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Description edit
My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.
This is Susie Salmon. Watching from heaven,... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Susie Salmon is a carefree fourteen year old girl. One afternoon she was walking home and the unthinkable happened; she was murdered. From her new home in 'heaven' (a place that can be whatever she wants), she watches her friends and family through the following years.
Characters edit
- Susie Salmon: She was a fourteen-year-old girl that was murdered on December 6, 1973. She is the one who is telling the story.
- Jack Salmon: He is Susies loving father. Loves making ships in a bottle. Also is determined to find her murderer.
- Abigail Salmon: She is Susie's mother, who needed to find her own way to deal with Susie's death.
- Lindsey Salmon: She is Susie's younger "gifted" sister. She was thirteen and she is very intelligent. She's the only female soccer player at her school.
- Hal Heckler: He is the brother of Lindsey's boyfriend Samuel. High school dropout who owns a motorcycle garage. Lives in a flat above parents' garage. A good care-free guy. Buddies to Buckley.
- Buckley Salmon: Susie's little brother. He was four years old and too young to understand the implications of Susie's disappearance.
- Ray Singh: He is an Indian. He was born in India though he lived in England and he just moved in the US. He has a crush on Susie. He was Susie's first and last kiss.
- Ruana Singh: Ray's mother, also Indian. Keeps her and her family's life very private. Smokes Suzie's mom's favorite cigarettes. Is known as one of the pretty mother's in the neighborhood. Husband is a professor (Dr. Singh).
- Ruth Connors: She is a girl from Susie's school that felt her spirit. She is the type of kid that others do not pay attention to in school. She is good in drawing and writing poetry. Very smart for her age.
- Len Fenerman: The detective investigating the murder of Susie. Tries his best to solve the murder.
- Grandma Lynn: She is Abigail's mother and Susie's grandmother who tries to put the family back together. She is very outgoing.
- George Harvey: He is the Salmons' neighbor. He has a very beautiful garden - but old fashioned way to make fertilizer. He builds dollhouses for specialty stores. Crazy parents.
- Samuel Heckler: He is Lindsey's boyfriend who plays the saxophone. Her 'one,' as described by Susie.
- Clarissa: She is Susie's best friend friend. Boyfriend - Brian Nelson.
- Mrs. Dewitt: She is Susie's favorite teacher and the English/Literature teacher. Ray thought she did a bad job at teaching.
- Brian Nelson: Susie dubbed him "the scarecrow." He is Clarissa's boyfriend.
- Holiday: The Salmons' dog. Very loyal to Jack, Susie and Buckley.
- Franny: Susie's intake counselor in Heaven. Helps Holly and Susie heal from their tragic deaths.
- Holly: Susie's roommate in Heaven. Calls herself Holly from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - aren't told her real name.
- Mrs. Stead: She is one of the Salmons' neighbors. Identifies one of Susie's school books.
- Nate: He is Buckley's friend. Buckley stayed with him on an "extended sleepover" after Susie's death.
- Mrs. Flanagan: She lives on the property where the sinkhole was. Her family made their living by charging people to dump their appliances in the sinkhole.
- Mrs. Bethel Utemeyer: Only dead person Susie and Lindsey saw. Before she died she mistook Lindsey for Natalie.
- Natalie Utemeyer: She is the daughter of Mrs. Utemeyer who died at an early age.
- The Gilberts: The owners of the Labrador who found Susie's elbow.
- Grandfather: He is Susie's dad's dead father. Visits in Susie's Heaven.
- Dr. Akhil Singh: He is a professor. He is the father of Ray and husband of Ruana.
- Nurse Eliot: She was the nurse who greatly supported and helped the Salmons.
- Abigail Suzanne Heckler: An Important Character at the end.
- Susie Salmon: Has to watch from heaven how life is on earth knowing the truth of her death and watching her family trying to put the missing pieces together to learn what really happened. Heartbreaking to see everything through her eyes.
- Claire: Susie's age.
- Jackie Meyer: 13 years old. Delaware.
- Flora Hernandez: 8 years old. Delaware.
- Leah Fox: 12 years old. Delaware.
- Sophie Cichetti: 49 years old. Pennsylvania
- Leidia Johnson: 6 years old.
- Wendy Richter: 13 years old. Connecticut.
Quotes edit
-
“I don't mean la-la angel crap, but I do think there's a heaven.”
Ruth Connors -
“I had rescued the moment by using my camera and in that way had found a way to stop time and hold it. No one could take that image away from me because I owned it.”
Susie Salmon -
“Don't worry, Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world.”
Jack Salmon -
“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”
Juan Ramon Jimenez via Susie Salmon -
“Your first kiss is destiny knocking.”
Grandma Lynn -
“Journal writing: At the tips of feathers there is air and at their base: blood. I hold up bones; I wish like broken glass they could court light...still I try to place these pieces back together, to set them firm, to make murdered girls live again.”
Ruth Connors -
“I'd say it would be pretty hard to play soccer on the soccer field when it's approximately twenty feet from where my sister was supposedly murdered.”
Lindsey Salmon -
“You remind me of my wife," "She can't draw either?”
Len Fenerman & Abigail Salmon -
“Just you and your mother," my grandmother said. "The most frightening pairing imaginable.”
Grandma Lynn -
“We could keep trying," Ruth said. "I'm game if you don't tell anyone." "I thought you liked girls," Ray said. "I'll make you a deal," Ruth said. "You can pretend I'm Susie and I will too." "You are so entirely screwed up.R”
Ruth Connors & Ray Singh -
“Sometimes cats fall ten flights out of the windows of high rises and land on their feet. You only believe it because you've seen it in print.”
Susie Salmon (In Ruth's body) -
“Do you ever think about the dead, Ray?" "I'm in med school.”
Susie Salmon (In Ruth's body) -
“"His eyes were the darkest grey. When I watched him from heaven I did not hesitate to fall inside of them."”
Susie Salmon -
“In violence, it is the getting away that you concentrate on.”
Susie Salmon -
“He was beginning to understand: You were treated special and, later, something horrible would be told to you.”
Susie Salmon -
“When the dead are done with the living, the living can go on to other things.”
-
“Her temporary absence was beginning to take on the feel of permanence.”
-
“Watch out what faces you make. You'll freeze that way.”
Grandma Lynn -
“Life is a beautiful gasoline rainbow.”
Susie Salmon -
“There was too much blood in the earth.”
Susie Salmon -
“All I could do was talk, but no one on Earth could hear me.”
Susie Salmon -
“...marked a moment that had passed, one that would now be gone forever expect for a picture.”
Susie Salmon -
“that person had a sad end.........at least she's still in heaven”
pie -
“Nothing is ever certain.”
Len Fenerman -
“Buckley drew back and stared at my father's creased face, the fine bright spots of tears at the corner of his eyes. he nodded seriously and kissed my father's cheek. Something so divine that no one up in heaven could have made it up; the care a child took with an adult.”
Susie Salmon -
“I wanted to lift him up, like statues I'd seen in art history books. A woman lifting up a man. The rescue in reverse. Daughter to father saying, "It's okay. You're okay. Now won't let anything hurt."”
Susie Salmon -
“The shadow of years was not as big on his small body. He knew I was away, but when people left they always came back.”
Susie Salmon (Referring to Buckley) -
“Sometimes I think clues find their way in good time. If they want to be found, that is.”
Len Fenerman -
“To us there was only one true love in everyone's life; we had no concept of compromise, or retries.”
Susie Salmon -
“Lindsey: I'm scared. | Samuel: Don't be. ♥”
-
“What the box held was typical or disappointing or miraculous depending on the eye. It was typical because he was a thirteen-year-old boy, or it was disappointing because it was not a wedding ring, or it was miraculous. He'd given her half a heart. It was gold and from inside his Hukapoo shirt, he pulled out the other side. It hung around his neck on a rawhide cord. ♥”
Susie Salmon (Refering to Lindsey and Samuel) -
“Reproductive organ = "Baby making machinery"”
Abigail Salmon via Susie Salmon -
“Jack: I'm glad Susie had a nice boy like her. I'll thank your son for that. | Ruana: ... <smiled> | Jack: He wrote her a love note. | Ruana: Yes. | Jack: I wish I had known enough to do the same. Tell her I loved her on that last day.”
-
“Ruana: A father's suspicion... | Jack: Is as powerful as a mother's intuition.”
-
“It's <Zipper of a dress> one of the reasons for a man--you can't do this stuff yourself.”
Grandma Lynn -
“There is no condition one adjusts to so quickly as a state of war.”
Jack Salmon -
“Ruth: Did you feel something when you kissed Susie? | Ray: Yes. | Ruth: What? | Ray: That I wanted more. That night I dreamed of kissing her again and wondered if she was thinking the same thing. ♥”
-
“But at some point I had decided to take portraits of my mother. When he'd pick the roll up at the photo lab my father sat into the car staring at photos of woman he felt he barely knew anymore. Since then he had taken these photos out too many times, but each time he looked into the face of this woman he had felt something growing inside him. It took him a long time to realize what it was. Only recently had his wounded synapses allowed him to name it. he had been falling in love all over again. ♥”
Susie Salmon -
“Samuel: I love you. | Lindsey: I know. | Samuel: No, I mean, I love you, and I want to marry you, and I want to live in this house! | Lindsey: What? | Samuel: That hideous, college shit is over! | Lindsey: Not for me, it isn't. | Samuel: Marry me. | Lindsey: Samuel. | Samuel: I'm tired of doing the right things. Marry me and I'll make this house gorgeous. | Lindsey: Who will support us? | Samuel: We will, somehow. | Lindsey: Okay. | Samuel: Okay? | Lindsey: I think I can. I mean, yes! ♥”
-
“Sometimes you cry, Susie, even when someone you love has been gone a long time.”
Grandfather -
“I thought if I was very quiet I would hear you. If I was still enough you might come back.”
Jack Salmon -
“I fell in love with you again while you were away. ♥”
Jack Salmon -
“I realized how much I wish I could be where my mother was. His love for my mother wasn't about looking back and loving something that would never change. It was about loving my mother for everything--for her brokenness and her fleeing, for her being there right then in that moment before the sun rose and the hospital staff came in. It was about touching that hair with the side of his fingertip, and knowing yet plumbing fearlessly the depths of her ocean eyes. ♥”
Susie Salmon (Referring to Jack and Abigail Salmon) -
“He had made a certain kind of love to my mother before she went away. Sex as an act of willful forgetting.”
Susie Salmon (Referring to Len Fenerman) -
“He was watching her lips move and not really listening to her. Wanting to kiss her instead. ♥”
Susie Salmon (Referring to Jack and Abigail Salmon) -
“Ray: Ruth? | Ruth <Susie>: Yes? | Ray: Can I kiss you again? | Ruth <Susie>: Yes. | Ray: What is it? | Ruth <Susie>: When you kiss me I see heaven. ♥”
-
“How could it be that you could love someone so much and keep it secret from yourself as you woke daily so far from home? She had put billboards and roads in between them, throwing roadblocks behind her and ripping off the rearview mirror, and thought that that would make him disappear? erase their life and children?”
Abigail -
“I knew he was going to kill me. I did not realize then that I was an animal already dying.”
Susie Salmon -
“But I came to believe that if I watched closely, and desired, I might change the lives of those I loved on Earth.”
Susie Salmon -
“Almost everyone in heaven has someone on Earth they watch, a loved one, a friend, or even a stranger who was once kind, who offered warm food or a bright smile when one of us had needed it.”
Sussie -
“booze affects material as it does people”
Setting & Locations edit
The time setting varies. It starts off in December, 1973, but travels backwards and forwards as Susie looks down upon Earth.
- Krusoe Winery: Abigail worked when she went to California.
- Kennet Junior High: Susie's school.
- The In Between: Alice Sebold's version of Heaven, in which Susie lives after her death. Its scenery varies from person to person, and in Susie's In Between, she attends her ideal high school, the one she dreamed of attending before she died.
- Norristown, Pennsylvania: It is the place where the story took place. The place where Susie grew up, and the primary place she watches over her friends and family.
- Stolfuz Cornfield: Located at the back of Kennet Junior High.
- Connecticut
- Delaware
First Sentence edit
My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.
Table of Contents edit
Chapters 1 - 23
Bones
Acknowledgments
Glossary edit
- Walking Dead Syndrome: It is when other people see the dead person and don't see you.
- Aperitif: a drink taken before a meal as an appetizer
- Benzedrine: a preparation of the sulfate of amphetamine (C9H13N)2·H2SO4 formerly used in medicine
- Incontrovertible: not open to question; indisputable
- Campanile: a usually freestanding belltower
- Proleptic: In anticipation
- Bathos/Bathetic: merriam webster: a : the sudden appearance of the commonplace in otherwise elevated matter or styleb : anticlimax2: exceptional commonplaceness : triteness3: insincere or overdone pathos : sentimentalism
- Anodyne: merriam webster:1: serving to alleviate pain2: not likely to offend or arouse tensions : innocuous
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Love: An undescribable feeling that everyone has experienced. The book also explores teen love and how she was not able to experience love while she was alive.
- Dealing with Grief and Loss: What happens in the aftermath of a tragic event
- Death and the Afterlife: The author takes a refreshing look at what the afterlife may be like.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 18 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 20 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 20 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 19 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Richard and Judy Book Club 2004. (authoritative list)
This book is in Movie tie-Ins 2009. (community list)
This is book 13 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 9 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels of 2003. (authoritative list)
This is book 4 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 2002. (authoritative list)
This book is in Significant Speculative Fiction (Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror). (community list)
This is book 74 of 100 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. (authoritative list)
This book is in KCPL Discussion Kit (Aug2010). (community list)
This is book 64 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
This is book 23 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This is book 72 of 100 in Top 100 Books That Defined The Noughties (Telegraph). (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Alice Sebold (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Tiia-Mai Nõmmik (Translator)
- Külli Suurevälja (Editor)
- Tiiu Kraut (Editor)
- Lisbet Holst (Translator)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Country: United States
Publication Date: 2002
ISBN: 0316666343
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Country: United States
Publication Date: 2002
ISBN: 0316666343
Page Count: 328
Awards edit
- Bram Stoker Award (2002: First Novel)
- Book Sense Book of the Year (2003: Adult Fiction)
- Bram Stoker Award (Finalist, 2002: Novel)
- California Book Award (2002: First Fiction, Silver)
- Richard & Judy Book Club (2004)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3619.E26 L68
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Drama › Tragedy
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Metaphysical
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
- Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Psychological & Suspense
- Books › Religion & Spirituality › Spirituality
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Movie Connections edit
- The Lovely Bones (IMDb): 2009 release produced by DreamWorks and Directed by Peter Jackson. Starring Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg.
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