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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a strange, wonderful gem of a book. Hard to read in many ways, because of interspersed Maori, constant wordplay, cultural references and the content, but worth the effort. I will most certainly reread this at some point.
Unique writing style and interesting characters, but content is too dark for me right now.
I liked the writing style. I thought the first few pages were beautiful and they were what led to me purchasing the book. Unfortunately the story just dragged on and on and I was 150 pages or so in without knowing what the point was. I also didn't really like any of the characters and stopped caring enough to find out where the story was going.
Wow. This one stayed with me for months after. Brutal and sad, with a bit of hope.
The Bone People shattered me. Not just once, but several times. I've rarely had a book affect me so much. It's a difficult read, but well worth the emotional effort.
A friend of mine recommended this novel to me probably 25 years ago (Nicole D., if you're reading this, THANK YOU!) and I have finally gotten around to reading it. I loved every facet of this large, poetic, unlikely and very un-PC novel. It's characters are larger than life, angrier and more wounded and aching than the average protagonists, than any author these days would dare to portray, yet they breathe on the page like friends and family, the kind you love and hate at the same time. Their struggles are real, and the language of the novel evinces real pain, real sadness, so that at times it is difficult to read. Still, the plot rocks on with such inexorable certainty, like a great weight in high gravity, and it becomes unbearable to not reach the end, even when one wants it to continue.
Some very uncomfortable reading (prepare to sob!) in this disquieting novel about isolation, cultural survival, trauma, dysfunctional love and extremely violent child abuse. Hulme's writing style is vivid, graphic, poetic; her leading lady is a memorable character, refreshingly liberated but the novel is overlong and the chaotic final segment despoils the importance of what went before. It's worth pointing out that Hulme put the ending in the prologue, which makes a bit more sense when you re-read as a conclusion. Recommended.