The Lovely Bones By: Sammie Beech

1. The Lovely Bones By: Sammie Beech

2. Protagonist: • Susie- she is the main girl who gets killed. • Jack- Susie's dad who does everything to try and find Susie's murderer. • Lindsey and Buckley- Susie’s brother and sister. • Grandma Lynn- Susie’s grandma • Rick- Susie’s old boyfriend who helps her dad try and find her murderer.

3. Antagonist: • Mr. Harvey- Susie’s killer. • Officer- Is suppose to find out Susie’s killer but doesn’t and has an affair with her mother. • Abigail (Susie’s Mother)- stops caring about her children and has an affair, and leaves her family.

4. Favorite Character: • My favorite character would probably have to be Jack, Susie’s father. He cares so much about his daughter, and family. He does everything he can to find out who killed her and to help their family out that is having a hard time staying together because of the death of Susie. • He also is very kind to everyone, and even though his wife left him, he still takes her back, and is very nice to her. Which I think would be very hard to do.

5. Least Favorite Character: -My least favorite character would probably be Susie’s mother, Abigail. Even though Mr. Harvey killed Susie I still would say that Susie’s mother would definitely be my least favorite character in this book. -After Susie died she had an affair, and left her family. So pretty much their family just lost two people. She is just a really selfish person who only cares about herself. Right before she left she promised Lindsey, (Susie’s sister) that she would never leave them. A couple days later she left them. I think that is the rudest thing you could ever do to your kids and your family.

6. Rising Action: • In the very beginning of the book Susie dies. How she gets killed was Mr. Harvey (her neighbor) follows her all the way home from school, and he brings her into this cornfield. He finally stops her and gets her to go into his little underground fort. He told her he wanted her opinion first before he let the other kids come and play in it. They stay there for a while and than she starts to feel really uncomfortable, so she starts to get up and leave. Than he pushes her down and rapes her, and after he does that than he stabs her. • After Susie gets killed she explains and observes everything that is going on up in heaven. Lindsey, Susie’s sister did not want to go back to school and see everyone because she felt like she would become the title of “Susie’s dead sister.” Her brother Buckley is about four years old at the time of her death and doesn’t quite understand the meaning of death, so he always asked, “where’s Susie Daddy, where’s Susie.” • Up in heaven Susie meets this girl named Holly. They become really good friends because Holly made Susie feel welcome in heaven, at first she did not like heaven at all, because she felt really lonely, but Holly made her feel more comfortable and not as lonely. Now she is starting to really enjoy it.

7. Exposition: • What this story is mainly about is her family trying to get by with their daughter/ sisters death. They are trying to figure out who the killer is and they are also trying to live their normal lives. • It is mainly the dad who cares the most about it that it tears his marriage apart, and his wife leaves him.

8. Climax: • The climax of this book would be that the father finds out who the killer is. He tries to tell the cop who it is but he does not believe him, actually no one believes him, except Lindsey; Susie’s sister. She starts to be suspicious especially because of everything that her father has said, and she goes into Mr. Harvey’s house and finds this book of all his drawings of the planning of his deaths, the scariest one that she finds is hers. Mr. Harvey wants to kill her also. She goes and shows it to the cops, and so now they have proof. • Mr. Harvey finds out that his book is gone and knows someone took it, and so he moves, and goes missing, and no one knows where he is. • His wife has an affair with the cop who is helping their family figure out Susie’s killer. She stops caring about everything and moves to California, where no one knows where she is, or what she is doing. • Lindsey, Susie’s sister meets this guy, jimmy and he asks her to marry her. Everyone starts to grow older and older. It is really weird to her, but she knows its bound to happen.

9. Falling Action: • Lindsey graduates college, and is officially engaged to her lover, Samuel. Susie is very happy with her. • Susie’s mother comes back because she found out her husband, Jack had a heart attack. That is pretty much the only reason why she came back, and she was planning on going back to where she lived, she did not want to go back to her real home with her family. She was gone for about nine years. When she comes back Lindsey and Buckley are both very rude to her, and will not talk to her. If that were me I would probably do the same thing that they do. It would be hard for me to forgive what she did to that family.

10. Resolution: • The resolution of this book is actually very well done. I like it a lot. There is a movie to this book, and the ending is a little bit like it, but not really. The book is a lot better. • Towards the ending they kind of give up on finding Mr. Harvey, (Susie’s killer) but than they find out that he falls off a cliff, and dies. Right before he falls off the cliff he tries to rape another girl, and she screams and pushes him off the cliff. • Susie’s family lives happily ever after. Lindsey gets married to her high school sweetheart, Samuel the guy she met in high school. She gets pregnant and has a baby boy. The mom stays with the family and takes care of all of them as best as she can. The dad gets better from his heart attack, and they both keep raising Buckley their son. They all have great lives at the end of this book. It is a great book, I recommend it to all.

11. Setting: • This book took place around the seventies. This is important because you need to know how they act, and how they looked. All of the girls pretty much were white and had mousy brown hair, and also how they acted in this book. • This book is taken place in heaven, because that is where Susie lives, and it doesn’t say where they lived on earth, but I'm guessing somewhere cold because they have really long and cold winters.

12. Themes • Grief - The theme of grief is the most obvious message Alice Sebold uses in her novel. People react differently when the tragedy of death strikes and especially when the death is a gruesome one like murder. The author wants us to know that facing this murder, even though it is an awful way to die, you need to get over it, and keep living your life. • Love and Acceptance - The theme of love and acceptance is also relevant to this story. It isn’t just love for the dead person and acceptance of her death. It is also love and acceptance for the people who are living also. Show everyone that they are of the same worth. • Never stop caring- I think the author wants us to know that even if a loved one dies, than you should never stop caring about them, and always remember them. Even though your lives will be moving on, you need to still think and care for them like they are still living.

13. My Ratings: • From 1-10 I would probably give this book an 8. It was definitely a good book, but why I didn’t give it a nine or a ten is because some parts in the book were just kind of dull, and not interesting. I didn’t feel like I needed to know all of the stuff they were saying. • Also some other things were not very thoughtful, and they were just flat out what some of the characters did.

14. Social Issue… Rape • What I am doing my social issue on would be rape. That is how Susie dies in this book, and I thought that it would be a good idea to show everyone what you should do, or how to avoid this awful thing if it happens to you.

15. You Tube Video: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikUWKi0W5_g#watch-main-area

16. You Tube Song on my Social Issue: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqIrXACVOOA

17. What is teenage Rape? • Definition: To force someone to have sex against there will. • Over 400,000 women are raped per year in the United States. • Females are more likely to get raped. • Boys can also get raped.

18. Outcomes of Rape: • Serious therapy • Bruises • Death

19. Statistics: • Only two percent of rapists get caught and go to jail. • In Africa at least fifty children get raped. • http://www.pcar.org/?gclid=CN_pvYz3uqACFSZHagodOiouTw

20. What we can do: • Most of the time you know who your rapist is. They first try and get close to you so that you feel like you can trust them. Than in the end all they want to do is rape you. • It could be anyone. Sometimes it is the uncle, mom, dad, grandparent or your cousin. • In the Lovely Bones it was her neighbor that she loved and thought was her close friend. • They usually rape people who have low self esteem or insecure.

21. How to Prevent it from Happening to you • Try to remove yourself from the situation or any bad situation. • Send clear verbal and non-verbal messages. • Defend yourself: Kick them, go for the nose with the heel of your hand. • Go for the groin with your elbows and knees.