Lovely... I'm not so sure.

I definitely have to love the unique perspective and the general concept of Susie Salmon’s story. That being said, there were plenty of things I didn’t love. While the first chapter where Susie is raped and murdered, along with the following 10 pages or so, were certainly fast-paced, the rest of the book didn’t contain near the amount of excitement I was expecting. Up in her personal heaven, Susie watches the lives of those who held importance to her. This is the whole story( not much of a plot). Initially I thought this sounded very interesting. However few of the characters were overly likeable and I only felt a connection to one or two of them. Susie’s dad quickly figures out who the murderer is. Sadly, due to lack of evidence the police are unable to take action. His own wife doesn’t believe him, and this may be due to her fondness of the detective assigned to the case. Susie’s dad and a wacky acquaintance of Susie’s are the only ones who openly grieve throughout the book. All of the many other people she followed, with the exception of her murderer, seemed very unimportant to me. There were many wonderful metaphors and descriptive phases; unfortunately none of which a fourteen-year-old with average intelligence would ever think to use. I kept pushing through the book, just knowing there had to be a breath-taking ending, but it was not at all what I had hoped for. Overall I put the book down feeling a great deal of dissatisfaction. I had heard so many great things about this novel, and my expectations were sky high, so this could account for some of my disappointment.