CRITICAL ESSAY

LAURA RUBY

“Funny how you notice how beautiful things are just when you're about to leave them.” -

Laura Ruby. This quote, along with many others, can be found in Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap. Bone

Gap is the story of young Finn O’Sullivan and his journey of finding himself, protecting those he

loves, and finding the gaps within the world around him. Finn and Sean, Finn’s older brother, are

shocked one night to find a strange, Polish girl, Roza, hiding within their, what some would say

magical, red barn in Bone Gap, Illinois. Bone Gap is a strange town in that there are places

where people can slip away into the gaps. Roza was badly injured and spoke disheveled English.

The two brothers decide to provide refuge for the strange girl. Eventually, the muscular,

hard-working Sean begins to fall for their new guest. However, Sean and Finn recently were

abandoned by their mother who decided to run away to Oregon with a rich orthodontist. This has

caused Sean to become emotionally closed off, angry, and bitter. Finn on the other hand, was still

his same self; constantly in a daze; moon faced. Until Roza. Everything changed when Roza

entered their life. Roza left as abruptly as she entered. Roza was abducted by a strange man, who

moved like a scarecrow, but only Finn witnessed the altercation. Now, it was up to Finn, who

suffered from prosopagnosia, a condition of face-blindness. How was he supposed to describe a

man, when he doesn’t know what his face looks like? No one believed Finn, not even his brother.

Soon after the abduction, the whole town forgot about Roza, including Sean. Finn soon

reconnects with Petey, a fiery girl who didn’t take anything from anyone. She was strong, she

had to be. Petey was tormented her whole life for being “ugly.” However, Finn, having a

facial-blindness, was the only one who recognized Petey for what she was, beautiful. Petey and
Finn share a handful of intimate moments before he was given the opportunity to find a gap and

save his friend, Roza from her cruel captor with ice-chip eyes.

I like this book because it tells reality and life how it is: hurtful. Finn is faced with lots of

opposition throughout his life. He is left lonely and beaten down by everyone within Bone Gap.

At times, all he has is himself. The women within this story are continuously judged because of

their looks. This is something that almost every young adult can relate to, boys and girls. There is

pressure from society everywhere you turn.

Transformative education is revealed through this novel through interpretation.

Throughout the book, the characters have to interpret their experiences in order to understand

who they are and what is currently happening in the world around them. For example, Roza

simply thought her kind teacher was giving her a ride, when in fact, he was tricking her and

stealing her away. The book shares that once your perspective changes, all your beliefs and

thoughts are shifted as well.

The whole premise of the book revolves around the things that are unseen. Similarly to

Finn, we have to trust God, who is unseen. We have to have faith that He will work in our

lives.Finn must trust his senses and knowledge to save Roza and we, as Christians, must trust in

the unconditional love and affirmation we receive from the Lord in order to be saved. I enjoyed

this book because it deals with the topic of loss and how in order to truly love those around us

and understand them, we must first understand ourselves. A verse that I continuously referred

back to as I read and one that I would like to leave with you is found in 2 Corinthians 4:18. It

states, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is

temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Remember to fix your eyes on the Lord above and trust

in Him, for He is the only one who remains.