Bone Gap: 07/12/16

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby is about a pair of brothers trying to make a living in a tiny farm town in Illinois. First their mother left for Oregon. Then Sean's girl friend, Roza was kidnapped. Except no one in Bone Gap believes Finn and he can't describe the person he saw.

Bone Gap is described as a road into town, surrounded on all sides by corn. The corn itself a living prison wall. It serves the same purpose as the Hall of Egress in the Adventure Time with Finn and Jake season seven episode of the same title. It serves to keep the residents of Bone Gap prisoners of their own town, even if they don't recognize their situation.

Finn, who I couldn't help but picture as Jeremy Shada (the voice of Finn in Adventure Time, is aware of Bone Gap's sinister side because he's witnessed two people leave. His mother went willingly, Roza did not. But Bone Gap is good at making people forget.

What I didn't expect when I started the book was how it would so beautifully fit into the "urban vs. rural" part of my road narrative project.

There is a subset of stories I've decided to call "The Road Not Taken" where the threat to a town is from the outside visitors. These stories are often supernatural horror with an outside force being magical or demonic, as is the case in Roza's kidnapping.

Often as well, there is one character, the protagonist, who is aware of the visitors' true nature and is able to see things that allow them to take advantage of the supernatural goings on in the village. That's certainly the case here with Finn and the corn of Bone Gap.

Five stars

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