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.

Novel Partners Post # 2

NAME Maddie Menke DATE 2/9/11 TITLE Lovely Bones TIME 2 HOURS

AUTHOR Alice Sebold PAGES 80-157

TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK 77

What exciting events just happened? What do you think will happen next, and why?

     A very recent event in this story was Susie's mother, Abigail cheats on Susie's dad with Len the police officer. She kisses him but at first he tries not to kiss her back but gives in. This really made me mad. How could Abigail cheat on her husband at a time like this? When they are grieving, when they need each other the most. I was upset that she could do that, that she would hurt her husband even more. But I knew what was going on. I didn't like it but I understood. She was in despair, her emotions filling with the loss of her dead daughter that she would do anything to push her daughter from her mind. She let her pain and sorrow take over her and she did what she knew was wrong, what Susie knew was wrong. Susie had to watch her family be split from each other as her death pulled them farther and farther apart. I think that Susie's death will continue to break apart the family and in time Abigail will leave. Abigail asked her mom if she could borrow a cabin to get away sometime if she needed and I think she might. Even if she leaves I know she will have to return. Susie's family is having problems, they are breaking apart. But they still need each other. No matter what happens they will need each other to get through this.

How did what you read today make you feel?

    I was still not over the initial shock of Susie's death. She was such a nice girl, she had a life ahead of her. A mother, father, brother, sister, and family who loved her. It's hard to believe that one day Susie could be happy with a long life stretching out in front of her, and the next it's all gone. It was shocking to me. Another thing that I felt in this reading was the family changing. They are still sad but they are growing, every moment is not consumed with sadness anymore. They are starting to live again. It will be slow but it is the beginning. If I were Susie I would be glad for this change. I wouldn't want my family to live their lives missing the dead. They need to live, because she can not. On the other hand, as Susie's family goes on with her life, she can not. She will never live again or be with her family down on Earth. She will have to watch them go through everything as they slowly move on from her death. They will never forget her but she will never live with them again. Her life is over and her family is starting to accept that, and maybe in time so will Susie so she can move on to the heaven away from Earth. I was upset but I realized that life must go on for everyone else.

Would you read another book by this author? Why?

     I would definitely read another book by this author. It is a captivating, thrilling, and dramatic story of pain, death, and loss. It is realistic, life does not always go as planned. Bad things happen and are going to happen. Life is not a fairy tale, happy ever afters don't always happen. Things don't always work out. This book is about the pain of loss and the sense of revenge and justice. It is really descriptive it makes you feel how the characters feel. When I am reading I can not think about anything else. My mind is completely on the book, I can't focus on anything other thing. I can feel how the characters feel, their pain and hatred. I feel their sorrow and it makes me cry sometimes when I read it. This story makes you feel like you are really there. It makes you wonder. I always think for hours on end after reading a section. It raises very interesting questions and is impossible to put down. This is one of my favorite books I have read so far and I would love to read another. 

Lovely Bones Book Response #1

      I am reading the book Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It is a captivating novel about a fourteen year old girl who is raped and murdered. She watches from heaven as her family deals with their loss and people seek to find the person who killed her. My favorite line so far in this story was the very first two sentences. They completely grabbed your attention and made you want to read more. It was, "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." It set up the story by making you interested in what was going on. Someone was murdered and you had to find out who, and why. But also there was an eerie way of telling the story because the girl was talking from her grave. She was dead but still talking about her life. It makes you wonder who is she? What happened? And most of all where and what is she doing now? The afterlife is one of the many things that us humans can not comprehend. Many people have different beliefs but there is no actual proof of what happens when we die. We can't find out because the only people who do know are not around to explain it. Naturally, we are curious about the unknown. What is it like? Alice Sebold does a great job of making the story suspenseful and intriguing. With that interesting beginning it is hard to put the book down.
         This book makes you wonder about a lot of things. It is that type of novel that you finish a couple chapters before bed and spend the next hour thinking about it. There are different predictions and possibilities, questions and thoughts that are raised. It always leaves you thinking and is hard to put down. What it made me wonder about was the idea of death. What happens after people die? In this novel Susie goes up to heaven where everything she wants is possible. She has a type of guardian angel that looks after her and she makes friends and begins her life in heaven. She watches her family and friends start life again without her, and watches the police and detectives search for her killer all the while wishing she could tell them who it was. In her heaven Susie can have anything, except the only thing she wants which is her family and friends. She wants to be alive again. But she can't; at fourteen her life has ended. She will never finish high school, go to college, get a job, or get married. Her life was brought abruptly to a halt and she will never get to know. I wonder what it must be like to have to watch your family struggle with loosing you. I bet she misses them and wishes she could still talk to them. She has to watch them try to find her killer, all along knowing exactly who they should be looking for. I wonder what its like to be in heaven. I know that they can have whatever they want in heaven, but what about their families? Susie will spend the rest of her time in heaven watching. Waiting until someday her family will be there too. So really, heaven isn't all that great. Finally, I wonder what happens after that. Does she stay in heaven fort he rest of eternity or is she reborn? Can you die again in heaven? This book raises a lot of questions that really make you think.
       What surprised me in this book was how easy it was for that man to kill her. I always thought about how unlikely that would be and how it could never happen. But in reality, this is actually not that extreme. Kids naturally assume the best in everyone. It shocked me how easily a person could do that and how difficult it was for detectives to find them. In movies the police can always find the criminal but in real life it is a lot more difficult. Especially with someone as good at murder as he was. It surprised me how much the murder of one person can affect so many different peoples lives. With one person gone from the world so many things begin to change, the cycle and rythm that people cling to is broken. Everything begins to change and it affects everyone.
         This book really upset me at times. How could that man kill an innocent girl? How could he live with himself? It was clear that he was smart, definitely not mentally disabled and he knew what he was doing. He made a plan and perfectly executed it with out feeling any remorse. I wonder what kind of thoughts ran through his head when he killed her. How he could possibly justify the murder of a fourteen year old girl to himself. The next couple days he even talked to the father about how sorry he was for their loss, as if nothing ever happened. How could he look into the eyes of all the people he had hurt? How could he live seeing her family and friends suffer each and every day? I wonder what kind of person could do that, and I wish I knew what he was thinking, what any of those people are thinking when they do something as terrible as that. Over all, I really enjoyed this book so far and I can't wait to see what the next pages unfold.