My first adult book of the summer! Look at me go!
Because of the movie, you probably know that this is a book about a young girl who is raped and murdered by a serial killer. The story is told by the girl's ghost as she watches her family and friends deal with the tragedy of her death.
It wasn't quite what I expected. I thought more of the book would be devoted to tracking down her killer and bringing him to justice. But it was much more subtle and complicated than that. It's an upsetting story, but having Susie's ghost as narrator (yes, her name is Susie, and spelled the same way I spell it, which--not gonna lie--kept jarring me as I read it) lends a sort of peace to the story that it wouldn't have had being told by the father or the detective. The reader knows from the start what happened, so the pressure for justice and the need for the characters to learn the killer's identity isn't quite the same as it would be if we needed that information as well. Also, while Susie is dead to the characters, she is very much alive to the reader, an active participant in the story.
Incidentally, having now finished the book, I love what Alice Sebold does with the title. I can't think of many serial killer book that have so perfectly incorporated and thematic titles. And maybe that's what impressed me the most about this book: it's not just another serial killer book. The driving force behind it is much more complex than the surface murder mystery.
The ending is one of those perfect endings that is not what the reader expects, maybe not what the reader wants, but (after having read it) obviously the only possible way the story could have ended. An inevitable surprise.
Good book. I recommend it if you haven't already read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment