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A review by kdawn999
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
3.0
This book has successes and failures. Successes: I loved the unconventional language, the Māori snippets, and the inexplicable love the 3 main characters develop for one another in their strange triad. I liked the weirdness of the character the author clearly modeled after herself and the otherworldly tower she lives in.
Failures: This is a book centering on child abuse, and it doesn’t deliver a sufficient redemption arc at the end. Though there is some depth in the psychological torture for the adult characters at the novel’s climax, that darkness is lifted too quickly in the resolution. I wish the author had pushed the harder questions here and shown there are some consequences you can’t come back from.
Failures: This is a book centering on child abuse, and it doesn’t deliver a sufficient redemption arc at the end. Though there is some depth in the psychological torture for the adult characters at the novel’s climax, that darkness is lifted too quickly in the resolution. I wish the author had pushed the harder questions here and shown there are some consequences you can’t come back from.