Bone Gap Review

This week's novel is Bone Gap, fantasy set in Illinois and prominently featuring corn, by Laura Ruby.  This one was on the magical realism recommendation list, which, if you haven't noticed, I'm slowly working my way through.

No one in Bone Gap believes Finn when he says he witnessed Roza's kidnapping.  He can't describe the kidnapper except for the unnatural way he moved, and everyone assumes she left the small town like everyone always does.  Finn spends the summer after Roza's disappearance getting to know Petey, the beekeeper's daughter; avoiding his brother, who's mourning Roza's absence; riding a magical black horse that shows up in his barn one night; and fearing the man who took Roza.

There is so much corn in this.  It whispers to people, knowing too much in an eerie, almost sinister way.

Like corn in real life.

There's an awkwardness here, because in the first section of the book.  The narration tells us that Finn is weird and the people in town know he's weird, but we get just Finn and Roza's point of view (and Roza is kidnapped and therefore not around, so she doesn't shed much light on the issue) and from inside Finn's head he seems to have his act together.  He acts rationally, and the strange things he says seem more snarky that clueless.  So it feels like the reader is being told something different than what they're shown, and it borders at times on frustrating.

But then we start getting some other points of view.  And it starts to become clear that Finn's world view is skewed in ways that don't come through in a written medium.  From Finn's view, he seems normal, and the reader doesn't get much hint that there's a problem.  When the problem comes to light, it feels like a brilliant use of the written word, the style, and a fascinating manipulation of the reader's natural inclination to fill in gaps while at the same time Finn is filling in gaps.  We see the world through his eyes and understand why he would never notice something was wrong.

All the themes here were fun--bees, corn, the night mare, some Orpheus and Persephone mythology-- but they never came together in a cohesive climax like I expected.  They hint at each other, but never have a huge moment of connection or purpose.  It bothered me that the corn never saved Roza or turned out to be evil or turned out to protect the town.  It was just there, a kind of magical red herring.  Maybe it bothers me because I really wanted the corn to be a focus, or maybe because the book set me up to expect there to be a purpose and I felt let down.  Maybe it bothers me because I don't know what to think about this lack of purpose.  Is it okay to have a neat idea in a story that doesn't support the main plot?  Where do you draw the line between a detail that clutters the narrative and should get the axe in an edit vs one that sets scenery or tone or characterization?

Things to think on!

***

Next week: We Were Liars, contemporary YA on a private island with secrets of all sorts, by E. Lockhart.