Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

When I heard the title of our next book to review – Bone Gap – I got quite excited. After all, dogs love bones! However, this story has more to it than bones (which, I was sad to discover, is just the name of the town where the story takes place.) I listened to the audiobook of Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, and I was riveted to my seat every second of the story.

The story starts in the middle of a stressful scenario: teenaged Finn and his older brother and guardian Sean have just lost Roza, the beautiful, kindhearted young woman who seems to have flitted out of their lives just as quickly and mysteriously as she entered them. While the town is sure she has simply moved on to the next town, Finn is certain she was abducted – though his inability to describe the perpetrator leaves his brother frustrated and angry. While the tension between the two brothers mounts, the reader learns that Roza has, in fact, been kidnapped, and her captor keeps her locked away in a series of magical prisons, locking her away unless she agrees to marry him. Fortunately, Finn does manage to rescue Roza, and the story ends in a satisfying way. With a story that is part contemporary fiction, part fantasy, part fairy tale, there's no wonder Bone Gap won the American Library Association's 2016 Michael L. Printz Award for its contribution to young adult literature.

Ruby combines ordinary reality and magic so subtly that I wasn't sure if the story was realistic fiction or fantasy until about halfway through the book. While this may frustrate some readers, it adds an element of mystery and forces the reader to think critically about the storyline: did the horse show up magically or was she a gift from a neighbor who doesn't want the credit? Is Roza imprisoned in an enchanted house, or just a creepy house? And why does Finn see reality so differently from the rest of the residents – does he have special powers? Most of these questions are answered by the end of the book, giving the reader some resolution, but these elements of magical realism give the story a feeling of being between two worlds. Horn Book Magazine explains it well: “Kidnapped young women are not a new trope in YA fiction, but such books often read like mysteries or thrillers, while this one reads more like a fable, with the matter-of-fact inclusion of magical realism. Finn does find Roza, he does fall in love with Petey, and everybody—for the most part—does live happily ever after, but afterward the reader is left to ponder the strange events, quirky characters, and resonant themes” (Hunt 2015).

I was quite taken by the characters in this story. Ruby colors each of her characters by showing them going about their days within the small town, rather than merely telling the reader about them. Whether it's the crotchety old man next door who has a deep love for his chickens or the fiery love interest who rolls her eyes at her mother, Ruby's characters are simultaneously lovable and deeply human. They are the perfect complement to the small-town setting, in which everyone knows everyone else's business, yet people come and go “through the cracks” of the town. 

One feature that I appreciated about this book is that the author doesn't shy away from heavy subjects. Several men sexually assault the female protagonists (both Roza and Petey at different times in the story), and Roza is kidnapped. Including such sensitive topics in young adult literature offers opportunities for discussion, and the magical element in the story “softens the blow” of how real sexual assault is for many readers. Booklist explains how Laura Ruby “...imbues all of it with captivating, snowballing magic realism, which has the dual effect of making the hard parts of the story more palatable to read while subtly emphasizing how purely wicked and dehumanizing assault can be...Even then, after she reveals many secrets, magic still seems to linger in the real parts of Bone Gap, and the magical elements retain their frightening reality. Wonder, beauty, imperfection, cruelty, love, and pain are all inextricably linked but bewitchingly so” (Hunter 2015).

While the unabridged audiobook version of the book was done quite well, a few features of this recording made it harder to follow the story. Although there are multiple characters of different ages, genders, and backgrounds, the audiobook has only one voice actor. While he makes some minor attempts to differentiate the voices of each character, it was often difficult to distinguish which characters were talking, especially with dialogue between more than two people. One of the unique aspects of the book is that each chapter is told from a different character's perspective, which is listed with the title at the beginning of each chapter. When listening to the audiobook read aloud, it is easy to miss which character's point-of-view is being used, which can lead to confusion, especially early in the story. This story lacks any interlude between chapters; a short snippet of music would have provided some needed breaks in the story.

While the murkiness of the line between reality and fantasy my be off-putting to some readers, there is no denying the beauty of Ruby's writing or the depth of her characters. For readers who enjoy questioning what is real and what isn't, this novel will be a delight.

Wags and Woofs,

Charlie Brown

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References

Hunt, Jonathan. 2015. “Bone Gap.” Horn Book Magazine 91, no. 5: 115.

Hunter, Sarah. 2015. “On the Surface.” Booklist 111, no. 9/10: 86.

Ruby, Laura. 2015. Bone Gap.