A review by hrh_victoria
Bone by Fae Myenne Ng

4.0

I found myself constantly comparing Bone to Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, which is unfair, really, as that's hard to compete with. But Bone holds its own in that battle, offering brilliant one-liners like "It wasn't just death that upset Mah, it was life, too" (79). There are clear motifs with ships, counting, and, of course, bones--my favorite sighting of which is the line "The oldtimers believe we have a heavenly weight, and that our fates can be divined by the weighing of our bones" (150). Most of all, though, I appreciate the book's backwards chronology, which works in a way that seems to bring the dead back to life. My only suggestion for change is that the book develop Mason in more depth.