Review by skmatson10 - The Bone People

skmatson10 's review for:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

3.75

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have very mixed feelings about this book. The writing style was very different than any book I’ve read. It took me a little bit to get into it but once I did I really appreciated the writing style and thought it was very poetic and reflective. I also liked being able to read from the Māori perspective which I didn’t know anything about before reading the book. It gave the story an important cultural layer that I valued. I was really taken with the book until around the 3/4 mark because while there were horrific things in the beginning I naively thought that Kerewin’s influence would change Joe and the book would shift to finding out more about Simon’s past. However it ended with sympathizing more with the abuser and putting Simon back in a volatile home while under the guise of it was ‘for his benefit so he could be with his family.’ The ending really left a bad taste in my mouth that substantially undid the praise I had for the rest of it.

Content Warnings