The Boneshaker | Kate Milford
Arcane, Missouri sits near a crossroads, the sort of crossroads where all sorts of strange things can happen. When a broken wagon wheel leads a traveling medicine show to town, Natalie, a mechanically inclined thirteen year old, quickly learns the stories she's heard from her mother about the region aren't fictional. Will she be able to unravel the mystery behind the fair before it leads to the town's demise?
I really struggled with this one. I was fascinated by the story - the traveling show arriving at a sleepy town, the fight between good and evil, proximity to a location where strange things happen (Buffy's Hellmouth, anyone?). It's so different from some of the other books nominated for the award, from the setting to the writing. Natalie is a strong character and the quasi-steampunk angle of automons was neatly done. But the book itself was so hard to get through. It took me the better part of the week to wade through the first two-thirds of the book in a series of stops and starts. Once I got to the part, the good part, where all of the pieces came together, the remainder of the story slid by, but to get there was certainly a struggle. I wonder how much of this is my own interest in horror stories - little - and how much is Milford's pacing. The story builds things slowly and methodically, which readers of creepy, spooky stories will enjoy, but I prefer more of a combination of show and tell versus the late reveal.- Posted from Jersey City, NJ
Posted on Sunday, Dec 12, 2010
