The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones Summary | Plot Summary

Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old girl, is murdered by her next-door neighbor in suburban Pennsylvania. She tells the story of her family's reaction and subsequent disintegration after her own murder.

Susie's father Jack suspects the neighbor, Mr. Harvey, but the police do not have evidence to hold him as a suspect. Jack becomes obsessed with the neighbor, while his wife and Susie's mother Abigail has a short affair with the lead detective, Len Fenerman. Susie's sister Lindsey finds out about her mother's affair.

In her heaven, Susie does not let her family and friends go. She follows them through the years, watching Lindsey doing everything that she would have done had she remained alive. Susie can't let her family go, and they see her everywhere.

Mr. Harvey finally leaves the neighborhood for good, but not before Lindsey breaks into his house to search for evidence. Mr. Harvey sees the number five on the back of Lindsey's soccer jersey. He becomes obsessed by the vision of her running from his house. His past begins to haunt him, driving him out of hiding.

Ruth, a girl who barely knows Susie in life, is obsessed with Susie and death. Ruth sees places where people have died and feels Susie as she was being wrenched from the earth. Ruth and Ray Singh, a boy Susie loved, become friends and develop a relationship based on their love of Susie.

Abigail leaves the family. She ends up in California after she promises Lindsey that she will not to leave. Grandma Lynn takes Abigail's place, watching over Buckley and Lindsey. Lindsey and her boyfriend Samuel go to college together.

Jack can't move on from his daughter's death, and in a moment of anger he has a heart attack. While Jack is in the hospital, Abigail returns from California to be with her family. She sees her Susie everywhere, as do Jack and Buckley.

Susie can't pull away from Ray or her family. Her killer also can't let go of the neighborhood and of seeing Lindsey's number as she escaped his house.

Susie falls back to Earth into Ruth Connors' body. In Ruth's body, Susie fulfills her earthly desires with Ray. Soon Susie fades away to a different heaven, a wider heaven where her grandfather lives.

Abigail and Jack come home from the hospital, and the anger the children feel toward their mother begins to fade. Abigail says she will stay, but she does not make any promises to Lindsey.

Over time, Susie watches, and she begins to let go of her family so they can move on. Susie sees her killer die, and Lindsey's baby is born.