Okay, let me just start off with saying if you have not read this book before, please run out to wherever books are and read this one as fast as you can. I don’t know who recommended this book to me or where I found out about it, but I am so glad that I read this book. Easily, hands down best book I’ve read in 2018 thus far. And that’s saying something, considering I read Simon vs. the Homo Sapians Agenda at the beginning of the year.
Now, let’s talk about Bone Gap. To sort of summarise the plot, it’s a novel about the people from a town called Bone Gap, Illinois, and about their life, and what happens when Finn sees new girl Roza being kidnapped and no one believes him. I don’t want to get too plot heavy and spoilery because this book is so great and I don’t want to ruin the plot for you if you’re planning on reading it. I summed up in bullet points what I thought while reading.
- What I will say about the book is that is is very much of a commentary on how we view women in society and that their worth is attached to their beauty. Everyone thinks Roza is so beautiful, the most beautiful girl in the world, even when she’s not trying to be, and wonders why she would bother with school or anything else when she has her looks going for her. In contrast, you have Petey, and the whole town has been telling her that she’s so ugly but her body is so fine that if she puts a bag over her head they’ll do anything with her. At the end of the novel, it’s not about how beautiful these two girl’s faces are. It’s about the beauty within, and how they treat others, and what kind of person they are. And learning that beauty isn’t one thing, that sometimes imperfection can be beautiful too.
- Scare Crow dude who kidnaps Roza is deliciously creepy. When he first popped up I was literally like what the fuck why is he so creepy who the hell is this? And this story never disappointed. He kept being creepy. He wasn’t humanised. He was a bad creepy dude who kidnapped Roza because she was beautiful and wanted to marry her.
- I genuinely fell in love with the characters and this little town of Bone Gap. Everyone kind of had their story to tell and their own personality, whether it was Finn, or Sean, or Petey, or Charlie, or the Rude Brothers, or even Miguel. It was a beautiful look into this town and the people inside it. It felt like a slice of life story that deals with tragedy and beauty in all its forms. Characters are allowed to be sad and broken. But it didn’t feel forced or cliched or angsty, it just felt very realistic, and I think that simplicity is what drew my attention and shook me.
- This novel contains magical realism, which I did not know going in, it threw me for a loop because I wasn’t expecting it, and usually I’m not the hugest fan, I like more fantasy with a side of real life, but it worked in this novel. It didn’t feel out of place. You kind of just have to accept the magical realism there as fact.
- I don’t know why I never saw the “plot twist” with Finn. There were foreshadows and clues sprinkled throughout the entire story, starting with the fact that Finn can’t recognise or describe the face of the man who stole Roza, but instead talked about how he moved. I didn’t see it until Petey literally explained it to Finn, but I probably should have.
I started listening to this audiobook and discovered I liked it so much that I stopped listening halfway through, bought the book, and then proceeded to read all of it in one day. I rate it a solid 5 out of 5, and I’m excited to read it again in the future.
Rowan Does Reviews 