wjreadsbooks 's review for:

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

5.0

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Finn, they were sure, had his heart in the right place. Just like they did.
Eventually though, they found out that there was a good reason for Finn's odd expressions, his strange distraction, that annoying way he had of creeping up on a person. A good reason he never looked anyone in the eye.
But by then it was too late, and the girl they loved most —and knew least of all — was gone.

Bone Gap is a book unlike anything else that I've read this year, a story that's interested about the lives of people in a small town and a disappearance of the girl from the town. Roza is a Polish girl, who grew up in a town so small that it had no name. How she ended up in Bone Gap is a mystery that we slowly get into during the course of the novel. But all Finn knows about Roza is that his older brother Sean is crazy about him and that he, too, loves her in his own way. When Roza disappears, Finn is the only person around to witness her kidnapping.

Finn is unable to convince the rest of the town that it was a kidnapping, with his descriptions of the person who took Roza coming off as vague and fantastical. Not to mention, his own mother had taken off from Bone Gap a few years ago. Everyone believes that Roza left the town out of her volition, even Sean who is convinced that Finn is only lying to himself about Roza's departure.

The story is told from multiple perspectives: Finn, Roza, Sean and even Petey, the bee-keeper's daughter whose tongue is as sharp as a bee's sting. And I loved every one of them, even Sean whose hurt and disappointment in Roza's disappearance chokes the very life out of him. Both Finn and Roza are also extremely compelling narrators, with Finn's dreaminess contrasting with the terrifying situation that Roza finds herself in.

The writing in this book is also pretty incredible. Laura Ruby just has a knack for writing extremely poignant scenes that stir the heartstrings:

But wasn't that love? Seeing what no one else could? And yet if it wasn't enough for love that she was beautiful to him, if she couldn't believe him...
And who could? If what she said was true, and he had this thing, who would ever believe anything he said about anyone, ever?

I could just on and on about her incredible writing but I'll just leave you with another quote, one that made me cry:

Here is a theory of love:
you find a sister, you gain
a brother, you lose
a sister, you lose
a brother, you lose a cat,
you find a girl, you kiss
a girl, you find the cat,
you hope
that there is nothing left to lose, and
all there is, is there to find

I would really highly recommend Bone Gap to anyone looking for a dash of magic realism, for a story about love in all its shapes and forms (platonic, romantic, familial) and anyone who's just looking for a little something different this summer.