Title: The Bones Beneath My Skin
Author: TJ Klune
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: February 4, 2025
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop | Goodreads | StoryGraph
Summary
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright makes his way to his parents’ old cabin in Roseland, Oregon to start over. His parents are dead, his brother doesn’t want anything to do with him, and he got fired from his job in Washington, DC. At this moment, he has nothing to lose.
However, when he makes his way to the cabin, he finds that it isn’t empty. A man named Alex and a girl named Artemis Darth Vader have made a home there. And they aren’t what they seem on the surface. Now Nate has to make a choice: stay buried in the past, or make a future with two new strangers.
Review: The Bones Beneath My Skin
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for an advanced copy of The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune! As with pretty much any TJ Klune book, one of the core themes in this book is found family. And what a cute little found family Nate, Alex, and Artemis make. They may all be very different, but they work so well together.
Though this book starts out on the slower side, it does allow us to really get to know the characters before all of the action takes place. One of the things this is compared to is Stranger Things, which works as a comp title, especially from the point of view of the government chasing after a kid who has powers. But also the government tampering in something that they shouldn’t, which leads to dire consequences for other people.
Once you get into the chase about halfway through the book, this story is hard to put down. Klune strategically makes you care for these characters before putting them in danger; thus, you desperately want to know they’re safe at the end. As always, Klune has created deep, complex characters who just leap off the page. Though this book is a little more quirky than his other books, it’s definitely worth the read.
Pick up the re-published edition from Tor when it comes out in February!
4.5/5 stars
Leave a Reply