Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Published by HarperCollins on March 3, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Love & Romance, Mystery, Young Adult
Pages: 368

Amazon • Book Depository •

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.

Gorgeous and intriguing–not a gap in my love for this book. Bee-utiful

I didn’t expect to love Bone Gap. Yeah that seems weird, right? That I’d choose to read a book that I wasn’t very excited about 6 months before releases? There was something about Bone Gap that intrigued me though, and when I was scrolling through Edelweiss, I thought “Why not?” and downloaded it. And then I started reading it and fell in love with a story about faces and family and beauty and corn that whispers.

Bone Gap was mesmerizing. That’s one of the first words that come to mind when I think of this book. It’s writing is enchanting and it weaves itself into it’s own little pocket of magic and heartbreak, a town where everything is at a standstill and nothing exists outside of cornstalks that reach your chest. There are certain things about the book and the town that makes the book so enchanting–the characters, the town, the writing. Everything was just absolutely gorgeous (I’m going to be saying that word a lot, I can already tell.)
There’s a certain way that Ruby writes this story. We see flashbacks from the characters, narration about their lives, and the emotion that she embeds into the words is so…what’s even the right word? There’s just an element to her writing that gives you feels. Feels that punch you right in the gut.

For the characters, each of them had their own stories, their distinct personalities…and it’s just amazing what she can do with a few words and some nostalgic phrases. Even with the minor characters, I felt like I knew them, even if some of them were shrouded in sorrow and mystery.
None of them were the same–the characters that is. We had a girl who was the most beautiful, a girl who was the ugliest, a boy who was too dreamy and wistful, and a boy who didn’t know how to do anything except help and stand stoic. It’s just…stunning. Ruby managed to make me fall in love with her characters within a few pages and know them like the back of my hand in a few chapters.

Ah, but it wasn’t just the writing or the characters that made the book. There’s a level of intrigue and mystery that had me by the throat. Who took Roza? Exactly where was she? And View Spoiler » was the book paranormal or was it contemporary? « Hide Spoiler The ending was definitely unexpected (though still as beautiful as the rest of the book) and I honestly wish there was a sequel or something because I need more. I had notes and marks of “!!!!” throughout my ebook and I remember jumping up from reading and ranting about what was happening to my mom (who had no idea what was happening, but went along with it.) I doubt anyone could’ve really expected this.
There was also the subplot though, of Finn. I can’t really say much except holy crap.

The romance was gorgeous. Gorgeous, gorgeous gorgeous, gorgeous. Of course at first I thought it to be a bit quick, but the more I read, the more I fell in love with Petey and Finn as a couple. She was ugly–not only by her definitions, either. It wasn’t a “I’m ugly, but actually pretty” type of books. The entire town thought it.–.except for maybe Finn. And it was stunning and devastating, the reasons why. It cracked me right in two and I felt heartbroken for her and him, and their love story. But they were amazing together and it was just…well, gorgeous.

Bone Gap is an absolute must read. Absolute, absolute, absolute. You can’t help but slip into Bone Gaps’ world and fall in love with the characters who are just as enchanting and real as the story itself. There’s no way I’d not recommend this and, honestly at this point, I can’t think of one complaint I have about the book except that it’s a stand-alone.

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