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The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, tells the story of Susie Salmon. She is a 14-year-old girl from suburban Norristown, Pennsylvania who was raped and murdered by her neighbor George Harvey. After she dies, Susie narrates the novel in the first person from heaven as she uses her omniscience to observe her friends and family. The novel focuses on how those who knew Susie react to her death and attempt to move forward with their lives. Meanwhile, Susie’s sister and classmates experience their comings of age while negotiating their entrances into adulthood.

The novel begins in December 1973, as Susie Salmon—an average suburban teen—walks home through a cornfield. Her neighbor, George Harvey, lures her into a secret room he built beneath the field. Harvey rapes and kills her, then dismembers her body which he throws into a local sinkhole. A detective named Len Fenerman investigates Susie’s disappearance by interviewing neighbors and friends of hers. It is quickly ruled to be murder after blood from Susie is found in the cornfield where she was last seen alive. The police investigate George Harvey but rule him out as a suspect because they believe that he has an alibi for the night of the crime (he was working at his job). Jack Salmon becomes suspicious of George while Abigail puts her faith in Detective Fenerman’s ability to find their daughter’s killer.

Meanwhile, Susie ascends to heaven and lives in a gazebo. She watches her friends on earth through the clouds. Ruth Connors develops psychic connections with Susie. Ray Singh joins Ruth in the cornfield because he was interested in her since their first kiss.

As the investigation into Harvey’s murder stalls, Jack becomes increasingly convinced that Harvey is guilty. This rift between him and Abigail widens. One evening, he sees a flashlight coming from the cornfield. Thinking it is Harvey returning to the scene of his crime, Jack goes out with a baseball bat to confront him. However, it is only Susie’s best friend Clarissa meeting her boyfriend Brian there at night. Brian thinks that Jack was attacking Clarissa and beats him up badly breaking his knee cap in an attempt to defend her honor. As Jack recovers from this attack in hospital, Abigail begins an affair with Fenerman who has been assigned as the lead investigator on the case by now since both detectives have been suspended due to their involvement in corruption scandals

Susie’s younger sister, Lindsey, has come to share Jack’s suspicions about Harvey and decides to break into his house while he is away. She finds evidence suggesting that Harvey killed Susie, including a diagram of the room under the cornfield. However, Harvey returns early and sees Lindsey as she flees. Fenerman misses the call about the evidence and the break-in as he is with Abigail, so Harvey is able to flee town. Susie sees visions of her mother and other victims who are all telling her what happened in their own ways before she finally realizes what was going on with her mother’s death when she sees how abusive Harvey was towards his father growing up.

Abigail leaves her family and goes to California, where she works at a winery. Her mother comes to stay with Jack so he can take care of his youngest child Buckley. Harvey is later connected with the murder of Susie and other young girls, but he’s never caught. Abigail’s friends move on from this tragedy and go off to pursue their dreams: Lindsey and Samuel graduate high school together; Ray becomes a doctor; Ruth moves to New York City where she sees spirits in the city streets (and writes about them in her journal).

The Lovely Bones Book Summary, by Alice Sebold