A review by aliquid
The Bone People by Keri Hulme

  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
hm. this book has been haunting me for the last couple days.
i dont think i can ever get over kerewin giving permission. on her piling in on simon. what was i supposed to glean from that? that someone who had been the lone person able to stand up to joe and get him to stop abusing his child? who had heard joes excuses of sometimes simon just pisses me off and still thought that he shouldnt be beating his child? that she gets pissed off at simon and all of a sudden she makes sure joe knows that he can beat simon as much as he wants?

i had been started to enjoy the book before then. a bit leerily but i was intrigued by this whole, yes joe is abusive. but with the help/intervention of kerewin he is accepting that he should not do it and that he and simon can heal. and that theres ways to discipline his child that are not abusive. and that they could be a family for real. and we cut to.... simon, nearly dead in the hospital. like i really dont understand what im supposed to gain from it. that joe really did take kerewin at her word of she can tell me when to beat simon instead of really going for okay, maybe abusing my child isnt the best way. that kerewin has one smashed guitar one missing knife and all of a sudden her moral fiber is snapped. come on man.

also i wish that kerewins family troubles werent resolved in like 2 pages in the epilogue. talked abt hinted abt the whole book and we just go ya its cool joe asked em to come over and everybody loves each other? but thats not really an issue for me i just wish kerewins problems/history was talked abt more since we learn so much abt joe and simon.
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