Monday, June 1, 2015

BONE GAP!

Today is the day, darlings. The day you've all been waiting for. You get to find out what I thought of BONE GAP. In great, great detail. Lucky, lucky you.

BUT FIRST. We have some business to get through.

First order of business is a RESOUNDING HAPPY BIRTHDAY a day late (because how else would it be) to the MAGNIFICENT, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED, EVERY-SINGLE-GOOD-ADJECTIVE Faith Hough! Faith seriously inspires me to no end...I'm so blessed to call her my cousin. It's partially her fault my imagination is so big; she and her sisters were literally the most attentive older cousins ever. Pretty sure they played every single game I ever suggested.

Anyway, it's such a joy watching (albeit from afar, as sadly we're separated by many states) her raise her beautiful daughters. She's literally mom goals and writer goals...actually, just plain person goals. She was a huge help when I started this blog and continues to be throughout my writing journey, providing me with insight and feedback. She's the first person I was ever a beta for, and one of the first people I allowed to read my WIP. She's always been there for me...words cannot even express how much I love and appreciate her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FAITH!! <3

Second order of business, go check out Jessica Wolf's latest post that is ON POINT. It's all about not buying into writing either strong or weak women, but real women.

There was a third order of business but I forgot it. So you're spared. For now.

Know what that means? It's time. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE GET ON YOUR FEET FOR THE INCREDIBLE BONE GAP! No, seriously. You've probably been sitting for a while, anyway, it's good to get the blood flowing.

Okay, you can sit back down now. Because I know you were listening to me. Probably not, my siblings don't even listen to me. Which is stupid, because I'm the oldest. It's really frustrating, you know, like I'm only trying to help, and I get--ANYWAY.

Before I get any further, here's the summary via Goodreads:
Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. After all, it wasn’t the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O’Sullivan on their own. Just a few years before, their mother had high-tailed it to Oregon for a brand new guy, a brand new life. That’s just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame?
Finn knows that’s not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turned up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone, and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go.
As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap—their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures—acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness—a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.
So. *cracks knuckles*

This book was so absolutely unique. Everything about it was...for lack of a better word, WEIRD. In the best sense.

The setting, for one--Bone Gap. Weird. It was a stereotypical small town (actually kind of reminded me of a somewhat sketchy Avonlea, if that even makes sense) without actually being stereotypical. Sure, there was the typical busy-body, gossipy atmosphere, but it was so different. And weird.

What made it so different, in part, was the characters. Who were even weirder. Every single character, even the side ones, was so well-developed that I could literally guess their responses to situations (on a side note, these characters taught me a lot about writing). The main characters were so...bizarre. Again, in the best sense of the word. Their struggles were struggles that I've never seen any writer tackle before, and Laura Ruby (the author, if you didn't infer that, which if you didn't, shame on you--actually she's a goddess) did it remarkably well.

The story is told from third point of view, which is not my favorite, but it worked very nicely for the story. Also, Laura jumped a lot between different characters. Probably something that wouldn't typically work, but she really worked it.

Another thing that made the town so different was the plot. I was so confused through the majority of it, not due to poor writing, but due to WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON WITH THESE PEOPLE OH MY GOSH THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME HOW DOES THIS EVEN FIT TOGETHER. Needless to say, I couldn't put it down. It was weird. However, it was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY weird.

Plus this happened. And made me really happy.
Displaying Screenshot_2015-06-01-14-42-35.png

SO GO READ BONE GAP! Right now. I hope you listen better now than when I told you to stand up...sheesh. Have a great week, my lovely readers. Y'all mean the world.

15 comments:

  1. Aw, thank you, Annie! I'm pretty sure your imagination got off and running pretty well all on its own, though; one of my favorite memories of you when you were little is a phone call in which you told us all about riding bikes in the street with your imaginary friend (I can't remember her name; do you?), and how you then fell off--and then, in your words, "I DIED." Your mom got on, laughing, and told us, "Um, nope, she's only two, she still can't ride a bike and hasn't been in the street all day." And you were in the background yelling, "But I did died!"
    Fiction writer waiting to learn the alphabet right there. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HAHAHA! I shared this with my mom and she laughed and said "I'm glad you have older cousins who remember your childhood, because I don't remember that at all." Thanks Mom.

      Delete
  2. Happy Birthday to your cousin! I like that you said it's her fault that your imagination is so big. If I have to blame someone for mine being so big it would be my mom. And she's be happy to know that. :)

    Just by reading the blurb I was intrigued. And I love weird books. I've been reading a lot of YA lately, so I'm adding this to the top of my list. Thanks for sharing your review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think all of us writers have someone we blame for the growth of our imagination. I would love to hear what you think once you read it!

      Delete
  3. I haven't heard of this book, but it sounds ... weird, in a good way, like you said. Congratulations, Faith. Will have to check this one out.
    And Happy Birthday, Faith.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great review! I'm not usually into weird books, but if they have good writing and well developed characters? Yes please! I might check this one out!

    And I wanted to let you know that I tagged you for the Favorite Screen Characters tag over at my blog http://oyescribes.blogspot.com/, if you're interested in participating!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Candice, you're just the sweetest =)

      Delete
  5. Well you've convinced me to add it to my TBR pile. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unique books are my favorites! I need to find this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great review - I'm definitely going to be checking this book out :)! I loved Jessica Wolf's post, and I also completely agree with everything she said. In fact, it's inspired em to think a little more carefully about my own female characters - although I tend to stray towards the 'tough' female characters, I'm going to take extra care to make sure that's not all that they're defined by!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This book sounds amazing and cool! I love books with well developed characters, even the secondary characters. And weird is cool. (-:

    ReplyDelete
  9. It really was a good book! I'm so into fantasy books (YA/MG) right now:)

    ReplyDelete