So I am officially on summer break, which means more free time for reading! I am quite excited about this because my list of books to read is getting kinda long. This also means that I will have more time to post, which hopefully you’re excited about. Maybe you can get some good ideas for your reading list as well 🙂
The book I have started my summer with is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I’m not too far yet, about 50 pages in, but I can already tell that this will be a fantastic book. The images Sebold creates with her words are so vivid, and she really takes you on a ride as a reader. And there are so many emotions packed into these first few pages that I can’t wait to continue reading it. I can see why people have given this book such good praise.
For those of you who don’t know, the premise of this book is a girl, Susie Salmon, was murdered and is now telling her story from heaven. I would say that parts of this book are difficult to read, because Suzie goes into the description of the night she was murdered, and Sebold goes into quite a bit of detail. It’s hard to believe that there are people in our world that actually commit these acts to young girls. The fact that the world can produce such cruel people is saddening.
Sebold’s idea of heaven is an interesting one. In her novel, you basically create your own heaven. You get whatever you desire, whenever you desire it. It really makes you think, is this what heaven really will be like? No one can really know. This book reminds me a little bit of a book that I read awhile back. It was called Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. It kind of has the same premise, except the main character wasn’t deliberately murdered. But it’s about her exploring heaven, and figuring out how it works and coming to terms with her own death. Books like this are both comforting and a little creepy. They really make you think, what will really happen when you die? But I enjoy them, for the most part. And I look forward to continuing The Lovely Bones.