book review

The book I read was the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book is about a girl named Susie Salmon who is brutally murdered by a creepy neighbor. She watches her family and friends from heaven always hoping for one last hug or one more kiss or one last goodbye. She accidentally appears to her family members while she is looking upon them. Her father worries himself over her death while her mother runs off to California to be free again. She watches her sister and her one and only love become engaged and her baby brother grow up. It is like her whole world she knew is passing her and changing because of her death.
This book was one of the best books I’ve read this year. It was a very heart wrenching story that kept me reading on. Even the first line of the book caught me: “I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6th, 1943” (1). I had first heard from friends that the movie was very bad, and it made me a little turned off of the book. But, my curiosity is much deeper than someone’s opinion, so I started reading it and compared it to what others said was in the movie. Turns out, it has a lot of important and interesting parts that make the story come to life. I have yet to see the movie, but I hope to soon.
This story portrays life after death in a very intellectual way that most of us have dreamed that the afterlife would be. It shows Susie as an angel in heaven that is always looking down on her family and friends. She is also seen like some experts say, just a glimpse of a body with the clothes on that she was killed in with no speech to the person that sees them. Susie states that “the truth was that the line between the living and the dead could be murky and blurred” (48) which means that the living and the dead could have a bridge to each other that could help give her that last time she wanted on Earth. She also posses someone and uses their body to bring the two worlds together to communicate. It is, on the contrary to Hollywood, a good spirit that means no harm to the family but is still considered a paranormal activity to scientists. Though this book was nonfiction, it had a great perspective on the dead because it focused on the spirit itself.

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Back Bay Books, 2007. 1-328. Print.

fifth post

This book talks about how ghost stories read back to in the Bible with the book of Job. Mythology also talks about the living and dead in their stories. It also says, “All societies which hold animistic beliefs have been disposed to believe in ghosts” (11). Even Christian literature promotes the existence of supernatural over and over. The Resurrection was pretty much, as some would say, life after death. So, Christians believed in life after death and didn’t even know it.

This small part of this book shows me a lot. It relates to my research because it shows that not only science, but Christianity shows that they are real. But as other sources have said, the church really doesn’t talk about the fact that life is after death, but they worship the fact that it has happened. The symbol of Christians is the cross in which he died on, and Easter is the fact that he is now the Holy Ghost. Why do people not realize that they are praying to a ghost, which some people are actually afraid of?





Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories. London: Bloomsbury Books, 1984. 11-13. Print.

fourth post

The multimedia source that I have watched is Poltergeist. This movie is about a normal family that buys a new house that is placed on an old indian burial ground. The family starts experiencing weird things after their youngest daughter goes up to the tv and starts to talk to it like there is someone in there. One night, she is sucked up into another world through her closet and the family calls in experts to rid the house of the poltergeist. They soon realize that the spirits are stronger than they imagined.

This movie was helpful. It showed one aspect of the spirit world that is poltergeist. Poltergeists are hauntings on the house. One source that I had indicated that these hauntings occur in house with adolescent girls. Frankly, the house did have one, but it went after the youngest and most innocent one. One thing that I notice is that most of Hollywood's renditions of spirits are usually horrifying. Why can't there ever be a good one? Maybe there is some movies out there with some, but they did not make it as big as those that give us nightmares.

fourth post

This article talks about how ghosts are real scientifically. They describe ghosts as "tapeloop" or wearing the same outfit as their time period would have with the same motions. The ghosts are silent and almost never verbalize with the living. Most ghosts usually do not know that they are dead and will go about their daily routines with time passing them by. It also says that poltergeists are the most seen and heard of in our society.

This article helped me to better understand the dead. I do not think that it is the spirit's fault for being stuck in an eternal loop. Religions talk about eternal life, but is this eternity supposed to be on Earth? Are all things dead ghosts that sometimes cannot be seen? The interesting thing about this aritcle was that ghosts are never changing, so why is it that a person can visit a haunted site and not see anything unusual while someone else could be knocked over? Maybe that is the secret.


Novak, Peter. "Ghosts Are Compatible with Scientific Principles." Opposing Viewpoints: Paranormal Phenomena. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Alabama Virtual Library Remote Access. 15 Apr. 2010 .

third post

The website talks about life after death. It also compares the church to it also. It says that of the people that were polled, "37% believed places can be haunted, 20% believed that you can communicate with the dead, and 13% believed in psychics, astrologers, and palm readers". It also talks about how people would be more open with their sex lives than talk about ghosts. It even says that "all religions talk about life after death". So if every religion talks about it, how can it not be true?

This article was very credible, especially with all the stastics. I noticed how it states that most people will not talk to the clergy about spiritual happenings they see, but all religions have them. It strikes me that this subject is sensitive. It also shows that they haunt those who believe. So with faith, can anyone see them? If so, how much faith?

Felty, Dana Clark. "More people may believe in ghosts than you think." Savannahnow. Savannah Morning News, 07/10/2006. Web. 08 Apr 2010. http://savannahnow.com/node/167008.

third post

The multimedia source I watched was a movie called Paranormal Entity. It is about this family that has a feeling that there are ghosts present in their house. The son has set up cameras all throughout the house and carries one around when he is awake. Spooky things happen like the mother and daughter are possessed and loud noises. He is convicted of the murder of his sister and paranormal investigator. He is put into prison and commits suicide in prison. His mother commits suicide in the hospital after hearing about her daughter's death. It shows things that can't be explained by science.

I thought that this movie was definately not fake. The part in the movie that I thought was the most important was when they saw footprints on the ceiling. What had happened was they were awoken in the night by a very loud thumping noise. They get up and all run together into the living room. He shoots the camera up at the ceiling. There is nothing there. He looks at them, going here and there and looks up there again. He notices footsteps around the room in a dust or mud. He follows them the next day from his sister's room to the basement and there are feet prints in his dead father's dust. This movie does reinforce the fact of some life after death and how it usually occurs when an adolescent girl in the house. Very good and scary movie.

second post

This article talks about what people think ghosts are supposed to do and critiques it. It defines a ghost as, "A human figure, witnessed by someone, which cannot be physically present". It describes ghosts as clothed figures that look like normal people. It also says that pictures are very rare and those seen do not support that ghosts are solid figures because they are ususally portrayed as mists.It also says that hauntings occur any time of day despite those who believe it only happens at night.

This article attracted me because of the common misconceptions they exposed. I believe that it is true that the spirits are clothed but I don't believe that they don't harm their surroundings because I've heard people talk about ghosts throwing objects at the wall and breaking them. I thought it interesting that in a group of people that saw an alleged ghost, they all saw something different or nothing at all. It also says that there is no reason for a ghost haunting a location, but I still believe that they are at unrest, and they stay at that location for some reason that the living don't comprehend. Wether or not they are right, I think they had an excellent critique of the ghost world that makes sense.

"Ghosts and Hauntings." ASSAP. Maurice Townsend, 2009. Web. 1 Apr 2010. http://www.assap.org/newsite/articles/Ghosts.html.