Chapter Summary: The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones tells the story of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old who was murdered. After her death, Susie watches everyone she left behind from up in heaven. Susie struggled with being unable to help her family with their grief and being able to tell them who her killer was.
Susie was walking home from school, taking a shortcut through the cornfield that was often used to get to the junior high, when Mr. Harvey surprised her. He said that he did not want to startle her, her response in her head was, “Of course, in a cornfield, in the dark, I was startled.” (page 6) He asked her if she wanted to see something he built back in the corn, reluctantly she agreed. He walked with her a little way into the cornfield then suddenly stopped. He said that

she needed to be more observant, he then lifted up a wooden door out of the ground. He told her that he made it for the neighborhood kids to hang out in. Susie was fascinated by the little room. Once she and Mr. Harvey were underground for a few minutes, she felt uneasy. When Susie said to him she had to leave, he told her to “Be polite and have a Coke.” (page 11) The way Mr. Harvey was looking at Susie made her very uncomfortable. She gulped down the rest of her coke and tried to leave. Mr. Harvey said, “I don’t know why you think you’re leaving.” (page 12) as he blocked the only exit. Mr. Harvey then proceeded to rape Susie then killed her with a knife.
There was lots of proof of Susie’s death, her elbow was found by a neighbor’s dog some of her school papers were found, a love note from Ray Singh, and a lot of blood in the dirt of the corn field, but nothing that pointed a finger at Mr.

Harvey. As the investigation starts, Susie watches from her heaven. Susie’s heaven includes the things that she desired the most when she was still alive, like high school. Other people’s heaven overlap with hers, this is how she meets Holly, her new roommate. Susie also meets Franny, her new intake counselor, who becomes a mommy figure to Susie and Holly. Franny teaches them about Heaven, she tells them, “All you have to do is desire it, and if you desire it enough and understand why – really know – it will come.” (page 19) Holly’s and Susie’s heavens get bigger, so they have less overlap so that means less time together.The police find some of Susie’s papers from school and a love note from Ray Singh. They accuse Ray of murdering Susie, but he has a perfect alibi. Susie watches Mr. Harvey go on with his life uneffected. With Susie's elbow and the amount of blood in the dirt as evidence Detective Fenerman tells Susie’s parents that Susie is dead. Susie’s mom, Abigail, does not believe him until the find Susie’s pompom hat that was used as a gag. Susie’s dad tells Lindsey, Susie’s little sister, about Susie’s elbow and Lindsey throws up. Lindsey is filled with grief. Meanwhile, Susie fills her heaven with dogs, lots of them, “When I opened

the door I saw them fat and happy, skinny and hairy, lean and hairless even.” (page 34), to make her feel less lonely.
While Susie is in transit, the time between leaving Earth and going to Heaven, she touches Ruth Connors. Ruth was in the faculty parking lot when Susie touched her. Ruth tells her mom that she had a dream about Susie but her mom doesn’t believe her. Ruth becomes obsessed with Susie. She takes the time to look through Susie’s yearbooks. She cuts out pictures of Susie from the yearbook activity pictures that Susie participated in. Ruth stole Clarissa’s “...scrapbook, random photos stuck to the inside of her locker, and Brian’s stash of marijuana...” (page 27), Ruth looks at the photos while she gets high off of Brain’s marijuana. While Ruth was getting high, Lindsey woke up and went into Susie’s room and finds a picture of her mom. She can’t remember her mom looking like that before, she was shocked, just like Susie when she took the picture. Meanwhile, Susie’s dad, Jack, was looking at the ships in the bottles that Susie helped him make. He was so tired of keeping in so many emotions, he took a bat and smashed them, all of them. After he finished, Susie accidentally “...broke through [to Earth]... ”(page 45), he saw her reflection in the broken pieces of the bottles. He was so shocked that he started crying uncontrollably and goes to Susie’s bedroom. While he is in there grasping her sheets Buckley comes in, and sits with Jack. Jack is so emotionally overwhelmed, he momentarily blurs Buckley and Susie.
While, Susie’s Mother, Abigail, was calling everyone in the neighborhood in the hours after Susie’s disappearance, asking if anyone had seen her, and Jack was going house to house asking the same thing.

Mr. Harvey was in the cornfield, he “...collapsed the hole in the cornfield and [then] carried away a sack filled with my body parts.” (page 33). He brought her body parts in a bag and put them in his garage, her blood staining the floor, while her went upstairs and took a shower. While her was in the shower he relived the pleasure in killing her. After his shower he puts Susie in a safe and locks it, he drives to the sinkhole near the neighborhood, where he tells the lady who lives there that it is an “Old safe of my father’s, finally got it out here,” he said “Been meaning to do it for years. No one remembers the combination.” (page 35) the first lie of many. On the way back from the sinkhole, Mr. Harvey felt something in his pocket. It was Susie’s charm bracelet. He can not remember how it got there, so he drove to a new man made lake and threw everything but the Pennsylvania keystone charm. Mr. Harvey gets a new trap idea from a book he is reading, he goes outside and starts to build it. Jack, seeing him, goes to help him. Little does he know that he is helping Susie’s killer build something that he is going to use to kill someone else. Mr. Harvey goes inside and messes with the knife he used to kill Susie. While Jack begs Susie to talk to him, he then suddenly suspects

Mr. Harvey. When Mr. Harvey comes outside again, Jack says “You know something” (page 37). Mr. Harvey denies that he has any information about Susie’s death. Jack accuses Mr. Harvey again and Mr. harvey tells him to go away.
In conclusion, the first four chapters were about the way her family was dealing with Susie’s death and Susie getting used to her new heaven. Susie wanted to tell her family and the police that it was Mr. Harvey but she cannot. She watches as they try to cope with her death.