Bone Gap

Bone Gap is a young adult novel by Laura Ruby. It features magical realism, meaning that the setting is realistic with fantastical elements. There are also mystery and crime elements. The novel is set in rural Bone Gap, Illinois, and is told from the third-person omniscient perspective. The narrator is all-seeing, knowing everything about the characters and events.

The story follows Finn, an 18-year-old man. He is the only witness to the abduction of a beautiful young Polish woman, Roza. Because Finn can’t provide details about the kidnapper’s appearance, the town is skeptical and assumes Roza left of her own accord or that Finn was involved in some way. Finn’s older brother, an EMT named Sean, is in love with Roza. Sean gave up on his dreams of going to medical school to take care of Finn after their mother, Didi, abandoned them. About a year prior to the abduction, Sean discovered Roza crying in the brothers’ family barn. Sean offered to care for her and let her stay in the spare room of their house. Sean blames Finn for her disappearance, though he never says it aloud.

Roza, a 20-year-old Polish botanist, is held hostage by a cruel and obsessive kidnapper who will stop at nothing to make her love him. Petey, the beekeeper’s daughter in Bone Gap, supports Finn as he tries to investigate what happened. She identifies his inability to recognize faces as face blindness.

Laura Ruby is a New York Times bestselling author based in the Chicago area. She has written many young adult and romance novels, including Lily’s Ghost, Play Me, and Bad Apple. Bone Gap was a finalist for the National Book Award. This guide refers to the 2015 Balzer + Bray paperback edition.

Content Warning: This guide references the novel’s mentions of parental absence, sexual content, sexual assault, domestic violence, murder, suicidal ideation, loss of a parent, parental neglect, kidnapping, parental death, and vulgar language.

Plot Summary

Finn O’Sullivan has never been like other kids, and no one in his rural hometown of Bone Gap, Illinois, lets him forget it. They call him names, like “Moonface” and “Sidetrack,” because they think he’s distractible and spacey. In reality, Finn has face blindness, a condition that makes him unable to tell people apart and recognize faces, though he doesn’t realize this for most of the novel.

Finn is the only one who sees Roza’s abduction, and because he has face blindness, he can’t recall any details about her kidnapper. People are suspicious of his story and assume that Roza left of her own accord, rather than being abducted. The only person who seems to believe Finn is Petey, the beekeeper’s daughter. Petey becomes Finn’s girlfriend after he visits her on a dark horse (named “Night”) that mysteriously appears one night.

Petey has a reputation for having a sting like the bees she tends. In reality, she is defensive because people have been mean to her for not being conventionally attractive. After Petey learns that Finn has face blindness, she believes he only loves her because she has an odd face. They have a fight due to their insecurities and fears.

One night, Finn is hospitalized after an accident on Night. Roza’s kidnapper visits him in the hospital and tries to get information about how to make Roza love him. Once again, Finn can't remember anything about the kidnapper’s face.

Roza is held prisoner in a suburban house. She tries to catch the attention of neighbors and passersby, but no one notices her begging for help in the window. In an attempt to escape, she takes apart the bed frame and breaks an upstairs window. She climbs over the broken glass to a nearby tree, but the branches break. She falls in the yard with a giant dog that she later names Rus and loses consciousness.

Next, Roza’s kidnapper takes her to a castle. She asks to have Rus as company. One day, she steals a knife and practices sparring with it. She has a dream about taking action, using her charm to draw her kidnapper close, then stabbing him.

Lastly, her kidnapper brings her to fields that remind her so much of her hometown in Poland that she is almost convinced her grandmother is there. He brings her a goat and tries to use what he learned from chatting with Finn in the hospital to make Roza like him. When she asks questions, he answers, explaining that they are in “The Fields,” a magical, shifting place controlled by Scare Crow. He tells Roza that he can make them look any way she wants. When Roza asks if anyone has ever managed to leave The Fields, her kidnapper decides he doesn’t want to play nice and that he can force what he wants on Roza.

Finn decides he should go back to the last place he saw the kidnapper. Finn learns about The Fields and the kidnapper, who Old Charlie Valentine, his neighbor across the street, calls the Scare Crow. Charlie reveals that the Scare Crow can’t resist a bet. Finn has to slip through a magical “gap” to reach Roza and the Scare Crow.

Finn wanders until he finds his way to The Fields, where he emerges from a stream into a festival. All the people there tell him: “I am Roza.” They are spirits the Scare Crow has taken. Finn bets the Scare Crow that if he finds Roza, she can leave. The Scare Crow agrees and flips the whole world like a tilt-a-whirl ride. Eventually, Finn finds Roza, but the Scare Crow says that he never indicated Finn would be allowed to leave. He says either Finn will stay forever or Roza will remain in his place. Finn wants Roza to go, but instead, she saves both of them by cutting her face and ruining her beauty. The spirits turn on the Scare Crow as Roza and Finn escape from The Fields.

They return to Bone Gap with Rus. When they get to the O’Sullivan house, the whole town is there. Finn is hailed as a hero. Finn and Petey make up. Sean and Roza exchange sweet goodbyes; Roza plans to return to Poland, though she wants Sean to visit and plans to come back again. By the end of the story, the people of Bone Gap recognize Finn’s bravery.