Reader Response

In the Lovely bones the part of the novel that engaged me was when Susie stupidly goes into the ground 'playground' with her neighbor Mr. Harvey who she had never once talked to and he was a complete stranger. i know that if someone strange man or woman ever asked me to go in a deep dark dirt hole with them i would be quite suspicious. Ever since that part in the book i presumed something bad was going to happen to Susie and the book would be about her discovery. Another part of the book that engaged me was when Lindsay breaks into Harvey's house and searches his house for clues in the murder of her sister, it was the most suspenseful part of the novel and i couldn't put the book down until that section was done and to find out that Lindsay got out of the house safely. I also didn't expect Mr. Harvey to come home early and find her there, it lead to a wild goose chase and made me as the reader very scared for Lindsay as to what might happen to her if he caught her in there. Although Lindsay did not find as much as she wanted to it still proves how determined she was to prove that Mr. Harvey was the one who killed Susie.

The part of the novel that annoyed me was about half way through the book it seems like Susie goes on and on about her heaven but in reality all the reader wants to know about is if her family ever proves Harvey guilty. this part is really dragged on and includes things that the reader doesn't really care about and it made me not want to read that part. It just felt like it went on and on about nothing.

A part of the novel that puzzled me was when Abigail, Susie's mother has an affair with the Detective. It was a sad part because Susie saw everything and felt as though since her mother was not determined to find her killer and just wanted to forget about her, Susie felt like her mother did not love her anymore, she felt abandoned. Then Abigail gets fed up with Jack's obsession with proving Mr. Harvey guilty she moves to California and gets a job at a winery leaving her other children and going away. I can't understand how someone could just up and leave their entire life and family behind and move on. Although she does move away to forget everything she however fails and moves back home when Jack has a heart attack, i know i haven't been in this kind of situation but i couldn't imagine doing what Abigail did.