The Lovely Bones explores some heavy and disturbing topics, including rape, murder, pedophilia, and suicide. The topics of justice, vengeance, and guilt are also present in the novel, as well as the realities of injustice. It will be necessary to have serious conversations with the class addressing things these subjects ahead of reading the book. The teacher should prepare the students for all of this sensitive and potentially very personal and traumatic content, reinforcing that the classroom, above all, will remain a place for respectful and understanding discourse.
Some profanity is used in this novel as well. Talking about the role of profanity in life and literature, especially the...
