a serious change in the story. These are a few very main events. The day of Lindsey and Samuel's graduation he proposed to her. He told her he loved her and never wanted to be anywhere without her. They also found a house they liked. I thought this was really exciting. Samuel has always loved Lindsey and cared for her as they grew up together and now they want to spend the rest of their lives together. It is just a reminder of how fast the time is slipping by and their lives are continuing. Susie is happy for Lindsey but she knows that she missed another joy in life. Her life was ended too short, the people who loved her were greatly affected by this, but as their lives go on; she has to watch everyone grow with out her and watch them do all the things she never will. Abigail moving away was also a big part of this section. She was the mom, she was a big part of this family. As if they could take anymore pain. As if loosing Susie wasn't enough, they had to lose Abigail too. It made me angry that she could run away. I know that she was hurt and I know that she was sad. The worst thing in the world was for a mother to lose their child. But couldn't she have realized her family needs her too? She needed to be there for them. She lost one daughter how could she bare to lose her other two children? How could she think of leaving them? Leaving her husband. They are all in just as much pain as her. She is not alone. The family needed to lean on each other and become closer together to help each other through their pain. But instead they leaned outwards and away and now Abigail is gone and the family has been torn apart.

    I also thought that Jack's heart attack was very important in this section. He was arguing with Buck about Susie. Buck said that Jack loved Susie more than him and he had to let her go because she was dead. Jack loved them all. He had a heart attack during this and Susie watched him from heaven. By the end of this section they are in the hospital room and they are not sure whether Jack will live or not. Some part of Susie wants him to die so he can be with her but she can see Buck crying on the bed. Buck pleads with Susie "please, I know you love him but I need him here too". Susie can tell Buck needs his dad. How much more can this family take? I hope the Jack lives. Susie may want him to be with her in heaven but he is needed down on Earth.

What does this story make you wonder about? Why?

     The most recent thing I have been wondering about is how easy it is to catch criminals. Mr. Harvey has committed many rapes and murders of girls of fifteen all the way to six. This section went through the different girls he killed and where he hid their bodies. There were so many people. One lady was even about forty nine years old. He has committed all these murders, it makes me wonder how he can sleep at night knowing that he killed a six year old girl. Ended the life of an eight year old who had family and friends who loved her. Imagine all the pain Susie's death caused. He killed so many others as well. I wonder about how he can do that, how he can live with himself after that but mostly I wonder how he doesn't get caught. He is very smart and clever. The police can be suspicious but after talking to him, everyone believes his story. I wonder how that could happen, and how many murders go on with out the murderer ever found. There are other people like Mr. Harvey and it surprises me that the police did not investigate further. But then again, it's true that they did not have any evidence. He was so clever. It makes me wonder about what other horrors go on that can go unexplained. This section was a very important part of the book so far and made me wonder a lot of new things about this story.