A girl named Susie

MANILA, Philippines - Books teach us to love, dream, hope, and think critically, whether they’re fiction or not. I believe that there is that one particular book for each of us that touches us differently. For my part, this exceptional book I consider the best did not only open my mind to happiness, sadness and romance but more to the reality of justice — justice not conferred by man but by the omnipotent creator.

The Lovely Bones revolves around a girl named Susie who was raped and murdered at the age of 14. She tells her story from her personal heaven. While watching her family grieve over her disappearance, authorities are searching for her missing body and the perpetrator.

So why did I choose this book?

Truth be told, I am afraid to die and I know most of us are, for varying reasons. However, as I am still young and the number of years I may continue to live is uncertain, I felt the narrator’s pain. So when I put myself in her shoes, I started to shed tears for there are so many of life’s wonders that she did not experience. And then, little by little, I appreciated even the minute things I have come to perceive.

Love. I pitied her for she could have relished the days with the one she loved. She could have lived a happy and long life if it weren’t for that horrible death. She could have died happier if she had fulfilled all her desires, her yearnings, but that chance was taken away from her. Taken in an instant by someone named George Harvey, 36, who was driven by his urges.

There was anger, there was sadness and there was struggle  — the struggle to grasp justice for the young girls that had been murdered even before Susie.

It was disappointing though that at the end of the story, Susie’s body was still not found. There were only pieces of evidence and the murderer did not serve the consequences of his crime behind bars. He was really good at what he did.

Family. As much as I would like to mourn over the death of Susie, still, nothing could be done to bring her back. Instead, as I was reading the book, I was silently praying to God that nothing like that would happen to me or to anyone I know, because it is just so heartbreaking to lose someone that way. Of course, nobody is ever prepared to leave this Earth or to be left by someone forever.

In the first part of the book, Susie narrates how her murderer lured her to go with him. She tells where, when and why she had gone alone, giving the man the opportunity to kill her. It was her innocence that he used to get close to her as well as his non-suspecting looks.

Amid the sadness and despair we feel from reading this book, Susie comforts us all with her happy words. Before the book ends, she assures us that justice is with God and that everything happens for a reason, and that death could pave the way for change. As for Susie Salmon’s murderer, he would be serving his sentence after slipping off the ice while targeting another victim.

Now, just like how Susie concluded her storytelling, I wish you “a long and happy life.”