I know it isn't Christian fiction, but I was wondering if anyone had read The Lovely Bones and what they thought of it.  My main concern is the way Heaven is described in the book (this was triggered in a review I read that said Heaven was not what the main character was expecting).  I think the book sounds interesting, but I don't want to read it if it makes Heaven sound anything less than what it is supposed to be, know what I mean?  Thanks for the input!

Shelly

Yes, I read the book. I thought it was  good. It was very haunting, sad and heartbreaking but a real page turner. I couldn't put it down. There was some amusing parts in it so it wasn't all depressing. The author, I believe,  made heaven what ever the person who died wanted it to be. The girl in the story chose her heaven to be her school.

I read about 3/4 of it, but was so disturbed with the whole thing that I had to put it down.  It was too morbid for me.  The girl is in pergatory in the book.

I thought the view of heaven was incredibly depressing. It is not looked at in a Christian viewpoint at all. The previous poster is right--heaven was whatever the main character wanted it to be. She could watch, listen, etc. to everyone still alive and that was just a horrible picture of the afterlife in my opinion. I didn't care for the book at all.

Melissa

I read it -- consider those hours out of my life totally wasted. Would not recommend it.

I loved The Lovely Bones. It's been years since I read it, but I didn't have any problem with the description of Heaven. It is fiction, afterall, so it's not like you have to agree with it.

I saw this thread a couple of days ago and I've been thinking about it since...I read this book a couple of years ago upon the recommendation of a friend in my book club.  She raved about it and when I read it, I found it haunting and somewhat disturbing but I loved it too.  Then we read it this year for book club and I had a hard go of it.  Maybe I am in a different place than I was the first time I read it but it is not a book I would recommend to just anyone.  Don't get me wrong, I like the unique prospective that the book was written from but some of the supernatural stuff at the end just didn't fit for me.  But the description of heaven didn't cause a problem for me because it isn't Christian fiction. 

I thought it was a really great book literature-wise. But her view of heaven should be taken with a grain of salt, it is just fiction, not supposed to be religious view at all.