to give 'The Lovely Bones' to a 13 yo?

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

While not being great literature, I felt it was a well written story with a wonderful theme of hope over adversity. This particular 13 yo has been seriously sexually abused in the past so sadly not unaware of the issues written about, and I think it would be a good book for her to read to address some of the issues she has going on, she's at the age where she will be processing her experiences in a new way in light of her own development and sexuality.

Anyway....is it appropriate for a 13yo at all? Esp one who has been abused? What do folk think? I'll ask her mum anyway and she might veto it but I thought I'd ask opinions before doing that.

What about the set of

"The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency"

or

"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"

my 12 year old dd loved both of them.

I wouldn't give a 13 year old "The Lovely Bones" personally, but I wouldn't stop them from reading it either.

I enjoyed this when I was about her age

'I felt it was a well written story with a wonderful theme of hope over adversity. '

It was a book about what happens to the teenage victim of a rape/murder from her point of view.

About how she has to accept that she is dead, that her life was tragically cut short by someone who didn't give a toss about her and move on from the family who will go to their graves never really knowing what happened to their loved one. Forever.

And how often enough, people who perpetrate these types of crimes go unpunished and not found.

It was written by someone who survived a brutal rape when she was herself a teen and should be on repeat play for every rapist and murderer in prison from now till they meet their Maker.

And for every judge who must determine a sentence for a rapist or murderer.

NOT ideal reading for a 13-year-old unless to put them on their guard.

But, looking back, I'm appalled at the literature that was on reading lists when I was a teen.

Stuff far worse than that!

"It was written by someone who survived a brutal rape when she was herself a teen and should be on repeat play for every rapist and murderer in prison from now till they meet their Maker.

And for every judge who must determine a sentence for a rapist or murderer"

Junk by Melvin Burgess is an excellent hard hitting book about "isshoos" but is written for teenagers.

She wrote 'Lucky', a memoir, after The Lovely Bones, recounting not just what happened to her sparing no detail (her rapist also savagely beat her) but also the aftermath.

Again, should be required reading for all judges and juries in such trials.

She called it Lucky after a cop told her she was lucky, as another girl had been murdered in the same spot (a park) where she'd been raped and nearly murdered.