What is the name of the main character in the film The Lovely Bones?

The main character in The Lovely Bones is Susie Salmon. She is a 14-year-old girl whose murder—and her family’s struggle to survive its aftermath—forms the emotional center of the story.

In Peter Jackson’s 2009 film, Saoirse Ronan plays Susie, who narrates the events from an afterlife-like realm called the In-Between. Before her death in 1973, Susie dreams of becoming a photographer and has a crush on her classmate Ray Singh. Her killer is neighbor George Harvey, who lures her into an underground hideout.

Susie’s perspective distinguishes the film from a conventional murder mystery. She watches her parents, Jack and Abigail, respond differently to their grief, while her sister Lindsey gradually suspects Harvey. Ruth Connors, one of Susie’s classmates, also becomes connected to Susie’s lingering presence.

A common mix-up is confusing Susie with Lindsey or Ruth: Lindsey is her younger sister, while Ruth is the classmate whose body Susie briefly enters. The film adapts Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel, which also begins with the memorable introduction, “My name was Salmon, like the fish.”