Just Finished Reading: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone Gap
by Laura Ruby
To be published on March 3, 2015
by Balzer + Bray

Source: eARC from the publisher for review

Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. After all, it wasn’t the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O’Sullivan on their own. Just a few years before, their mother had high-tailed it to Oregon for a brand new guy, a brand new life. That’s just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame? Finn knows that’s not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turned up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone, and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go.

My take:  I'll just put it right out there: Bone Gap isn't an easy-breezy-reading, accessible book. I started it too late one night and, when a horse inexplicably popped up in the story, I thought I might have fallen asleep and was having a weird dream. Reading Bone Gap feels a little like a weird dream, to be completely honest. So I put the book aside and went on Goodreads the next day. There were a bunch of rave reviews and a few DNFs. I get that. But I decided to press on, and I'm glad I did.

Bone Gap is a beautifully written book that takes some time to reveal itself. There's this quirky, somewhat sinister town. Two motherless boys. A teenage beekeeper. A mysterious girl who may or may not have been kidnapped. And yes, a horse. I wasn't really sure what was going on for quite a while. In this way, Bone Gap reminded me of Where Things Come Back. Both books feature a small-town setting, beautiful writing, and a plot that doesn't quite make sense ... until it does. Finn is a (somewhat) unreliable narrator, but not in the way that I expected. And there was one thing in the story that I never quite understood. Highlight for spoiler: In this way, the book reminded me a little of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, another book that features a main character who sees the world a little differently than most of us. Also, I never quite understood the kidnapping. and didn't feel like it was completely resolved. That was probably intentional? End spoiler.

Maybe you're an easy-going, magical-realism-loving reader who will pick this up and just roll with it and have no issues with confusion. Me? I'm a reading control freak and like to understand what's happening and preferably why it's happening at all times. But I promise, things DO eventually make sense, and I do think this book is worth your time. And a little confusion :)