I wasn't all that interested in reading this book when it first came out. I also wasn't all that informed about what the book was actually about. I did know it was about the death of a girl. This didn't appeal to me. Then I saw the movie trailer and wondered if it was at all the same story I was seeing in the trailer. My sister happened to have gotten this book from PaperBackSwap.com and thought it looked short enough to be a quick read. 
 I have never read anything by Alice Sebold but I will tell you the woman can write. She made Susie's story sufficiently interesting that I looked forward to knowing more and even got emotional at times. It is possible I will read more by this woman though none of the other titles appeal to me enough to make the effort. If they come across my path I will try them out. 
 Sebold's story is set in the 70s with a junior high girl named Susie Salmon, "like the fish." Susie is a down to earth girl whose biggest concern is whether or not Rey Signh is going to kiss her or not. Sadly, Susie's story takes a tragic turn when a neighbor man rapes and kills her. And then the story really begins because while this story is about Susie's death it is also about her life and that of her families after her death. 
 Susie's story is mostly told from her perspective as she watches her family fall apart after learning of her disappearance and eventually told that she is dead when they discover part of her body. Her mother spins out of control, her father hides his feelings and tries to continually distract his son from asking about his sister, and her sister becomes invisible as people start seeing Susie in her. 
 Another character of focus is a girl named Ruth that Susie didn't know well but "brushed" past on her way to "her heaven". This cause Ruth to have a fascination about Susie's death and what ultimately happened to a girl she only met recently and who had been kind to her. 
 There are many side characters including Samuel, Hal, Lynne (the grandmother) and all are executed with a finesse that really says something about this author. My sister and I are especially happy over Samuel. 
 A few things that I had issue with were the concept of "my heaven". Susie refers to this throughout the entire book and while I don't believe we are give individual concepts of heaven, this did feel like an attempt to please the masses with a description and structure of what Heaven is, I also like the concept because what the author pulled off felt more like a celestial waiting room rather than Heaven. You get the impression that Susie's young mind doesn't grasp the difference in holding to to life and actually moving on to the after life. 
 What I feel we see instead, is a place of joy and happiness for those who have more than likely died in a bad way or simply weren't ready to die of haven't fully let go of family and life. This actually becomes evident with Susie as she frolics around Heaven and watches the progression of her families lives. 
 A second thing that bothered me was Susie's mother. The mother tells her remaining daughter, Lindsay, a lie about coming home or some such and then vanishes but not before having a quick affair with the detective on the case. She has decided she's a prisoner in her life and takes off on her grieving family. I see her grief though you get the distinct impression this is a woman who never wanted children and had different plans for her life that were never realized. This all becomes confirmed as her mother puts thoughts out into the universe in an attempt to apologize for not wanting Susie originally, not that she didn't love her. The real lesson here, I think, is it doesn't matter how far you run because grief will catch up with you. The mother just felt a little selfish at times. 
 Susie's memories also seem to convey a mother who had dreams but could seem to step up and tell her husband that she didn't want to be a stay at home mother. Granted it was the 70s and a lot less popular for the mothers to be out working but you get the impression that Jack Salmon cares only that he has his wife and not want people think. Even after Susie's mother leaves her family, Susie's father remains in love with her and awaits her return. He is not the type to stop his wife from having dream though also not the type to see her dreams being stifled. 
 Susie's father is one of the harder characters to follow, emotionally, because from the very beginning he knows who killed his daughter and wants that man to pay. The sad thing is that years pass and this family must deal with Susie's case never being solved despite the suspicion. Though near the end of the book you get the impression that Susie takes a ghostly hand in this before moving on with her death. I didn't like any of this though as a result but as a poetic justice it worked. 
 Also there is a rather strange and slightly disturbing moment when Susie actually gets to feel a little of what growing up would have been like for her. 
 Overall this was an excellent book, sad, compelling and very well written. I am eager to see the movie though not so eager to see Mark Walberg in the role of Jack Salmon.