“Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”
The Lovely Bones is a book by Alice Sebold that follows fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon. On December 6, 1973, she was murdered. As she adjusts to her new home in heaven, a place not like she had imagined at all, she is able to watch life continue on without her on Earth. Her friends trade rumours about her disappearance, her killer attempts to hide his crime, and her grief-stricken family slowly starts to unravel. Through Susie’s observations and commentaries, readers are given a poignant portrait of life, death, love and loss. If you’re in the mood for more stunning reads that tackle themes of grief, justice and healing, join us at What We Reading for the best books like The Lovely Bones!
The Child Finder (Naomi Cottle #1) – Rene Denfeld
Kicking off our list of books like The Lovely Bones is Rene Denfeld’s haunting mystery thriller, The Child Finder. Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family were picking out a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. Desperate to know what happened to their little girl, the Culvers turn to private investigator Naomi Cottle, who has a knack for finding the lost and missing.
Naomi’s search takes her deep into the icy forests in the Pacific Northwest, and even deeper into her own fragmented past. As she methodically pursues and uncovers the truth about Madison’s disappearance, she is constantly reminded of a dark nightmare and a terrible loss. To save the child, she will have to unlock the secrets of her own life. Told in alternating voices between Naomi and the deeply imaginative child, The Child Finder is gripping, atmospheric and a serious page-turner.
Where I Want To Be – Adele Griffin
Once, Jane was the big sister, teaching Lily how to play make-believe and protecting her from the thunderstorms outside. But, then Lily grew up. She made friends and began dating boys, whilst Jane wanted to go on playing make-believe forever. For Jane, the line between fantasy and reality had always been blurred. For Lily, she had always dreamt of a life full of change and expectation. Gradually, a divide between the two sisters started to emerge. And then tragedy strikes and upends the sisters and their lives forever.
Adele Griffin’s Where I Want to Be is similar to The Lovely Bones through its exploration of death and the enduring power of love and connection. Readers switch between Jane’s and Lily’s perspectives as they are shown how their connection can keep them bound no matter what.
The Afterlife – Gary Soto
Another book like The Lovely Bones where the protagonist dies in the opening exchanges, Gary Soto’s The Afterlife centres around Chuy and his perspective on his hometown and the life he left behind. But, for Chury, his death marks the point where his life finally starts to get interesting.
He’s able to see that people love him, faces the consequences of his actions, finds in himself compassion and bravery and even chances upon something that might just resemble true love. Funny, touching and poignant, Soto’s work should undoubtedly be on your TBR list if you loved Susie Salmon’s story.
All Is Not Forgotten – Wendy Walker
In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, everything appears to be pleasant and idyllic. Until one evening when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the aftermath of the attack, she is prescribed a controversial drug that erases her memory of the assault. But, in the months afterwards, she becomes increasingly at odds with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with not being able to find the attacker. Her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event didn’t pierce her perfect country club world.
As they look for help for their daughter, the fault lines in Tom and Charlotte’s marriage and their standing in this close-knit community begin to reveal themselves after lying dormant in the shadows for years. Wendy Walker’s All Is Not Forgotten follows this community and its relentless quest to find a monster. Did this individual invade their town, or have they always lived among them?
Falling Into Place – Amy Zhang
On the day Liz Emerson tried to die, they had been reviewing Newton’s Laws of Motion in physics class. After school, she put them into practice by driving her Mercedes off the road. But, why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world was better off without her in it? Why would she give up like that?
Similar to The Lovely Bones, Amy Zhang makes use of a narrator floating between life and death to create a unique and spellbinding narrative in Falling into Place. This nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior, following her friends, family, imaginary friend and all the decisions and consequences that made Liz come to her tragic conclusion.
The Vanishing Season – Jodi Lynn Anderson
Another one of the best YA books like The Lovely Bones, Jodi Lynn Anderson’s The Vanishing Season centres on how we think about death and the afterlife. For Maggie Larsen, the town of Gill Creek is only a stopgap before college and freedom. That is, until she runs into Pauline and Liam.
What begins as an uneventful year suddenly changes. Girls start vanishing in the fall. Someone is killing them. As the town lurches from one tragedy to the next, Maggie and Pauline’s worlds collide and change around them as they both experience love and loss. And, when everything is said and done, only one of them will survive.
The Night Strangers – Chris Bohjalian
In a dusty corner in the basement of a crumbling Victorian house in New Hampshire, a door has been long-sealed shut with thirty-nine six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home’s new owners are Chip and Emily Linton, and their twin ten-year-old daughters. The family are hoping to settle into their new lives after Chip, an airline pilot, was forced to ditch his seventy-seat jet in Lake Champlain. The final body count? Thirty-nine. The coincidence isn’t lost on Chip as he inspects the door.
Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in the sparsely populated White Mountain village and their unnerving interest in her daughters. Are these self-proclaimed herbalists all mad? Or is it her husband that has lost his grip on sanity? Like The Lovely Bones, Chris Bohjalian’s The Night Strangers is a ghost story that delves into the demons that drive us and the figures in our lives we care most deeply about.
If I Stay (If I Stay #1) – Gayle Forman
Similar to The Lovely Bones, Gayle Forman’s acclaimed YA book If I Stay is a meditation on family, love and heartbreak. For seventeen-year-old Mia, it all happened in the blink of an eye. She has no memory of the accident, and can only remember what happened afterwards. Watching her damaged body being hauled from the wreckage.
Little by little, she pieces things back together. She figures out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult last decision she has to make. Heartwrenching and beautifully delivered, this story of a girl caught between life, and death and choosing between the two is a poignant tale that will stay with you long after the final page.
Help For The Haunted – John Searles
Young Sylvie Mason has gotten used to overhearing her parents on the phone across the hall from her. They have an uncommon occupation, helping ‘haunted souls’ find peace. Yet, something about the call they receive in the middle of a snowy February evening feels different. Especially when they are lured to a remote church on the outskirts of town. There, Sylvie’s parents disappear behind the building’s red door, leaving her alone.
A year on, Sylvie is struggling to adjust to life without her parents. She is living in the care of her older sister, who may be to blame for what happened that fateful night. John Searles’ Help for the Haunted moves readers back and forth in time between the years leading up to the crime and the months after it, revealing a mystery about this family’s past and the secrets that have always been following them.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
