The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Available At: Aspen Valley, DCC (MS), DCC (HS), Eagleview (MS), Liberty, Pine Creek
Categories : Cursing, LGBTQ+, Sexism, Sexual, Violence
Description: A fourteen-year-old girl watches her family and friends from Heaven after she is brutally raped and murdered.
YA Label?: Yes
Notes: This book contains mild profanity; alternate sexualities; sexual activities including sexual assault; sexual nudity; violence; alcohol use; and suicide commentary.
Rating: 3
| Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
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Snippets
Page 9: My father was the kind of dad who kept a nude photo of you when you were three in the downstairs bathroom, the one that guests would use.
Page 13: After this he said, “You’re very pretty, Susie.” “Thanks,” I said, even though he gave me what my friend Clarissa and I had dubbed the skeevies. “Do you have a boyfriend?” “No, Mr. Harvey,” I said. I swallowed the rest of my Coke, which was a lot, and said, “I got to go, Mr. Harvey. This is a cool place, but I have to go.” He stood up and undid his hunchback number by the six dug-in steps that let to the world. “I don’t know why you think you’re leaving.” I talked so that I would not have to takin in this knowledge: Mr. Harvey was no character. He made me feel skeevy and icky now that he was blocking the door. “Mr. Harvey, I really have to get home.” “Take off your clothes.” “What?” “Take your clothes off,” Mr. Harvey said. “I want to check that you’re still a virgin.”
Page 105: It was not so much, she would write in her journal, that she wanted to have sex with women, but that she wanted to disappear inside of them forever.
Page 267: Ray drew back the curtain. I turned to face him and opened my eyes. I felt a marvelous draft on the inside of my thighs. “It’s okay,” I said. He stepped slowly into the tub. At first he did not touch me, but then, tentatively, he traced a small scar along my side. We watched together as his finger moved down the ribbony wound. “Ruth’s volleyball incident, nineteen seventy-five,” I said. I shivered again. “You’re not Ruth,” he said, his face full of wonder. I took the hand that had reached the end of the cut and placed it under my left breast. “I’ve watched you both for years,” I said. “I want you to make love to me.” His lips parted to speak, but what was on his lips now was too strange to say out loud. He brushed my nipple with his thumb, and I pulled his head toward me. We kissed. The water came down between our bodies and wet the sparse hair along his chest and stomach. I kissed him because I wanted to see Ruth and I wanted to see Holly and I wanted to know if they could see me. In the shower I could cry and Ray could kiss my tears, never knowing exactly why I shed them.
Additional Snippets Here