#Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

[the-dust-jacket]

It's too hot out and most of Tumblr is already in "how long til October" mode, but Summer can be spooky season too!

Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden: middle grade horror, fourth in chilling and intensely atmospheric Small Spaces quartet.

The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst: creepy and suspenseful YA wilderness survival story about three girls who arrive at an off-the-grid summer camp only to find no one left alive -- except whatever is hunting them.

The Devouring Wolf, by Natalie C. Parker: coming-of-age adventure featuring terrifying legends come to life, friends, foes, and queer werewolf kids.

The Honeys, by Ryan La Sala: sun-drenched summer horror set at the elite, bucolic Aspen Summer Conservancy Academy, where Mars knows he'll never fit in -- but which may explain his sister's death. Psychological suspense, toxic traditions, complex friendships, bees.

Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby: lyrical and haunting combination of science and myth, magic and realism, beauty and rage. In a town where people sometimes slip through the gaps, no one asks too many questions when Roza disappears. Nobody except Finn, who knows she was taken -- but who can't describe the man who took her. And there are more bees.

Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy: body shaming isn't the only horror awaiting Maggie Hagen at summer "fat camp." Spooky, hilarious, heartfelt middle grade.

[gardenofbookworms]

week #40 recommendation: bee

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

 ▪︎ magical realism novel ▪︎

finn’s friend miguel has always said that the corn whispers. that it looks alive alive, not just alive like all plants. finn has never believed him. but isn’t it fair? no one’s ever believed finn, anyway.

not even when roza goes missing, after being found in finn and sean’s barn and charming the whole town. further than that, no one even seems to care—including sean, finn’s older brother who was practically head over heels for her. finn knows what he saw: a man who moved like the cornstalks. but no one who’s not on meth would describe a kidnapper like that. but then the man shows up again, finn’s beautiful, mysterious horse steps on him, petey finds the kittens under his bed, and roza is imprisoned in a castle. charlie valentine (which isn’t his real name, by the way) finally gives finn a hint, and now he’s impossibly close to getting roza back. but when everyone hangs upside down, could he really find her?

▪︎

i didn’t expect to like this book as much as i did—it was kind of a quick read, and it started off with a boy who loved a girl that was missing. not exactly my thing. but as i got into it, i found myself loving the writing style. the dialogue is amazing—real, truthful, and sometimes very comical. eventually i came to like petey and finn together as well. a teenage love…plus a horse…and bees…i enjoyed petey’s side of the story a lot, especially when she realizes something about finn. which, actually, i did suspect beforehand (i’m very proud of that). and finally, the gap itself. it did take me a while to realize “oh, this isn’t finn’s world, is it?” basically, it’s where the concept of, like, things that should be impossible are discarded and everything is under the control of one man who keeps asking the same question. enjoy!

[edwardskhakipants]

2024 Reads! ✨🤍🌲✨

I surpassed my goal of 50 books to 55! Feel free to agree with me, tell me I'm wrong, or gush over books in general!! And I will happily accept recs for 2025. I hope to boost that number to 60! 😁

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- Perfect book. No notes. Won't stop thinking about this for days / months / years.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett Emma - Jane Austen New Moon - Stephanie Meyer Circe - Madeline Miller

⭐⭐⭐⭐- I loved this book!

The Return of the King - J.R.R Tolkien The Beautiful Ones - Silvia Moreno-Garcia This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtah + Max Gladstone City of Brass trilogy - S.A. Chakraborty Persuasion - Jane Austen Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux Dracula - Bram Stoker Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones Tress and the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson Mansfield Park - Jane Austen The Salt Grow Heavy - Cassandra Khaw One Dark Window duology - Rachel Gillig

⭐⭐⭐- I liked this book.

The Unmaking of June Farrow - Adrienne Young Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton Little Women - Louisa May Alcott A Tempest of Tea - Hatsah Faizal The Girls Who Reads on the Metro - Christine Féret-Fleury I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jeanette McCurdy Bone Gap - Laura Ruby The Prisoner's Throne - Holly Black Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy - Stephanie Gerber Oryx and Crake trilogy - Margaret Atwood Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado Wild Beauty - Anna-Marie McLemore The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen A Room with a View -  E. M. Forster The Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan

⭐⭐- I did not like this book.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte A River Enchanted - Rebecca Ross Norweigan Wood - Haruki Murakami Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern Your Blood, My Bones - Kelly Andrew Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Normal People - Sally Rooney Starling House - Alix E. Harrow The Ashes & The Star Cursed King - Carissa Broadbent Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov The Good and the Green - Amy Yorke

⭐- DNF.

Smoke Show - Aimee Vance Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton Some Kind of Twisted Love - Rachel Sullivan

X - I hated this book so much I finished it so I could hate the entirety of it.

The Ruined - Renee Ahdieh

[winterstellars]

i'm in the middle of reading sins of the son and i'm so incredibly inspired by your writing style!! i love the dialogue so much, it's so natural and your characters have amazing chemistry :) i wanted to ask if you have any inspirations? i'd love to get book recs lol

Hi, this is so kind, thank you so much! Fun fact about my writing is that once I know my plot I actually write out my dialogue like a script first and then fill in the rest of the story around it. Anyways this is gonna be a super long answer so I'm focusing on literary inspo/books, but I'm happy to talk more about my non-literary inspirations for sins of the son too! Just lmk.

In my non-online life I actually mainly write poetry, so that's where I draw a lot of inspiration from in terms of style. I love Ada Limón's poetry (Bright Dead Things is my favorite collection of hers, but I would highly recommend The Hurting Kind and The Carrying as well) because her structure resonates so deeply with me: if she poses a question in the first line then she answers it by the end. And she's deeply strategic about imagery. If there's a cat in the poem then that cat means something. I definitely tried to bring that same strategy into sins of the son. If there's a strong image in the first section then I try to work that into the last section too (like the sept in part 1).

Other poets I really love are Hanif Abdurraqib, Anne Carson, Natalie Diaz, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

In terms of prose that I like, Manuel Muñoz's The Consequences is one of the most beautiful short story collections I've ever read. I specifically love how he writes character & location and intertwines those two. Definitely another thing that pops up in my work--I like the setting to feel like its own character. He also writes incredible dialogue. One of his stories (I don't have my book with me rn & can't recall the title) ends with a character saying "Men don't know how to suffer." Which, in the context of the story, is just devastating. I think of that line a lot when I write because it feels like the pinnacle of really earning a solid, powerful line of dialogue.

Also love Carmen Maria Machado's work, she writes through a very magical realism/slightly surreal lens in both her fiction (Her Body and Other Parties) and nonfiction (In the Dream House).

Other books that weren't fic inspo that I'd highly recommend:

-The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (themes of religion&guilt do sort of tie in)

-Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (sort of a Hades & Persephone retelling but midwestern gothic & so deeply interesting)

-How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (spec fic, masterful, I sobbed)

I hope this gives you some potential reading material! Thank you for reading my darling little fic, I hope you enjoy the rest of it 💚💚💚

[thedisabilitybookarchive]

'Bone Gap'- Ruby, Laura

Disability Rep: Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness) (MC), Colour Blind (SC)

Genre: Magical Realism, Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary, Mystery

Age: Young Adult

Setting: USA

Additional Rep: F/M, Gay SC

For more information on summaries, content warnings and additional tropes, see here:

[bookishandproud]

Bone Gap

Laura Ruby

Book Cover Picture

Genre or category

Michael L. Printz Award Winner

Target Age Group

7th to 12th grades

Summary

A girl named Roza mysteriously disappears in the small town of Bone Gap, and there is only one witness, Finn, who can attest to what happened. Guilty, but also frustrated with the townspeople for not caring to look for Roza, Finn tries to solve the mystery of where she went.

Justification

I chose this book because it is a Michael L. Printz Award Winner, among many other awards it was nominated for and won. It's a book that contains magical realism, adding a fantasy element to the way the author tackles hard topics. Using the magical realism element allows for making the hard topics more palatable and less intimidating for readers to consume and process, rather than presenting them outright. This can be exceptionally helpful in introducing readers to media that addresses serious topics.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating pacing, tension, and setting.

The course of the story flips back and forth between perspectives of Finn, Roza, Sean, and Petey. Their perspectives are all different, as they all have different experiences and feelings of what is happening within the story. Each chapter reveals layers of the characters’ inner lives, particularly Finn and Roza, whose perspectives add depth and complexity without pulling the story off course. Splitting the chapters up and offering different perspectives helps keep the pacing from being too fast. The mysterious reasons behind Roza's disappearance unfold over the course of the book, while Roza's point of view provides a bit of dramatic irony for the readers, keeping their interest as the story moves along. However, in listening to the audiobook, the entire thing was read by the same narrator. With this style of book it may be beneficial to have different narrators for each different character, offering an even more immersive experience for the reader.

Working in tandem with the pacing, the tension in the book is amplified by the story being drawn out through the different point of views for each chapter. Roza's experiences in the different world she has been kidnapped to add to the tension as the other characters deal with the repercussions of her disappearance and the strains it puts on their relationships. The magical realism element of the story also adds tension, as the reader never knows what to expect to happen next with the collision of the fantasy and real worlds. The story’s tension never overwhelms but enhances the story, adding weight to each revelation and making Bone Gap feel alive. This careful layering draws readers in, keeping them on edge while fully immersed in the haunting beauty of Ruby’s world. The narrator's even tone cements the tension to the reader, as there are times when readers may wish for the story to pick up and go faster as things are revealed but the narrator's tone remains even, adding to the tension of the story.

The small town of Bone Gap almost feels like a character on its own. Through interwoven details about the town and its people, and the perspective of the characters as they are frustrated that nobody seems to listen to or believe them about what has happened, adds to the way the town feels. Each location within the town holds its own weight, drawing readers into its quiet strangeness and hinting that something powerful lies beneath the surface. This richly layered setting is crucial to the novel’s impact, amplifying its themes of perception, identity, and the thin line between reality and the extraordinary. The narrator of the book is able to weave the story for the reader and guide them through the different settings as it flows through them, not unlike the magic that flows through the setting of the town.

Rating: ★★★★

References

Ruby, L. (2015). Bone gap. HarperCollins.

[emilylovesbooks]

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Genre: Printz Award

Targeted Age Group: high school age

Summary: Finn O'Sullivan is the only witness to the kidnapping of Roza, and no one in the small town of Bone Gap believes his story about what happened. Finn, along with other characters in the book, must learn that what people say about you does not define you, that things are not always what they seem, and the importance of never giving up on those you love.

Why I chose this book: I chose this book from looking at a list of Printz award winners. I read the summaries of several, and after reading the mysterious summary of this one I had to know who Roza was and what happened to her.

Evaluation:

The setting of this book, the small town of Bone Gap, is an important part of the story. In a town like this everyone knows everyone, and gossip spreads quickly. Ruby does a good job of giving the reader the small town feel, and helping the reader understand how uncomfortable it is for the entire community to know about something you would have liked to keep secret (especially since the details are always wrong).

Throughout the book, Ruby writes from the point of view of several different characters in different chapters. While in some books this can make the story more confusing, Ruby does it in a way that helps the reader get a better understanding of what is going on, especially when the same event is described from multiple points of view. She uses this style of writing to help the reader gain a more full picture of the story.

The theme of this book is complicated yet clear. Ruby uses the story to show that people are often much more complicated than what shows on the surface, and that we can't even fully understand or judge those who are closest to and most loved by us. While this central idea is well presented by Ruby, this does not mean it is an idea that is easily grasped. Even with the knowledge that people are complicated and shouldn't be judged, it is difficult to keep from judging people based on appearance or gossip. It is an important message for readers to hear, and one that is best explained through a story like this one.

Citation: Ruby, L. (2015). Bone Gap. Balzer & Bray/Harperteen. 

[harleythealter]

I’ve been enjoying the book Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.

[thisisbookland]

ahh!!! these books I ordered Friday just got here I'm so excited to read them!!

[brightbeautifulthings]

Hello, lovelies! Tell Me Something Tuesday is a meme created by Rainy Day Ramblings and currently hosted by Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, That's What I'm Talking About, For What It's Worth, Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Offbeat YA. It provides weekly discussion prompts on various book and blogging topics with optional participation. You can sign up for prompts here.

This week’s prompt is: Tell us about some famous author from your city/state/country

If you're familiar with my reviews, you know I love Midwestern writers and their sense of atmosphere, so here are three of my favorite novels set in my home state!

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury The fictional Green Town, Illinois is loosely based on Bradbury's own home city, Waukegan, and his books are a total Midwest mood. He perfectly captures idyllic small towns of decades gone by, and while I've never lived in a town quite that small, his books sometimes make me wish I did. Bonus points for: changing seasons, beautiful Midwest summers

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby A fictionalized version of the real Bone Gap, Illinois, this gives Stephen King a run for his money on creepy cornfields (although I maintain that the scariest thing about cornfields is not the faceless, supernatural kidnappers, but the SPIDERS). It also captures the essence of Midwestern small towns, but in a less flattering way where everyone knows everyone's business and is quietly judging them for it. Bonus points for: terrifying cornfields that watch and whisper about everything they see

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace Wallace has a number of stories that take place in the Midwest, and "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" gets an honorable mention for the vacant, yawning horror of flat, open spaces (which no Midwesterner would ever find terrifying--we're used to being able to stand on a box and see clear to Colorado). The Pale King is set in Peoria, Illinois, and it depicts the banal, snarly traffic of Midwestern metropolises and the power of so much flat, open land to impose majesty or horror. Bonus points lost for: fudging details on the cities that a local would know

[errant-escapism]

One of my all time favorite spring to summer reads, Bone Gap is the hardest book for me to explain to people, and the most exciting book to re-read nearly annually. An incredible mix of mystery, the supernatural, and being a teenager, I cannot recommend this book enough. If you like weird small towns and the horror of corn fields, the struggles of being a woman perceived by men, and the unexplainable, this book is for you. 

[a-duck-with-a-book]

REVIEW // Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

★★★★★

Before I get into my rant, here is my very quick review where I parrot what everyone else has been saying:

Beautifully written, Bone Gap is a refreshingly different YA novel with a hypnotizing narrative and fascinating characters. I loved seeing their stories revealed amidst the magical realism of the story. Bone Gap itself was a fantastic setting that functioned almost as an extra character.

TL;DR -> read this book!

I've talked before about how much I enjoy many of the retellings in YA in a previous review, and this book once again shows why this trend deserves more academic attention. For anyone who isn't aware (which I certainly wasn't until I got about 60% of the way through the book... oops), Bone Gap draws from the story of Hades and Persephone. The myth of how the goddess of spring came to be in the Underworld has been a popular story for millennia, and in the past few decades it has (rightfully) faced some not-so-favorable scrutiny.

// image: official cover art Melissa Castrillon //

Largely, complaints stem from the kidnapping and r*pe of Persephone in most classical versions of the tale:

"He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. / He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, / And drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice, / calling upon her father [Zeus], the son of Kronos, the highest and the best."

Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Gregory Nagy

As I mentioned in my Circe review, the "retelling" of older myths and folk tales is by no means new-rather, humans have been adapting the stories each generation was raised with to suit their new needs and values. Stories meant to teach young girls how to prepare to become dutiful and doting wives in arranged marriages to ugly, older, and perhaps violent husbands (think the traditional versions of Beauty and the Beast) become tales of headstrong women who want more for themselves and *gasp* know how to read! See this description of Belle from the 18th century version by Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beautmont, then compare it with the "misfit", not-like-other girls bookworm of the Disney movies:

"When they came to their country house, the merchant and his three sons applied themselves to husbandry and tillage; and Beauty rose at four in the morning, and made haste to have the house clean, and dinner ready for the family. In the beginning she found it very difficult, for she had not been used to work as a servant, but in less than two months she grew stronger and healthier than ever. After she had done her work, she read, played on the harpsichord, or else sung whilst she spun.

Beauty and the Beast, by Marie Leprince de Beautmont

The Hades and Persephone myth has similarly gone through the 21st century transformation, but, interestingly, by way of two very different paths-"Good Hades" and "Bad Hades". "Good Hades" makes the god of the Underworld a sort of feminist character who, in a way, rescues Persephone from the misogynist world of Olympus and mankind, allowing her to blossom (as it were) in his realm. He is respectful of her body and frequently asks for her consent. Hyperaware of the history of the pair's relationship, authors will often beat the reader over the head with the "see! he's asking for consent!" element, which I'm not one to complain about. Rachel Alexander uses the "Good Hades" approach in her Hades and Persephone series (which I highly recommend). While the "Good Hades" stories make him into a misunderstood, kind, and respectful love interest who we are meant to want to end up with Persephone, the "Bad Hades" ones take his persona in an entirely different direction. "Bad Hades" is conniving, evil, and almost always described in ways that disgust the reader: corpse-like, cold, oily. He is a villain who Persephone must escape from, a foe with no regard for her bodily autonomy and twisted views of love and authority. This is the path that Bone Gap takes:

“Don’t worry. I won’t touch you until you want me to,” he said, as if he should be congratulated for such scruples."

The trait that both of these trends share is that Persephone becomes an independent, active participant rather than a pawn in the game played by Zeus, Demeter, and Hades. She often takes charge of her fate, sometimes outmanoeuvring Hades or even developing powers that outmatch those of the other gods. While Ruby's Bone Gap and Alexander's Hades & Persephone series take opposite approaches in their interpretation of Hades, both give Persephone similar authority and liberation. Ruby's Persephone (SPOILER) maims her own face in order to force Hades to let her and Finn go (END SPOILER) while Alexander's is revealed to be (SPOILER) the "true" ruler of the Underworld and has powers over Tartarus that even Hades is intimidated by. (END SPOILER) The myth of Hades and Persephone can be a controversial one to approach-some readers won't even pick up a story if it is such a retelling simply out of principle. I've seen quite a few posts floating around which condemn every Hades and Persephone retelling, especially those with the "Good Hades" storyline, and I stringently disagree. Many of the myths, fairy tales, and oral histories we rewrite have problematic pasts that reflect the standards of the cultures they were told within. Modern retellings can further mold those same frameworks into new tales that instead show us our current standards. Bone Gap is such a beautiful and well-written rendition of the modern retellings trend, and I will just keep hoping that academic circles will start paying attention to the old stories finding their way into YA books.

[jcvdraws]

Anyone else on here read Bone Gap by Laura Ruby cause I’m about halfway through and I’m obsessed

[petalpetal]

Instead I will read Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Anyway just finished The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo and oh my god it’s so good my favorite one by her so far

I won’t be reading The Valkyries Daughter because my library doesn’t have the second book

[frombookswithlove]

Bone Gap - Laura Ruby

[thehopefulraincoat]

Feb 16th’s Drawing:

Bone Gap was an interesting combo of realistic fiction and urban fantasy. I thought that my picture for the day should thus be appropriately odd. 🙃