The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

       I've just finished reading the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Throughout the book there has been a lot of things to think about and notice. But, there was one thing that really stood out to me. It's about the relationships between the couples in the book throughout most of the book.


          So I've noticed that the adult relationships in the book are extremely dysfunctional and full of secrets and problems while the teen relationships seem to be strong and have a lot of potential to last a long time. I thought this was pretty interesting considering it's not what I would expect. For example, in the book Susie's parents' marriage has a lot of problems. Susie's mom cheats on her dad and doesn't tell him about it. Also, Susie's mom's relationship with the guy she cheated with is also bad, because she just ends up leaving him. Ray's parents also have a bad relationship. Sometimes in the book his mom (Ruana) will be by herself thinking about divorce and how it'd probably be a good idea, because Ray's dad is never home and they have grown extremely distant.



           The teen relationships are completely different though. Lindsey ( Susie's little sister) and her boyfriend Samuel have seemingly perfect relationship. They both trust each other a lot, and it's obvious that they really truly love and care about each other. I can't remember a part in the book where they ever even have the slightest little disagreement. Ray and Ruth's relationship also is really  meaningful. They share the same interests and seem to be really mature, which in a way is a thing that the adult relationships are missing.



         Overall, it's obvious that in this case the adults could really learn a lot from their children. Even though it is a little odd that the teen relationships seem to be more mature and seem to have more potential than the adult relationships. I also think that if the adults had better relationships it definetly would have changed the course of the book a lot.