Come talk with me. I just finished The Lovely Bones (spoilers)

Cafe Society
21

I just finished reading this book.

> Was Ruth hit by Harvey’s car? Or did she just see his other murder victims in his car and leave for a while?

I think she sensed the pain of other murder victims but didn’t get in Harvey’s car.

> I also thought the police fell down in their investigation. Especially when Lindsay found the page in his
> notebook, the one with the drawing of his underground hole. Was it because the lead detective. Fenterman,
> was off with Susie’s mother at the mall that they missed that connection, and bought Harvey’s story?

I think it would have been inadmissable in court because Lindsey stole it… but then he admitted it was his to the police and convinced them he was speculating on how Suzie died.

I do think the police really failed.I don’t know why they wouldn’t investigate a huge local hole in the ground or even ask the owners if anyone of the sinkhole if anyone had recently dumped anything large enough for a body.

> I had one minor quibble with a major plot twist: in the 1970s (and even into the mid 80s), you were allowed
> to smoke in most of the rooms in hospitals.

Jack didn’t like the smell of smoking but Abigail had a sneaky puff at the start of each day so maybe she restrained herself whenever in his company.

> The only part I didn’t like was when she took over the other gal’s body to have a sexual experience or
> whatever. (I think I’m remembering that right.) That was pure cheese to me and sorta took away from the
> seriousness and high standards already set in the story. Other than that a fantastic read.

I agree. There’s a plausible detachment from Susie in Heaven and the people on Earth but when she crosses back over, it’s harder to believe.
I know she was enjoying her moment on earth again but I really wish she had told Ray that her body was in the sinkhole.

> I also found it interesting that she would spend her time on earth with Ray, and not with her family, after all
> the time she spent watching them.

Was her family even home yet at that stage?

22

Should have ended about 1/3 of the length sooner. I read it before the media hullabaloo because my mom had it lying around in her bookshelf, and found that the death scenes were really the only interesting bits. Not a particularly memorable book.

23

Didn’t like it much. But not my type of book. I was only interested in the parts about the area west of Philadelphia where I lived my teenage years. The plot didn’t hook me, but the writing style wasn’t bad.

24

The absence of DeForest Kelley ruined the book for me.

25

I read it years ago and can’t remember why I didn’t like it, except for one specific: it’s set in the area in which I live, and yet there are hardly any local details that really ground it here, or even indicate that the author did anything more than open up an atlas to a random page and blindly put her finger down. Not the most damning of complaints, but it’s the only one that really stuck with me.

Although, wait…I remember being seriously freaked out by the thought of the main character using her friend’s body to have sex with a boy she liked. I don’t recall the friend giving her consent to being used like that.

26

That pretty much ruined the book for me.