The Lovely Bones

Lindsey, Samuel, and Ruth go to the statewide gifted symposium, where gifted middle-school students get together for a four-week retreat in the woods. Samuel has an intuitive understanding of how things work, and he idolizes his older brother, Hal, who runs a motorcycle repair business that serves everyone from the Hell’s Angels to old ladies. Ruth has to be driven to the symposium after missing the bus due to an attack of gastritis caused by the vegetarian diet she adopted after Susie’s death.

Lindsey hides her surname as best she can at the camp, trying to hide her connection to Susie. She has been wearing the half heart that Samuel gave her all spring, but aside from sitting together at lunch and walking home after school together, “they melted into the gender-subdivided world of their peers” (115). But upon arriving at the camp, Lindsey and Samuel pair off, unchaperoned, and Susie feels the lust grow between them. Lindsey is also attracted to Samuel because he sees her for who she is and doesn’t press her about Susie like the adults and other kids. However, they only kiss, not wanting to run afoul of the counselors. In addition, Samuel wants their first time having sex to be perfect and special, whereas Lindsey just wants to get it over with so that she can achieve adulthood.