100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #28
28. Lindsey Salmon, as seen in the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and the film The Lovely Bones, portrayed by Rose McIver
When this book was first published, I was a junior in high school. Everyone was talking about, and, of course, my high school's tiny library only had one copy. While waiting my turn, I ended up reading Alice Sebold's memoir about her rape Lucky (which, FYI, is not the book you want to read as you're getting ready to apply to college.) I can't recommend Lucky enough, and, by the time I was finally able to read The Lovely Bones, I expected it to be a fictionalized reimagining of Alice Sebold's own assault. And, though obviously Susie is the protagonist of the novel and the book is ostensibly about her, I've always felt the story is just as much Lindsey's story.
Lindsey is Susie's younger sister, thirteen to Susie's fourteen, and it is she who ends up keeping it together better than the rest of her family in the wake of Susie's rape/murder. A detail people seem to forget about the book is that no one ever truly knows what happened to Susie; beyond an elbow found in the cornfield, there is never again any sign of Susie. The torture of this - knowing she's dead but also not knowing - destroys her parents' marriage, destroys the family they once were, drives her father to near insanity, and drive her mother to abandon the family. Lindsey, wanting to help her father and help preserve everything, begins to help her father in his quest to prove George Harvey murdered her sister, but they never get that proof; George Harvey never truly faces justice for all the girls he has murdered. But unlike the rest of her family, Lindsey is able to make her own life in the aftermath.
Susie watches from Heaven as Lindsey joins the boys' soccer team, as she goes away to camp, as she falls in love with Sam Heckler; there's a beautiful passage concerning Lindsey losing her virginity to Sam which emphasizes what different experiences the sisters have. Lindsey is changed by Susie's death, but it ultimately does not come to define her the way it did everyone else. I'm always fascinated by stories of people who are left behind, and, throughout the novel, we see how Susie is conversely happy for her sister and ultimately jealous that Lindsey gets to lead such a rich life. And, as we see at the end of the novel, Lindsey never forgets her sister, naming her first child after Susie.
Lindsey is one of the most resilient, strong, and loving characters in recent literature, and never once does she allow what has happened to her family cripple her.
And that is inspiringly kick-ass.
When this book was first published, I was a junior in high school. Everyone was talking about, and, of course, my high school's tiny library only had one copy. While waiting my turn, I ended up reading Alice Sebold's memoir about her rape Lucky (which, FYI, is not the book you want to read as you're getting ready to apply to college.) I can't recommend Lucky enough, and, by the time I was finally able to read The Lovely Bones, I expected it to be a fictionalized reimagining of Alice Sebold's own assault. And, though obviously Susie is the protagonist of the novel and the book is ostensibly about her, I've always felt the story is just as much Lindsey's story.
Lindsey is Susie's younger sister, thirteen to Susie's fourteen, and it is she who ends up keeping it together better than the rest of her family in the wake of Susie's rape/murder. A detail people seem to forget about the book is that no one ever truly knows what happened to Susie; beyond an elbow found in the cornfield, there is never again any sign of Susie. The torture of this - knowing she's dead but also not knowing - destroys her parents' marriage, destroys the family they once were, drives her father to near insanity, and drive her mother to abandon the family. Lindsey, wanting to help her father and help preserve everything, begins to help her father in his quest to prove George Harvey murdered her sister, but they never get that proof; George Harvey never truly faces justice for all the girls he has murdered. But unlike the rest of her family, Lindsey is able to make her own life in the aftermath.
Susie watches from Heaven as Lindsey joins the boys' soccer team, as she goes away to camp, as she falls in love with Sam Heckler; there's a beautiful passage concerning Lindsey losing her virginity to Sam which emphasizes what different experiences the sisters have. Lindsey is changed by Susie's death, but it ultimately does not come to define her the way it did everyone else. I'm always fascinated by stories of people who are left behind, and, throughout the novel, we see how Susie is conversely happy for her sister and ultimately jealous that Lindsey gets to lead such a rich life. And, as we see at the end of the novel, Lindsey never forgets her sister, naming her first child after Susie.
Lindsey is one of the most resilient, strong, and loving characters in recent literature, and never once does she allow what has happened to her family cripple her.
And that is inspiringly kick-ass.