The Captain’s Log – the bone gap (Laura Ruby)

Ahoy there me mateys!  This was a young adult book with magical realism and fantasy mixed in.  I have no idea where I first heard about this but it has been on me list for quite some time.  I finally decided to get this one in audiobook format.  This ended up only being an okay read for me.

The story takes place in a town called Bone Gap where a girl named Roza has gone missing.  Her arrival was a mystery and her departure was more of the same.  The town assumes that the beautiful girl just moved on.  Finn is the only one who knows she was kidnapped.  But no one believes him.  He is determined to find Roza and bring her back.

Now from the synopsis, I assumed that most of the story would involve Finn’s search for Roza.  The parts of the book that dealt with Roza and her backstory and kidnapping were interesting.  I loved Finn, Roza, and the other crazy characters of Bone Gap.  I loved the magical realism elements like whispering, talking corn.  I even thought the bullies were weirdly entertaining.  The small town feel with quirky characters was captured nicely.

The flaw in this book came from the execution.  I had a problem with several things:

• the plot – It stalls in the middle to become focused on Finn’s romantic relationship.  I loved Finn.  I loved his love interest.  But it felt like I had jumped into another book.  Roza’s disappearance took a back burner.
• Finn’s condition – it seem’s liked Finn’s issue was in the story just to be a plot device.  It caused problems in searching for Roza and in his love life.  It just seemed lackluster in it’s inclusion in the story.  Now granted I don’t know the author’s background and have no real knowledge of the condition so I can’t say that the portrayal is wrong.  It just didn’t work for me.
• solving the kidnapping – This was the part of the story I was most looking forward to and it satisfied me the least.  I didn’t enjoy how he found Roza or how they escaped the kidnapper.  Or the explanation for how they got away from him.  Meh.

I did like the ending of the book and how Roza’s escape doesn’t magically solve all the problems.  There is still work to be done by everyone involved.  I enjoyed the writing style itself, the lyrical prose, and the slow-burn format. I would be willing to give more of this author’s work a shot.

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

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.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Laura Ruby – Author

To buy the novel visit:

the bone gap – Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

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