Friday, May 8, 2015

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone GapBone Gap by Laura Ruby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, love.

First of all, I used to drive by Bone Gap, Illinois, all the time when I lived down in Olney, so YAY for a southern Illinois setting in a young adult fiction title! Woot!

We're seeing more and more magical realism in YA lit and I think it's a good, good thing. Finn and Sean O'Sullivan, two brothers in Bone Gap, are left on their own when their mother runs away to marry someone in Oregon. Sean works as an EMT (even though he was all set to go to med school) and Finn is just trying to make it. Both boys are extremely upset because Roza, a Polish girl who showed up in the barn one night, has disappeared. Finn swears that a mysterious man took her, but Sean is convinced that she ran away. Chapters alternate between Finn, Sean, Roza, and Petey, the young beekeeper that Finn has a crush on.

Magical things happen. Horrible things happen. And the reader keeps thinking, "WTF is going on here?" But Ruby's words read like butter in this book. Amazing stuff.

Looking forward to seeing this on the Printz list next January.

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