Bone Gap

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy Library, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: July 12, 2017

Review

A 2015 novel, released in paperback in 2016. It is worth adding a second review for this original story and strong writing. The town of Bone Gap is a place where the mundane meets the extraordinary and things can fall into the gaps if you don't know where to look. The story is tied to the metaphor of corn: life-sustaining, dense, whispery, mysterious, solid. The book takes place over four months and centers around a missing girl, Roza, a newcomer to Bone Gap, and the two brothers who take her in when she appears to them battered and bruised. Older brother Sean, strong and silent, is beloved by all and can do no wrong, and seems to have lost his heart to Roza. Younger brother Finn is accepted in the way that small towns accept their misfits; he is unusual and beautiful and a bit lost. He, too, loves Roza but as that of a sister and a savior, recognizing that she has brought happiness to his stoic brother. Finn is the only witness to the disappearance of Roza and he can't seem to describe the abductor beyond how he moved and that he drove a black SUV. He could not even be sure that Roza didn't go with him willingly, a fact that haunts Sean and convinces the town that Roza doesn't want to be found. But Finn persists, and with the help of the corn and a bee-loving girl, Petey, he ventures into the biggest gap of all to bring Roza home. There are echoes of the Persephone myth as Roza exists in a netherworld, where she is worshipped for her beauty and kept like a bird in a cage. Like Persephone, Roza eats only the merest of food and longs to escape back to the world of light and warmth. Unlike Persephone, if Roza can be won away from the devil who has taken her, she is free to live in the safety of the ordinary world. This book requires a mature reader and those who love to follow the threads of a story, pulling them apart, weaving through all of the different perspectives, and piecing them together again to glimpse a tapestry of story that is not easily forgotten, will love and appreciate this one.

Overall Book Score: excellent