Fries with Gravy

I was just going to write up a standard little book review - gushing about how very much I loved The Lovely Bones.  I'd oddly never heard of the book, which was a surprise bestseller for over a year in 2002.  Well I say oddly, but truth is that in 2002 I had two one-year olds, so it's probably no real oddity that I never read the newspaper nor had any concept that people were still out in the world walking about and eating in restaurants, and reading?  The luxuriating bastards.  Upon begging some friends for book recommendations recently, I stumbled into Alice Sebold's first novel. 

From Wikipedia:

The Lovely Bones (2002), by Alice Sebold, is a novel told in the first person by Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl who is raped, murdered, and dismembered in the first chapter. Over the next few years, from a personalized heaven that takes the form of a high school she never lived to attend and its suburban surroundings, she watches her family and friends deal with their grief, while her killer escapes justice and goes on to kill again. She tries to reach a sense of closure herself, with the help of others she becomes acquainted with in heaven. Susie can, when she looks down on Earth, see the lives and thoughts of the people she knew, even those of her murderer. She is largely unable to directly interact with them. However, sometimes, members of her family on Earth can see her very briefly.

I didn't know how well I'd be able to palate the story of a teenage girl being dismembered, but the book is really engaging and at times, even sweet.  Susie's perception of Heaven doesn't make mention of God, but the Wikipedia article makes an interesting point to say: