mitskacir 's review for:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

5.0

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This is a challenging book in that the reader is lead to accept actions that they would normally condemn point blank. For me, Hulme did an excellent job of crafting very complicated, flawed, but likable people who are somehow still sympathetic despite egregious failures. It's a book where you would hope you would act differently in real life*, but for the sake of literature and exploring themes of culture, religion, forgiveness, found family, destiny, and trauma the choices the characters make are compelling and nuanced. I understand why people have a hard time accepting the end of the book, and I have some complaints about its execution (it felt a bit rushed), but books that are multidimensional and make me question myself are ones that are going to stick with me for a lot longer than ones that are morally unambiguous. I loved the dreamlike nature of the writing and the strong, unique voices for each of the three main characters made the frequent changes in narrator easy to follow. I loved Simon especially, and felt a lot of pain for Kerewin and Joe and the trauma they had endured and were perpetuating. I wish the book was longer, I wish we could see a truly happy ending play out with healing and breaking the cycle of abuse, but again the book challenges you by leaving you only with your own faith (or lack thereof) that the characters are at peace. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

*But also these characters felt so real, like real people that exist and you could meet. And all the time, children are abused, bystanders stand by, and we love people who hurt us - so would we really be so different from Kerewin?