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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
****SPOILERS, BUT I’LL WARN YOU, FIRST****
This is one tough book to read. Both figuratively and literally. At it’s heart, the novel is a bildungsroman about three people who feel irredeemable, and the effect that has on their relationships with each other and those around them. Primarily there is Kerewin Holmes, a social outcast estranged from her family. She meets Joe Gillaley and his foster son, Simon. Joe harbors an awful, villainous mean streak stemming from childhood trauma and the death of his wife and son. Poor Simon cannot speak and was found washed ashore after a shipwreck that likely saved him from some terrible situation, but left him mentally scarred and on the receiving end of Joe’s terrible fault.
It is a beautifully written book, but it is quite modernist in that it will constantly shift from first person to third person, or from prose to poetry (or a prose poem). Character viewpoints will change with little warning. I found it a wonderful read, but I would not be surprised to find it off putting for many.
Additionally there are aspects of Maori culture that inform the deeper meanings of the book that are lost on me.
But overall, even at well over 500 pages and about a relatively uncomplicated story, I was absolutely hooked. I loved it, and kept at it even things got tough, or turned strange at the end (I’ll explain but it’ll be spoiled).
****SPOILERS****
****READY?****
Ok, so Joe beats the ever-living shit out of Simon. Hulme does not spare the reader, and she doesn’t go overboard with it. Just the right amount of awful, so that you see Joe as a flawed human but making choices the reader wants to see him pay for. Which, he does, but it feels weird when it happens.
Essentially, there’s the expected falling out between the trio, leading to Joe nearly beating Simon to death and going to jail and losing custody. From there, depending on your interpretation, it dives into either magical realism or alternate reality. Be prepared for it changing and roll with it.
This is one tough book to read. Both figuratively and literally. At it’s heart, the novel is a bildungsroman about three people who feel irredeemable, and the effect that has on their relationships with each other and those around them. Primarily there is Kerewin Holmes, a social outcast estranged from her family. She meets Joe Gillaley and his foster son, Simon. Joe harbors an awful, villainous mean streak stemming from childhood trauma and the death of his wife and son. Poor Simon cannot speak and was found washed ashore after a shipwreck that likely saved him from some terrible situation, but left him mentally scarred and on the receiving end of Joe’s terrible fault.
It is a beautifully written book, but it is quite modernist in that it will constantly shift from first person to third person, or from prose to poetry (or a prose poem). Character viewpoints will change with little warning. I found it a wonderful read, but I would not be surprised to find it off putting for many.
Additionally there are aspects of Maori culture that inform the deeper meanings of the book that are lost on me.
But overall, even at well over 500 pages and about a relatively uncomplicated story, I was absolutely hooked. I loved it, and kept at it even things got tough, or turned strange at the end (I’ll explain but it’ll be spoiled).
****SPOILERS****
****READY?****
Ok, so Joe beats the ever-living shit out of Simon. Hulme does not spare the reader, and she doesn’t go overboard with it. Just the right amount of awful, so that you see Joe as a flawed human but making choices the reader wants to see him pay for. Which, he does, but it feels weird when it happens.
Essentially, there’s the expected falling out between the trio, leading to Joe nearly beating Simon to death and going to jail and losing custody. From there, depending on your interpretation, it dives into either magical realism or alternate reality. Be prepared for it changing and roll with it.
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is extraordinary and heart shattering and beautiful, and also should be on more booklists of novels featuring queer First Nations characters. Talking about Kerewin to friends I feel like that clip of Willem Dafoe talking about his character in The Boondock Saints: “she’s an asexual hermit but she has a special connection with wordplay and playing guitar— there are many interesting things about her !!” Simon is a scrap of sunshine, painfully resilient as the receptacle for multiple adults’ accumulations of trauma, and ultimately is the healing catalyst needed if only those hard hearts will dare let it happen. Joe’s reckoning with the pain of his pain, the harm he has caused, is critically essential sitting-with for every would-be abolitionist. The deeptime of Māori storying ripples and tremors its way into the narrative in layered rupture, until finally, from the rubble, the rough stitches of repair might be made possible…
I loved every line of this book, the slipperiness of interiority and bird’s eye view, the visceral swings from exquisite joy to bonecrushing despair, the harsh and storied landscapes, the histories homed in a body. This one will stay with me a long time.
I loved every line of this book, the slipperiness of interiority and bird’s eye view, the visceral swings from exquisite joy to bonecrushing despair, the harsh and storied landscapes, the histories homed in a body. This one will stay with me a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Self harm, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment
Familial estrangement, ace-phobia/anti-ace sentiment, self loathing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
beautiful, poignant, dark and brutal...
needs an open heart and an open mind filled with the willingness to love all aspects of the soul within...
needs an open heart and an open mind filled with the willingness to love all aspects of the soul within...
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse, Grief
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I waffled a bit on the rating, because I don't think this is a perfect novel. But God, is it incredible. I'm already planning to reread it this year so I can do a deep dive and annotate it to hell and back. The unconventional prose style and structure. The lovable yet extremely flawed characters. The conversations around culture and family, both by blood and by choice. The painful, complicated depiction of child abuse, trauma, and love. The Bone People isn't going to be for everyone, whether that be because of the abuse depicted or the writing or the magical realism that creeps up on you (the last 150-ish pages weren't as compelling to me), and although I do have some issues with the ending, they're issues I can think on and already have found myself better able to appreciate.