Book Review: Knucklebone
Perceptive psychological thriller about a young woman and her struggle to escape a prison-like environment
This review contains very minor spoilers. I really enjoyed reading it, so if you don’t want to risk any “reveals,” please scroll to the end where you’ll find links to this book and others by the author. Then come back to read this! I’d love to hear what you think.
Knucklebone, by KL Gore, is a well-written young adult (YA) novel about Cheyenne, a teenage girl who is dealing with the consequences of her bad decisions, and using the memories of her mother as a beacon to find her way out of an increasingly perilous situation. The gritty realism of the book is a nice change of pace from all the fantasy-oriented YA fiction out there. If you (or your kids) are a bit weary of wizards and spells and magical beasts, here is the novel for you!
I liked the author’s presentation and use of details and the setting. Gore has a knack for succinctly and memorably describing a location or object in a way that captures the point-of-view character’s psychological state. Gore does the same with dialogue. I would put the author’s overall style here on the border of magic realism, not for any one particular detail, but because of an overall sense of “weirdness” that the author develops through the use of subjective descriptions throughout the book. This gave me a continual sense of Cheyenne’s psychological state without the author having to spell out her discomfort. Gore buries her protagonist in a kind of alternate reality and, as I read the story, I hoped more and more that she would escape it.
I think the plot was plausible and the pacing of the story was good. All the characters were drawn well. The main character drawn so well I felt that I knew her personally. Again, I’m not a reader of YA, and don’t typically read female protagonists, but I was able to empathize with Cheyenne as I could easily see many of my female friends and family members in her. She’s a strong young woman who is learning how strong she can be. Cheyenne’s struggle to transform herself (internal struggle) adds depth to her external struggle to escape her circumstances, and this makes the book more enjoyable and memorable overall.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I was very disappointed to see that there wasn’t a sequel. I think there is a potential for a series with Cheyenne as her character continues to mature and take on new challenges. Cheyenne, PI? Let’s make this happen!
The publisher has listed the age range for this book as 13 to 18 years, with a grade level of 8 to 12, and I think that’s accurate—and it’s also a fun book for adults to read, too.
Knucklebone is available on Amazon and a list of the author’s other books can be found on Amazon here.
Please like and this post if you enjoyed reading this. I’d love to hear your comments, too!