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Arcana #2
The Boneshaker
Thirteen year-old Natalie Minks loves machines, particularly automata — self-operating mechanical devices, usually powered by clockwork. When Jake Limberleg and his travelling medicine show arrive in her small Missouri town with a mysterious vehicle under a tarp, and an uncanny ability to make Natalie’s half-built automaton move, she feels in her gut that something about this caravan of healers is a bit off. Her uneasiness leads her to investigate the intricate maze of the medicine show, where she discovers a horrible truth, and realizes that only she has the power to set things right.
Set in 1914, The Boneshaker is a gripping, richly textured novel about family, community, courage, and looking evil directly in the face in order to conquer it.
Set in 1914, The Boneshaker is a gripping, richly textured novel about family, community, courage, and looking evil directly in the face in order to conquer it.
372 pages, Hardcover
First published May 24, 2010
83 people are currently reading
3529 people want to read
About the author
Kate Milford
17 books1,116 followersKate is the author of THE THIEF KNOT, GREENGLASS HOUSE, GHOSTS OF GREENGLASS HOUSE, BLUECROWNE, THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, THE BONESHAKER, THE BROKEN LANDS, THE KAIROS MECHANISM, and the forthcoming THE RACONTEUR'S COMMONPLACE BOOK (February 2021).
Originally from Annapolis, MD, Kate now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs, Ed and Sprocket. She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture (www.nagspeake.com).
Originally from Annapolis, MD, Kate now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs, Ed and Sprocket. She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture (www.nagspeake.com).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 366 reviews
July 16, 2011
DAMN YOU YA NOVELS!! Why do you so often strut around flashing such delicious, mouth-watering premises only to end up tasting like rice cakes dipped in peanut butter and leaving me feeling unsatiated, frustrated...and very, very thirsty. I certainly don't mean all YA novels as there are quite a few that have left my literary gluttony stuffed and smiling (you good ones know who you are). This story, however, just another under-delivering promise tease.
Now, this tale isn't terrible, but it had such potent potential that I am left with that "foiled again" feeling after having my hyped hopes hollowed. Here's the premise which I thought was wonderful.
Take the idea of a dark, travellng, supernaturally sponsored carnival/exhibition/fair thing-a-ling made so famously awesome by Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Then replace the Bradbury carnies with three scoops of medical/biological steampunky flavor and call it "Doctor Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show." Then place the story in a small, dying Missouri town in 1914 (always a cool period for a story as it doesn't get enough book time) and throw in a likeable, mechanically-inclined "Punky Brewster" heroine and a bunch of townsfolk with some unique personal histories and you have yourself something.....that never quite delivers on its HUGE promise.
On the good side, the writing had quality, the descriptions of the attractions (called paragons) were impressive and the supernatural element was subtle, layered and pretty well done. On the negative "here's my bitch" side, I thought the story was slow as syrup to get going, the pacing was plodding and otherwise uneven and the pay-off at the end did not compensate enough for the angst caused by the slow start.
This was a debut novel and I can certainly see the author having to by some shades for her very bright future. Given the quality of the writing and the imaginative premise, I plan to check out her future work. Just a little too much of not enough in this one for me to rate it higher. Okay, but not quite good. 2.0 to 2.5 stars.
Now, this tale isn't terrible, but it had such potent potential that I am left with that "foiled again" feeling after having my hyped hopes hollowed. Here's the premise which I thought was wonderful.
Take the idea of a dark, travellng, supernaturally sponsored carnival/exhibition/fair thing-a-ling made so famously awesome by Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Then replace the Bradbury carnies with three scoops of medical/biological steampunky flavor and call it "Doctor Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show." Then place the story in a small, dying Missouri town in 1914 (always a cool period for a story as it doesn't get enough book time) and throw in a likeable, mechanically-inclined "Punky Brewster" heroine and a bunch of townsfolk with some unique personal histories and you have yourself something.....that never quite delivers on its HUGE promise.
On the good side, the writing had quality, the descriptions of the attractions (called paragons) were impressive and the supernatural element was subtle, layered and pretty well done. On the negative "here's my bitch" side, I thought the story was slow as syrup to get going, the pacing was plodding and otherwise uneven and the pay-off at the end did not compensate enough for the angst caused by the slow start.
This was a debut novel and I can certainly see the author having to by some shades for her very bright future. Given the quality of the writing and the imaginative premise, I plan to check out her future work. Just a little too much of not enough in this one for me to rate it higher. Okay, but not quite good. 2.0 to 2.5 stars.
September 9, 2015
It seems that no successful book is an island. Or, to put it another way, no successful genre of book. In the children’s book world Harry Potter does well and suddenly the market is flooded with wizard tales. Twilight stars vampires, so now you can’t walk down the teen aisle in a bookstore without fifty different kind of knock-offs. The Hunger Games sells relatively well and now dystopian fiction is the buzzword of the day. That’s all well and good, but to the victor go the spoils of establishing a new genre. There have been varied attempts at this. There was some brief thought that maybe zombies would supplant vampires in teens minds, until it became clear that no matter how you slice it, zombies ain’t sexy. What about angels then? No go. Immortals? Pass. Which brings us to the strangest attempt at luring in the middle reader and teen readers of all: Steampunk. Now I don’t know how much you know about the Steampunk genre. Think of it this way: A man in Victorian garb wearing a brass plated jet pack. It’s a combination of historical settings meeting science fiction concepts. Lots of gears. Steampunk is entirely an adult genre, but recently folks in the publishing industry have been trying to push it on teens and kids with mixed results. Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is the closest we’ve come to a Steampunk hit with kids, and even that was only a mild success. Now first time middle grade novelist Kate Milford debuts with The Boneshaker. And finally, kids are about to understand what all the fuss is about.
You wouldn’t expect all that much to happen on a summer’s day in 1913 Arcane, Missouri. Aside from its close proximity to a crossroads and the dilapidated remains of a long dead town, the people of Arcane aren’t privy to a lot of excitement. But that’s before Doc Fitzwater takes off for a couple days to visit a distant town. It’s before thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks has mastered riding her beautiful and temperamental boneshaker (also known as a bicycle). And it’s before Doctor Jake Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show comes to town by accident. Natalie knows that there’s something she doesn’t trust about Limberleg and his amazing if creepy cadre of fellow experts. It’s hard to put her finger on. But when she finds herself researching the past of her region and the stories that have been told there, Natalie realizes that she alone can save her town from a destruction brought about by powers of the darkest sort.
This book is inspired, sayeth the author, by three things. #1: Her research into archaic medicines of the past. #2: Ray Bradbury. #3: The Jake Leg or Jake Walk scandal of the Prohibition Era. Both #1 and #3 are pretty much one and the same. The nice thing about this book is that it doesn’t require kids to have a historical knowledge of this era in American history. Even if they do know about it, though, they’ll only find its incorporation into the text to be delightfully creepy. You see, back during Prohibition some folks produced something called Jamaican ginger. To cover up the alcohol content (alcohol was illegal, after all) they added a phosphate ester with TOCP in it to mislead tests done on the liquid. Folks thought that it was harmless, but then the symptoms began. The concoction caused serious neurological damage, affecting some 50,000 folks. What happened to them? In this book, folks suffer something similar, if even worse. The sentence describing them is particularly memorable. “The ones who could still move . . . flung themselves about like the clumsiest of machines.” Fun Fact: The disease was sometimes also known as Limberleg. Sound familiar?
That kind of horror is only partly what reminded me of the work of Ray Bradbury. If you’ve ever read and enjoyed Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine or (much closer to this book) Something Wicked This Way Comes, Milford acts like a natural successor to the man. Her characters are believable and sympathetic, even some of the villains. And I’ve never read prose that traipsed so effortlessly along the path of Bradbury’s storytelling as this author's. Milford’s great at bringing together disparate elements into a tale so that they fit together beautifully with one another. Bicycles with personalities, bee sellers, Jack tales, crossroads, music, automatons, perpetual motion machines . . . this book is a veritable curiosity closet of ephemera.
The writing itself is worth examining. There are riddles in common speech in this book. Sentences that will have some young readers poring over those words again and again. Lines like, “Most things cost something you can give up, but they aren’t worth anything – not really, not in the end. But some things . . . some have to be given free, because if you had to put a price on them, their true value would be too great for any one person to afford.” Puzzle over that one a spell. As for the story itself, a lot of exposition comes in the form of someone telling you a story, or the heroine having magical flashbacks. It’s not the cleanest device, but it also doesn’t feel forced upon the narrative. I might have wished for a little less story to flashback to story to flashbacking, but you can’t say that those stories and visions aren’t gripping.
The sheer Americana of the book is yet another one of its charms. In some ways the book feels like the middle grade equivalent to the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. In both cases, the music of the American South plays a part, and in both you’ve a Robert Johnsonlike guitar player who had to battle the devil himself in a musical contest. There’s no other nation on earth where this could take place. Even the names feel like they could only have been birthed in the U.S. Monikers like Pulvermacher, Addison, Abrams, Sanche, and Bellinspire.
I’m reviewing off of a galley, so it’s difficult for me to give the illustrations in this book proper consideration. One Andrea Offermann, an American transplanted to Germany, is the artist here and her pictures consist of perfectly thin lines filled in with meticulous little details. Precisely the kind of thing you’d want for this book. My only real gripe, then, is that sometimes Milford will describe a person or an object and you’ll wish that Offermann had made it understandable. For example, at one point we hear about a man riding a high-wheeler that has had a piano mounted on it. Kids may not understand what a high-wheeler is, even with the description about the size of its wheels, so that’s at least one moment a picture would have been apropos. Still and all, generally speaking Offermann pinpoints just the right moments to bring to life.
The Boneshaker is without a doubt Steampunk’s best bet at making headway into the juvenile reader genre. However, above and beyond this rote category, the book’s just a damn good bit of writing. Once you pick it up you’ll be hard pressed to set it down again. Keep your vampires, angels, and dystopian worlds for yourself. I’m a fan of the girl on the bike going head to head with the master of hell himself.
Ages 10 and up.
You wouldn’t expect all that much to happen on a summer’s day in 1913 Arcane, Missouri. Aside from its close proximity to a crossroads and the dilapidated remains of a long dead town, the people of Arcane aren’t privy to a lot of excitement. But that’s before Doc Fitzwater takes off for a couple days to visit a distant town. It’s before thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks has mastered riding her beautiful and temperamental boneshaker (also known as a bicycle). And it’s before Doctor Jake Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show comes to town by accident. Natalie knows that there’s something she doesn’t trust about Limberleg and his amazing if creepy cadre of fellow experts. It’s hard to put her finger on. But when she finds herself researching the past of her region and the stories that have been told there, Natalie realizes that she alone can save her town from a destruction brought about by powers of the darkest sort.
This book is inspired, sayeth the author, by three things. #1: Her research into archaic medicines of the past. #2: Ray Bradbury. #3: The Jake Leg or Jake Walk scandal of the Prohibition Era. Both #1 and #3 are pretty much one and the same. The nice thing about this book is that it doesn’t require kids to have a historical knowledge of this era in American history. Even if they do know about it, though, they’ll only find its incorporation into the text to be delightfully creepy. You see, back during Prohibition some folks produced something called Jamaican ginger. To cover up the alcohol content (alcohol was illegal, after all) they added a phosphate ester with TOCP in it to mislead tests done on the liquid. Folks thought that it was harmless, but then the symptoms began. The concoction caused serious neurological damage, affecting some 50,000 folks. What happened to them? In this book, folks suffer something similar, if even worse. The sentence describing them is particularly memorable. “The ones who could still move . . . flung themselves about like the clumsiest of machines.” Fun Fact: The disease was sometimes also known as Limberleg. Sound familiar?
That kind of horror is only partly what reminded me of the work of Ray Bradbury. If you’ve ever read and enjoyed Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine or (much closer to this book) Something Wicked This Way Comes, Milford acts like a natural successor to the man. Her characters are believable and sympathetic, even some of the villains. And I’ve never read prose that traipsed so effortlessly along the path of Bradbury’s storytelling as this author's. Milford’s great at bringing together disparate elements into a tale so that they fit together beautifully with one another. Bicycles with personalities, bee sellers, Jack tales, crossroads, music, automatons, perpetual motion machines . . . this book is a veritable curiosity closet of ephemera.
The writing itself is worth examining. There are riddles in common speech in this book. Sentences that will have some young readers poring over those words again and again. Lines like, “Most things cost something you can give up, but they aren’t worth anything – not really, not in the end. But some things . . . some have to be given free, because if you had to put a price on them, their true value would be too great for any one person to afford.” Puzzle over that one a spell. As for the story itself, a lot of exposition comes in the form of someone telling you a story, or the heroine having magical flashbacks. It’s not the cleanest device, but it also doesn’t feel forced upon the narrative. I might have wished for a little less story to flashback to story to flashbacking, but you can’t say that those stories and visions aren’t gripping.
The sheer Americana of the book is yet another one of its charms. In some ways the book feels like the middle grade equivalent to the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. In both cases, the music of the American South plays a part, and in both you’ve a Robert Johnsonlike guitar player who had to battle the devil himself in a musical contest. There’s no other nation on earth where this could take place. Even the names feel like they could only have been birthed in the U.S. Monikers like Pulvermacher, Addison, Abrams, Sanche, and Bellinspire.
I’m reviewing off of a galley, so it’s difficult for me to give the illustrations in this book proper consideration. One Andrea Offermann, an American transplanted to Germany, is the artist here and her pictures consist of perfectly thin lines filled in with meticulous little details. Precisely the kind of thing you’d want for this book. My only real gripe, then, is that sometimes Milford will describe a person or an object and you’ll wish that Offermann had made it understandable. For example, at one point we hear about a man riding a high-wheeler that has had a piano mounted on it. Kids may not understand what a high-wheeler is, even with the description about the size of its wheels, so that’s at least one moment a picture would have been apropos. Still and all, generally speaking Offermann pinpoints just the right moments to bring to life.
The Boneshaker is without a doubt Steampunk’s best bet at making headway into the juvenile reader genre. However, above and beyond this rote category, the book’s just a damn good bit of writing. Once you pick it up you’ll be hard pressed to set it down again. Keep your vampires, angels, and dystopian worlds for yourself. I’m a fan of the girl on the bike going head to head with the master of hell himself.
Ages 10 and up.
June 18, 2017
Oh so terribly creepy, The Boneshaker is a wonderfully creative book. I genuinely can't quite work out how it wound up (intentional mechanical pun) so fantastic, as all the ingredients sound reasonably generic...
There's the high-spirited young girl, more comfortable in overalls than a dress. There's the eerie-sneaky travelling carnival (well, sort of carnival), that may or may not contain an unspeakable evil. There's a set of rather lovely little black and white illustrations, in case we can't picture just what's going on. There's a cheery list of side characters, including the almost-magical blues player, snotty stuck up school girl Miranda, and a few bumbling buffoons, nasty old women and one or two wise parent figures.
But the writing hums along at a cracking pace, weaving in old folklore, a little steampunk and more than a dash of good humour to balance out the underlying horrors of the piece. If anything, the fact that I actually now want to get back on a bicycle and ride like mad, wind in my hair, is a testament to Milford's powers of persuasion. I haven't ridden a bike in years.
There's the high-spirited young girl, more comfortable in overalls than a dress. There's the eerie-sneaky travelling carnival (well, sort of carnival), that may or may not contain an unspeakable evil. There's a set of rather lovely little black and white illustrations, in case we can't picture just what's going on. There's a cheery list of side characters, including the almost-magical blues player, snotty stuck up school girl Miranda, and a few bumbling buffoons, nasty old women and one or two wise parent figures.
But the writing hums along at a cracking pace, weaving in old folklore, a little steampunk and more than a dash of good humour to balance out the underlying horrors of the piece. If anything, the fact that I actually now want to get back on a bicycle and ride like mad, wind in my hair, is a testament to Milford's powers of persuasion. I haven't ridden a bike in years.
Read
October 26, 2012Look, there is the possibility--the very, very slight possibility--that I might be biased. I doubt it, but I felt full disclosure was in order here.
April 2, 2010
A fun, fantastical YA story about standing your ground especially when you are at a crossroads, and a strong analytical girl who needs to be brave enough to help the people she loves.
_________________
Thirteen year old Natalie Minks loves bicycles, clockwork gadgets, solving puzzles and listening to her mother's endless stories about their town. Growing up in rural Missouri in 1913, she lives near a major crossroads with the ruins of the former town left perplexingly in-tact down the road. One day a travelling medicine show arrives and Natalie is both fascinated and perplexed. She senses that something just isn't right at the Doctor Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show. Can she work it out in time to save the town and her family?
One of the best things about The Boneshaker is Milford's detailed descriptions of the settings:
A quick note about the genre: Most of The Boneshaker is historical fiction with supernatural elements with a big helping of mystery and tiny dash of scary ghost story. What's even more fun is that Milford has included lots of steampunk details in the various clockwork machines that pepper the story. It's really fun to imagine the old-fashioned gadgetry.
There are several mysteries happening simultaneously in the story, which makes this an unexpectedly fun, complex read for a young-adult book. (The official recommendation is ages 10 and up, but a book-nerd might do okay with this at 8 or 9 as long as they don't mind slightly scary stories.) The mystery doesn't end with the perplexing charlaitans at the Nostrum Fair. There are also strange happenings in her town, unusual old residents and travelers, Natalie's weird visions, and difficulties in her own family. What's very clever is that Milford gives you just enough clues to solve a few mysteries on your own before they are revealed while others are left as little twists. As a reader, you feel clever while being entertained with surprises.
Each character has unusual quirks. Natalie's mother is absentminded and burning food in the kitchen while her dad is clumsy but mechanically gifted. Doctor Limberleg has fascinating red-peppered-with-gray hair that sticks up and appears to move about on it's own. Natalie herself is simultaneously afraid and brave while she works out how best to confront difficult situations.
My only little nit-pick is that a few characters that were important at the beginning of the story disappear by the end. A couple of those are ancillary characters, but without spoiling anything, one is a fairly major character.
Finally, the line-drawing art in the book is lovely. Make sure you look at a large version of the cover. I could imagine my child-like self examining and re-examining all the details looking for clues. Oh wait, my adult-like self already did that! The handful of full-page images that pepper the book are as rich and detailed as Milford's prose. It's a lovely accompaniment.
_________________
Thirteen year old Natalie Minks loves bicycles, clockwork gadgets, solving puzzles and listening to her mother's endless stories about their town. Growing up in rural Missouri in 1913, she lives near a major crossroads with the ruins of the former town left perplexingly in-tact down the road. One day a travelling medicine show arrives and Natalie is both fascinated and perplexed. She senses that something just isn't right at the Doctor Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show. Can she work it out in time to save the town and her family?
One of the best things about The Boneshaker is Milford's detailed descriptions of the settings:
A Nostrum Fair, it turned out, was very similar to a Technological Medicine Show: frying foods, syrupy sugar smells, penny amusements. Bursts of odd, discordant music from the One-Man Band. Sudden appearances and disappearances of the harlequin in its costume of velvet triangles and bells, capering and somersaulting and then vanishing in a flash of tarnish and motley.
A quick note about the genre: Most of The Boneshaker is historical fiction with supernatural elements with a big helping of mystery and tiny dash of scary ghost story. What's even more fun is that Milford has included lots of steampunk details in the various clockwork machines that pepper the story. It's really fun to imagine the old-fashioned gadgetry.
There are several mysteries happening simultaneously in the story, which makes this an unexpectedly fun, complex read for a young-adult book. (The official recommendation is ages 10 and up, but a book-nerd might do okay with this at 8 or 9 as long as they don't mind slightly scary stories.) The mystery doesn't end with the perplexing charlaitans at the Nostrum Fair. There are also strange happenings in her town, unusual old residents and travelers, Natalie's weird visions, and difficulties in her own family. What's very clever is that Milford gives you just enough clues to solve a few mysteries on your own before they are revealed while others are left as little twists. As a reader, you feel clever while being entertained with surprises.
Each character has unusual quirks. Natalie's mother is absentminded and burning food in the kitchen while her dad is clumsy but mechanically gifted. Doctor Limberleg has fascinating red-peppered-with-gray hair that sticks up and appears to move about on it's own. Natalie herself is simultaneously afraid and brave while she works out how best to confront difficult situations.
My only little nit-pick is that a few characters that were important at the beginning of the story disappear by the end. A couple of those are ancillary characters, but without spoiling anything, one is a fairly major character.
Finally, the line-drawing art in the book is lovely. Make sure you look at a large version of the cover. I could imagine my child-like self examining and re-examining all the details looking for clues. Oh wait, my adult-like self already did that! The handful of full-page images that pepper the book are as rich and detailed as Milford's prose. It's a lovely accompaniment.
June 30, 2011
I have put off reviewing The Boneshaker for some time now because it leaves me feeling absolutely inadequate to the task. It is quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read.
The Boneshaker is the story of Natalie Minks, a young tomboy with a passionate love of all things mechanical. Few things give her more pleasure than tinkering with her father on their automata, unless it is perhaps her red Chesterlane, a beautiful boneshaker of a bicycle he built for her. Except that she cannot ride it just yet. She has grown up in a small Missouri town near a crossroads, listening to her mother's fantastical stories of the town and it's people, because all things are possible at a crossroad. And it is in this way that The Boneshaker becomes a story of stories. Tom Guyot's victory over the devil with a guitar that can talk. The mysterious drifter. Simon Cofferett's frightening jump, and his uncanny youth for one who has lived just outside town as long as anyone can remember. When 'Dr. Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show' comes into town with intricate automata, fantastic healing machines and miraculous cures, Natalie begins to realize there is more truth in her mother's stories than she previously suspected.
Though a steampunk novel (for kids!), The Boneshaker is so much more. There are layers upon layers to it. The language is so evocative of the region and time about which she writes that her fantasy feels like truth. This absolutely could have been Missouri in 1914, it just wasn't. It makes me think of my Grandmother, and the way she would say, "sometimes it's easier to see the truth when it's in a story." Everything about it feels real from the dusty roads under her bicycle tires to the taunting boys down the lane. You can hear the music as Tom Guyot plays. No, really. You can.
It is like Milford lifted the essence, the very life force, of the folklore of an entire region, and slipped it into her novel. I could feel my grandparents in it. I could hear the echos or their parents. I caught myself, over and over again, stopping to savor something I had just read. As soon as I finished the book, I immediately read it again, only out load to my husband and son. We spent weeks lingering over it, bellowing to sell wares or whispering in fear. It almost feels wrong to NOT have the Boneshaker become the very oral history it describes.
The Boneshaker is the kind of book that will grow with you. A mid-grade reader could pick it up and be entranced by the mystery, captivated by Natalie's courage. A few years later, they may better understand the fear motivating the choices Natalie's father and brother made about her mother; grasp the deeper, darker elements of the story that are always running just under the surface. It talks about darkness and light, good and bad, courage and weakness in a way that just leaves me breathless at times for its beauty. The different meanings of this book are so multilayerd that different readers of different ages will experience what is happening in very different ways, none of them wrong. If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every boy or girl I know. Adults, too.
The Boneshaker is the story of Natalie Minks, a young tomboy with a passionate love of all things mechanical. Few things give her more pleasure than tinkering with her father on their automata, unless it is perhaps her red Chesterlane, a beautiful boneshaker of a bicycle he built for her. Except that she cannot ride it just yet. She has grown up in a small Missouri town near a crossroads, listening to her mother's fantastical stories of the town and it's people, because all things are possible at a crossroad. And it is in this way that The Boneshaker becomes a story of stories. Tom Guyot's victory over the devil with a guitar that can talk. The mysterious drifter. Simon Cofferett's frightening jump, and his uncanny youth for one who has lived just outside town as long as anyone can remember. When 'Dr. Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show' comes into town with intricate automata, fantastic healing machines and miraculous cures, Natalie begins to realize there is more truth in her mother's stories than she previously suspected.
Though a steampunk novel (for kids!), The Boneshaker is so much more. There are layers upon layers to it. The language is so evocative of the region and time about which she writes that her fantasy feels like truth. This absolutely could have been Missouri in 1914, it just wasn't. It makes me think of my Grandmother, and the way she would say, "sometimes it's easier to see the truth when it's in a story." Everything about it feels real from the dusty roads under her bicycle tires to the taunting boys down the lane. You can hear the music as Tom Guyot plays. No, really. You can.
"Tom's humming turned into strange syllables, sounds that weren't words but sort of broken pieces of words, bits and bobs of song dodging and darting over and around and under the music of the guitar, rising and falling and ducking, and every once in a while climbing sharp and clear and plaintive...
It made a strange tableau, and plenty of people paused to look: the old black man singing blissfully with the guitar flashing sunset colors on his knees; and the sweaty, bruised, and scraped girl, unmoving and rapt, absently holding on to a bizarre bicycle with her head cocked like a bird's. Neither of them noticed anyone else's stares." (p32-33)
It is like Milford lifted the essence, the very life force, of the folklore of an entire region, and slipped it into her novel. I could feel my grandparents in it. I could hear the echos or their parents. I caught myself, over and over again, stopping to savor something I had just read. As soon as I finished the book, I immediately read it again, only out load to my husband and son. We spent weeks lingering over it, bellowing to sell wares or whispering in fear. It almost feels wrong to NOT have the Boneshaker become the very oral history it describes.
The Boneshaker is the kind of book that will grow with you. A mid-grade reader could pick it up and be entranced by the mystery, captivated by Natalie's courage. A few years later, they may better understand the fear motivating the choices Natalie's father and brother made about her mother; grasp the deeper, darker elements of the story that are always running just under the surface. It talks about darkness and light, good and bad, courage and weakness in a way that just leaves me breathless at times for its beauty. The different meanings of this book are so multilayerd that different readers of different ages will experience what is happening in very different ways, none of them wrong. If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every boy or girl I know. Adults, too.
June 8, 2010
Forget vampires, talking animals, and mythology tropes, Kate Milford offers a fantasy tale that brings back the age old battle between mankind and the Devil-- the battle for our souls.
January 8, 2021
I thought Greenglass House was great, but man. This blew me away! & this was her DEBUT novel!! I read the last 75% in one sitting-not a small book either! It gave my steampunk heart everything it needed to keep ticking..So beautifully written. Again, the authors research & time really came through in the story. For example:Patent medicines, & the crazy things people did & believed in the late 1800s-early 1900s..wowza. Also, Jamaica ginger-A 19th-century patent medicine, & a large number of users of Jamaica ginger were afflicted w/a paralysis of the hands & feet that quickly became known as Jamaica ginger paralysis or jake paralysis-slang name Jake. I won’t tell you which parts of the actual history, coincide w/the fiction, but when you read the book & look at the history facts-mind blown! How the author took parts of history & wove them into this piece of art! Wow! It’s 1913, & Natalie loves machines-especially clockwork. When a traveling Medicine show arrives in town full of mystery, weird things, strange characters, & a creepy man-she decides to investigate. My favorite character is Tom. I can hear him talking that smooth voice in my head saying “darling”, along w/hearing that beautiful guitar playing. There are sentences that are close to riddles, that are so beautiful you could cry. You believe a bike can have a personality, you believe in the Devil(I already did, so extra goosebumps for me!). It has perpetual motion machines, stories told like you heard when you were little always wondering if there were some truth to them..there’s family, friendship, bravery, community..& it all starts at a crossroads. The underlying message? Always look evil directly in the eye to conquer it. Highly recommend! Stunning cover by Andrea Offermann, along w/beautiful illustrations sprinkled throughout too.💜
August 14, 2010
Just received the book yesterday. Yea!
I just went back to school and found the book in my box. I am glad I had the opportunity to read and review it. This story is set in 1913 and the main character is 13 year old tomboy Natalie Minks from Arcane, Missouri. She likes all things mechanical and helps her father. When she isn't helping him she listens to her mother who is a master story teller. Things plug along smoothly until the traveling medicine show comes to town. At this point I have to say the book reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Natalie must find a way to make the adults in the town believe her. She knows the "doctor" is not really who he claims to be. This was a fun and quirky book. It had history, fantasy, and a spooky, creepy feel throughout the book. I won't say this book is for everyone, but I believe I will have a large number of students who will appreciate this, especially if I pitch it just right. I know it requires some background knowledge that not everyone will have. Still, when all is said and done I enjoyed the book.
The illustrations that accompanied this book were fabulous.
I just went back to school and found the book in my box. I am glad I had the opportunity to read and review it. This story is set in 1913 and the main character is 13 year old tomboy Natalie Minks from Arcane, Missouri. She likes all things mechanical and helps her father. When she isn't helping him she listens to her mother who is a master story teller. Things plug along smoothly until the traveling medicine show comes to town. At this point I have to say the book reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Natalie must find a way to make the adults in the town believe her. She knows the "doctor" is not really who he claims to be. This was a fun and quirky book. It had history, fantasy, and a spooky, creepy feel throughout the book. I won't say this book is for everyone, but I believe I will have a large number of students who will appreciate this, especially if I pitch it just right. I know it requires some background knowledge that not everyone will have. Still, when all is said and done I enjoyed the book.
The illustrations that accompanied this book were fabulous.
abandoned
August 23, 2011One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do as a reader is to give myself permission to abandon a book. As a child I would always force myself to finish a book once I had started it, no matter how badly I disliked it. Not so anymore. I have finally gotten to the point where I firmly believe, and I tell my students this all the time, there are too many goods books out there waiting to be read to spend your time finishing a book you just don't like. This book is one of those books. I have read 149 out of 372 pages and I'm just not enjoying it. I don't feel any draw, anything making me want to continue on. I am sure that there will be many people who will absolutely love this book, but as for me, I've decided to not spend anymore time with it.
January 26, 2016
eh, i'm just not seeing what everyone else seems to be seeing in this book. it's not steampunk, not bradbury-esque (it takes more than a carnival and a bit of evil to call up mr. ray), and it's not filled with writing i feel is remarkable.
perhaps i am contrary. perhaps you will like it.
eta: i just read a bunch of blog posts on this book. they were all pretty glowing. so maybe this is my "when you reach me" of the year - the book everyone loves but me, which will probably go on to pick up a crazy load of awards. eh, whatever.
perhaps i am contrary. perhaps you will like it.
eta: i just read a bunch of blog posts on this book. they were all pretty glowing. so maybe this is my "when you reach me" of the year - the book everyone loves but me, which will probably go on to pick up a crazy load of awards. eh, whatever.
June 8, 2017
A dark, creepy, steampunk-esque, meet-the-devil-at-the-crossroads story that is so delightfully well crafted that I want everyone to read it. It will really shine for readers who can generate strong pictures in their minds as they read.
School Library Journal recommends it for 6th through 8th graders, but in a pinch, I'd give it to younger readers who like dark, creepy, well crafted books.
School Library Journal recommends it for 6th through 8th graders, but in a pinch, I'd give it to younger readers who like dark, creepy, well crafted books.
July 5, 2018
Sometimes we get so caught up in the swells of epic fantasy that it’s nice to take a break and come back down to earth with something a little more folk fantasy. The Boneshaker is set in 1914, in a Missouri town just near a crossroads—and we all know what happens there. Kate Milford, along with some fantastic illustrations by Andrea Offermann, spins us a yarn about a travelling medicine show, deals with the Devil, and the consequences of paving a road with good intentions.
Natalie Minks is 13 years old and a bit of a gearhead, thanks to the influence of her mechanically-inclined father. She’s also inquisitive, thoughtful, and sensitive. She has a bit of an impulsive temper too! When Dr. Jake Limberleg's Travelling Medicine Show arrive in Arcane, Natalie suspects something is awry—but nobody else seems to notice anything. So she takes it upon herself to investigate, and the real story is much more bizarre than even she would have conceived. In the end, Natalie finds herself up against demons and the Devil himself….
I was a little hesitant going into this one. It’s pitched a little younger than I tend to read, more towards middle grade readers. Nevertheless, I’m really glad that I gave The Boneshaker a shot. I love the atmosphere that Milford creates here. There are so many tantalizing hints at this magical world she has created, one where the Devil can manifest at any moment, angels and demons and other fantastical creatures walk among us, and automata are not necessarily just clockwork toys.
Natalie is a great protagonist. She is headstrong but also open to listening and learning from others—indeed, perhaps one of her most defining characteristics is how many questions she asks of people! She also likes to answer questions and to tell stories, a trait she appears to have inherited from her mother. Natalie really gets around the town, interacting with both children and adults, and she is the heart of this story. That being said, there were plenty of other characters I liked as well: Tom Guyot, of course; both of Natalie’s parents are interesting and not at all absent like we often see (frustratingly, in my opinion) in books like this; and Natalie's peers. Indeed, I confess that I liked Miranda Potter a lot. She might have been annoying to Natalie, but she sticks with Natalie and believes her when it matters most … and that speaks for a lot.
I can totally see The Boneshaker working as a 90-minute movie. As a book, its pacing is a little uneven—but the story here is really gripping, with these very intense moments that would work so well cinematically. (I’m thinking, for example, of the scene where Natalie hides in Limberleg’s wagon and witnesses what actually happens during his phrenology diagnostics). Milford and Offermann together weave and paint this rich tapestry of thoughts and words and pictures that really evoke a world similar to our own early 20th century, but with just a touch more of the uncanny. It gives me chills in all the right ways.
I really like the ending—not so much the climax, where Natalie confronts the Devil, because that part was predictable. I like the denouement, the way that the mood in the town has shifted subtly now that Natalie has assumed her birthright. There’s a moving conversation between her and her mom about her mom’s illness. And then the story closes with the conversation between Natalie and Jack, where Natalie finally nails that trick with confidence she learned from Tom. And I’m just all, “Damn, girl, this town is protected.”
The Boneshaker is fun but also dramatic. It has appropriately high stakes, good characterization … it feels like a rich, fantastical story. It isn’t perfect, particularly its pacing … there are parts that drag and parts that lag and parts that lurch forward like a wagon with a broken wheel. In the end, though, it’s a creative, compelling yarn that is very different from anything else I’ve read lately—and that I like very much indeed.
Natalie Minks is 13 years old and a bit of a gearhead, thanks to the influence of her mechanically-inclined father. She’s also inquisitive, thoughtful, and sensitive. She has a bit of an impulsive temper too! When Dr. Jake Limberleg's Travelling Medicine Show arrive in Arcane, Natalie suspects something is awry—but nobody else seems to notice anything. So she takes it upon herself to investigate, and the real story is much more bizarre than even she would have conceived. In the end, Natalie finds herself up against demons and the Devil himself….
I was a little hesitant going into this one. It’s pitched a little younger than I tend to read, more towards middle grade readers. Nevertheless, I’m really glad that I gave The Boneshaker a shot. I love the atmosphere that Milford creates here. There are so many tantalizing hints at this magical world she has created, one where the Devil can manifest at any moment, angels and demons and other fantastical creatures walk among us, and automata are not necessarily just clockwork toys.
Natalie is a great protagonist. She is headstrong but also open to listening and learning from others—indeed, perhaps one of her most defining characteristics is how many questions she asks of people! She also likes to answer questions and to tell stories, a trait she appears to have inherited from her mother. Natalie really gets around the town, interacting with both children and adults, and she is the heart of this story. That being said, there were plenty of other characters I liked as well: Tom Guyot, of course; both of Natalie’s parents are interesting and not at all absent like we often see (frustratingly, in my opinion) in books like this; and Natalie's peers. Indeed, I confess that I liked Miranda Potter a lot. She might have been annoying to Natalie, but she sticks with Natalie and believes her when it matters most … and that speaks for a lot.
I can totally see The Boneshaker working as a 90-minute movie. As a book, its pacing is a little uneven—but the story here is really gripping, with these very intense moments that would work so well cinematically. (I’m thinking, for example, of the scene where Natalie hides in Limberleg’s wagon and witnesses what actually happens during his phrenology diagnostics). Milford and Offermann together weave and paint this rich tapestry of thoughts and words and pictures that really evoke a world similar to our own early 20th century, but with just a touch more of the uncanny. It gives me chills in all the right ways.
I really like the ending—not so much the climax, where Natalie confronts the Devil, because that part was predictable. I like the denouement, the way that the mood in the town has shifted subtly now that Natalie has assumed her birthright. There’s a moving conversation between her and her mom about her mom’s illness. And then the story closes with the conversation between Natalie and Jack, where Natalie finally nails that trick with confidence she learned from Tom. And I’m just all, “Damn, girl, this town is protected.”
The Boneshaker is fun but also dramatic. It has appropriately high stakes, good characterization … it feels like a rich, fantastical story. It isn’t perfect, particularly its pacing … there are parts that drag and parts that lag and parts that lurch forward like a wagon with a broken wheel. In the end, though, it’s a creative, compelling yarn that is very different from anything else I’ve read lately—and that I like very much indeed.
February 3, 2020
First sentence: Strange things can happen at a crossroads.
Premise/plot: Natalie Minks stars in Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker. This one is set in a small town in Missouri in 1913. It definitely has a historical feel to it, but, it also has a supernatural gothic element to it. A battle between good and evil is coming to this town located near a crossroads...it won’t be the first or last. Natalie, our heroine, finds herself front and center for the action. Her curiosity and skepticism may just save the day.
So. Essentially this one is all about a nefarious traveling medicine show that comes to town...
My thoughts: I love, love, love this one. I do. I am not sure if this is the second or possibly the third time I have read this one. I love the writing, the atmosphere, the suspense, the characters and story. I love everything about this one.
The description doesn’t really do this one justice.
Premise/plot: Natalie Minks stars in Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker. This one is set in a small town in Missouri in 1913. It definitely has a historical feel to it, but, it also has a supernatural gothic element to it. A battle between good and evil is coming to this town located near a crossroads...it won’t be the first or last. Natalie, our heroine, finds herself front and center for the action. Her curiosity and skepticism may just save the day.
So. Essentially this one is all about a nefarious traveling medicine show that comes to town...
My thoughts: I love, love, love this one. I do. I am not sure if this is the second or possibly the third time I have read this one. I love the writing, the atmosphere, the suspense, the characters and story. I love everything about this one.
The description doesn’t really do this one justice.
November 1, 2010
So... I liked, didn't love this book. (3-4 stars.) I think some of it is my own fault. I had trouble keeping some of the secondary characters straight, and this made the last third very confusing; if I'd read more carefully, maybe I would have "gotten" it more. This is a scary book about big issues, which is fantastic, but somehow it didn't speak directly to me the way, say, The Dark is Rising does. I do think all of my criticisms are related to the book being too long by half.
While-Reading Updates:
2. Uh, this book might be too scary for me. Can I go back and read it as a ten-year-old, please?
1.I hate how lazy I am about reading Really Long books. Sometimes I suspect I am not actually an intellectual.
While-Reading Updates:
2. Uh, this book might be too scary for me. Can I go back and read it as a ten-year-old, please?
1.I hate how lazy I am about reading Really Long books. Sometimes I suspect I am not actually an intellectual.
July 10, 2018
Our oldest daughter read this book and highly recommended it, but it took me more than a year to get around to it. Thankfully, there is an audiobook version available through our local library's Overdrive account and I was able to listen to the story during a quiet couple of days following a family fourth of July celebration.
The narrative reminds me of a combination of Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It has some horrific elements, but is still appropriate for middle grade readers.
The narrative reminds me of a combination of Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It has some horrific elements, but is still appropriate for middle grade readers.
December 23, 2013
Overall we liked this one. We thought it was NICE. It was a NICE book that was short enough on WORDS to keep us from loving it. But we liked it. It was pleasant and ultimately enjoyable. Read our thoughts for yourself over at the YAck blog and maybe give THE BONESHAKER a try. It couldn’t hurt.
Want to read
September 22, 2010Can't be any worse the the other Boneshaker. Could be a lot better.
August 19, 2021
The author has strong characters, beautiful writing, and interesting villains but the pacing was slow in spots. The clues that are dropped are very confusing at times and I wondered where the heck she was going. This is steampunk fantasy and I felt like I was looking at an abstract painting that I didn’t get at times or looking at the world without my glasses - fuzzy on the edges. Perhaps it would have been better read than listened to.
May 11, 2023
This was really complicated, with very little character development and too many characters. It was hard to read aloud and my crew had trouble following the complicated and subtle plot. Is Clever Jack some kind of mythology everyone should know? We only hear about him long enough for her to say she’s bored of his stories, but these stories that she and her mother know are key to the plot. Grace Lin does a really good job - a beautiful and graceful job - of weaving the mythology into her tales, but in Kate Milford’s Boneshaker, it felt like the myths weren’t given their due. Also, the chapters were ridiculously long. Some of them took me an hour to read.
December 24, 2024
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford follows Natalie Minks, a thirteen-year-old girl living in the town of Arcane. When a mysterious medicine show comes to town, Natalie is suspicious and investigates.
With the help of a few friends, she battles against a dark evil to save both her town and
family, while also learning to stand up to evil-and ride her temperamental boneshaker of a bike.
With the help of a few friends, she battles against a dark evil to save both her town and
family, while also learning to stand up to evil-and ride her temperamental boneshaker of a bike.
February 8, 2020
Interesting characters and challenges - some were clearly "good guys" and helped the protagonist, and some were clearly "bad guys" and fought the protagonist, but there were also some who were ambiguous, and that made the story challenging and intriguing.
This is one of her "nasty bad guys" books, by the way.
This is one of her "nasty bad guys" books, by the way.
December 17, 2024
Rare is the book that captures me from page one and never lets go. I read numerous books each year, and while many are enjoyable, few draw me in. Which is why I'm pleased to say that this novel is one such work and is now counted among my all-time favorite books.
The Boneshaker, by Kate Milford, is a stand-alone novel about Natalie Minks, tinkerer's daughter and lover of automata, who lives in the small town of Arcane, Missouri near the turn of the 20th Century. True to its name, Arcane is an odd little place as it has sprung up on the outskirts of the derelict Old Village. Life rolls by without too many surprises until the town's doctor drives away to help a neighboring town contend with a persistent sickness. Not long after his departure, a traveling medicine show led by crimson-haired Dr. Jake Limberleg rolls into town. As Natalie starts snooping around the fairgrounds, she uncovers all sorts of oddities, from clever curiosities to devilish devices. Armed with the truth, Natalie will dare to face down a devious evil - perhaps even the Devil himself.
As stated, this novel has now joined my super-exclusive club of favorite books and for good reason. It contains everything I want to see in a story and check marks elements that make a book great to me: its writing draws in the senses, its setting comes to life, its characters are realistic, its pacing and tone are spot-on, and its deeper messages are moving and powerful.
The Boneshaker is a rich novel with a workable inner lore, giving it a sense of depth and realism. Rather than being spoon-fed world-building, the characters' world is created by stories within a story. These meta-narratives are ingrained in the main story's world, serving as its backbone. So instead of just feeling like a small (fictional) mid-west American town with a mysterious past and equally mysterious happenings, Arcane becomes a real place with its own people, past, and folklore.
The novel's protagonist is Natalie Minks, a young girl who, while not perfect, displays honorable traits and unique skills. She loves to tinker in her father's repair shop and knows a great deal about machines and automata thanks to her father teaching her and her own innate curiosity. She loves her family and the Minks display strong bonds among each other. Familial love and loyalty win out in the end, even when Natalie feels she has let her family down or when she feels they have not been forthright with her. While this is very much Natalie's story, her family is by no means a batch of bystanders as they serve as a flawed but solid support system.
Natalie becomes a delightful character. To her credit, she doesn't remain static and avoids becoming a cliched "special snowflake." She is perfectly balanced where her strengths can become her weaknesses and vice versa. Her inquisitive ways both get her into trouble and save her life and the lives of others. Her stubbornness sometimes pits her against her friends, but at other times it helps her conqueror challenges, from riding her boneshaker (a real type of bike), to facing down forces of darkness. But she doesn't transform overnight. Instead, Natalie is pitted against a variety of antagonists until the ultimate villain is faced. Thus, her immature boldness evolves into courage, and her blossoming ability to be sensitive to evil forces serves her well in the end.
Characters take center stage in The Boneshaker though its plot is by no means overshadowed. Concerning the latter, the action's focus is on Dr. Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show, which sets up in Arcane to show off sundry "medical" demonstrations and treatments. In truth, these are placebos and panaceas, not anything medically sound. But there is more to its nature of operations as the story goes on, generating a sense of mystery before things get thorny. The sense of urgency and suspense combine to create delicious tension as the novel depicts how the forces of good and evil face off in a small town.
Aside from the narrative and storytelling elements, which are masterfully done, what was also executed brilliantly was the underlying theme. The Boneshaker becomes more than a mere good-vs.-evil plot as it takes a deeper view, delving into spiritual ramifications. While The Boneshaker isn't marketed as a Christian book, its depictions of sin, evil, and redemption fall in line with Biblical concepts but avoids becoming a homily.
Three characters who carry this central theme are Natalie, Old Tom, and Dr. Jake Limberleg. Taken at face value, their roles appear cut and dry, but there is more nuance here than simply this character being a hero or that character being a villain. Natalie serves as the chief heroine and represents the good, the beautiful, and the true. As noted, she isn't perfect, but she always tries to do the right thing. While she obviously becomes the crux of the story, she isn't the only major player.
Old Tom, an eccentric town musician, might be relegated to a secondary character, but he serves a pivotal role as both a stronghold against evil and an advisor to Natalie. In time, the novel reveals through its inner folklore that Old Tom once had an encounter with the Devil at the crossroads outside of town. In summation, the Devil challenged him but Old Tom eventually bested the Devil. Not only does this story-within-a-story present a sense of history to Old Tom's character, it also serves to set up the primary conflict that is carried over into Natalie's primary story as well as the novel's overall narrative.
Aside from functioning as a dispenser of wisdom to Natalie, Old Tom also serves as a messianic figure of sorts. He is implied to be quite old, possibly ageless, and defeated the Devil with grace. He recognizes evil, calls it out for what it is, laughs at it as it holds no sway over him, and doesn't fear it because he knows its doomed fate is certain. Lastly, Old Tom plays a steel guitar, but despite the instrument's mundane appearance, its music is anything but and projects a protective quality, as if it can shield good people from evil's influence. Thus, his character becomes elevated to a Christ-type figure in that he knows the Devil is a defeated foe and he protects those who don't desire to fall for satanic schemes.
Acting as Old Tom's antithesis is chief antagonist Dr. Jake Limberleg. Make no mistake - he's a conniving snake oil salesman. But there are facets to his character that cause him to become more than just a stock bad guy as there are reasons for his villainy. To delve into more would unearth spoilers, which I will avoid, but there are some non-spoiler elements I can touch on. To start, he is a man who seems in total control of his environment, the people around him, and the goings-on of the medicine show. As time goes on, cracks form in his proverbial armor, revealing that Dr. Limberleg's private persona is in near opposition to his public face. It makes for a stark contrast that is rich with fascinating depth.
Along these lines, Dr. Limberleg uses subtle tactics to promote his ideas and has the power of persuasion, using invented or twisted ideas as "facts" (logos), making emotional claims (pathos), and establishing himself as a trustworthy source of help and information (ethos). He urges people to forget what they know and cast aside the past in favor of embracing "new horizons, new hopes, new health," though he never expands on what these entail. He treats Natalie in the same way by trying to disprove her various arguments, namely that there is no such thing as truly perpetual motion, the power by which he insists his fair is operated. When Natalie's eyes are opened to the fair's evils, she warns others but to no avail. Old Tom tries to comfort her, saying the citizens of the town won't believe her "if they want to believe Limberleg more." Thus, the novel sets up a realistic dilemma where sometimes open and obvious truth is dismissed by others in favor of a more palatable, publicly acceptable version.
Along these lines, and returning to the novel's primary theme, The Boneshaker is a story about the nature of evil and the ability to discern and recognize it as such. Evil is depicted as subtle, infiltrating people's lives. Some persons are oblivious to it while others sense something is wrong but aren't sure how to respond. But there are a few characters who call evil for what it is and want nothing to do with it. There are numerous examples from which to pull, but one of the most poignant ones is an exchange between Old Tom and Natalie.
During this scene, Natalie wonders to herself what the Devil looks like and assumes a stereotyped view - red with horns and the like. "It wasn't hard to picture the Devil like that," she tells herself, but "[i]t also wasn't very scary." She invents other appearances until she muses, "[h]e might have looked just like anyone else in the world. He might have looked perfectly normal, and unless you had seen real evil...you might not recognize him at all. Which was a horrifying thought." This sets the stage as to how Natalie is able to discern where evil forces work and in whom they have taken control. In the novel, as is true in real life, evil assumes an unassuming face.
Natalie asks Old Tom about his encounter with the Devil. She can't understand how "looking at a terrifying thing can be better than not looking at it," but Tom assures her it is: When there's evil standing in your way, you got to get around it however you can....You got to look it in the eye, let it know you see it and that it can't creep up on you. What's dangerous is pretending it isn't there at all and letting it get closer and closer while you're looking someplace else, until suddenly evil's walking alongside you like you were two friends....So you look it in the face. You tell it with your eyes that you know what it is, that it don't have you fooled. You tell it you know what good looks like.
Thus, running parallel to the theme of the nature of evil is the ability of applying spiritual discernment so as to determine which things are good and truthful and which are not, and sometimes that distinction walks a fine line. Old Tom has such discernment and Natalie develops hers over time. Her evolving discernment is most often reflected in her strong gut feelings that something isn't right about Dr. Limberleg's medicine show. There are other times when she gets gut feelings where she can't present physical proof that something is wrong, but she is in tune with spiritual forces at work and knows things are amiss.
As noted above, Dr. Limberleg tries to convince her she is wrong, but Natalie refuses to believe him and feels compelled to disprove him ("Why it mattered so much to prove him wrong, she didn't know"). Dr. Limberleg pities her, saying, "[m]ost people are much older when they discover their world isn't the place they thought it was. By then...sometimes...it's too late. " Natalie always challenges him and sticks to her convictions, not out of a sense of prideful stubbornness, but because she knows, in faith, that what he says is a lie and what she believes is true.
In time the novel relates a story about a person I'll call Character B (so as not to reveal spoilers), which ties into the main narrative and its themes. Desperate to stop a plague, Character B makes a literal deal with the Devil. Even though this person is driven to do good, their rage gets the better of them and they are driven to murder and eventually seek the Devil's help. Character B feels justified in their actions as they asked the Devil for something that's actually good. But it cost this character a part of themselves as well as the inner frustration at not being able to do everything they should have done with such a gift.
However, despite Character B's gross missteps, this person is not a demon but someone who once did good deeds yet allowed themself to be controlled by the Devil. "This was a man who'd trafficked with the Devil, who's commanded demons, who'd let evil walk beside him for a very long time," a character muses. In the end, the heroic characters are tasked with undoing events Character B set in motion, so while Character B's life is a lost cause, other lives can be saved. All in all, this side story, which proves critical to the overall narrative, serves as a good analogy of how good intentions can still lead people to sin. But people are not compelled to give into evil or "defect," as the book calls it. It is a choice that is consciously made, but there are consequences for giving in as well as resisting.
Other side characters also possess Christian undertones in either their actions or individual plots. Included among the human characters are both angelic and demonic figures who observe the goings-on of Arcane and are particularly interested in the medicine fair. Among the three, one is a former fallen angel as their backstory is clearly a fictional depiction of the battle between God's and Satan's forces, with the devil's side being exiled. This character admits they could have chosen a side but, instead, chose to "jump" to Earth, so remaining here is their punishment. In contrast, another character is more demon than man who is cursed to roam the earth and seek out their own personal slice of Hell. But once more, even these characters are depicted as exercising free will - they made a choice to do right or wrong and now face the consequences for their decisions.
Natalie makes a life-changing choice near the novel's end as she gets a chance to accuse the Accuser himself. The progression of the Devil's "crimes" that she cites move from petty infractions to more desperate matters ("You are the gambler of souls. You are the [disease] and you are evil;. You can do anything at all as long as it's wicked"). In the end, without revealing spoilers, evil is defeated appropriately by fire, and characters stress the importance of remembering stories (perhaps an allusion to remembering Scripture) for the sake of others' spiritual safety and preservation.
In an aside, it is interesting that portions from Edgar Allen Poe's story Mesmeric Revelation are incorporated as snippets of actual dialogue. This particular work of Poe's relates a fictional conversation between an ill patient and his doctor as they discuss the wonders and mysteries of the universe, from God to the purpose of human existence. In truth, that is what this novel does with understated eloquence - raise questions about evil, sin, and human nature and provide answers through the power of story and truth.
Overall, The Boneshaker is a stunning work of older middle grade fiction that deserves to be read, re-read, and analyzed. Its bucolic setting, small-town atmosphere, perfectly punctuated eeriness, relatable characters, and timeless truths about good and evil make it an impactful book that combines both the charm and instructive nature of some of the best folk tales of Americana. At its core is a creative, thoughtful examination of the nature of sin and evil. Any reader, young or old, searching for a gripping novel that refuses to relinquish its hold until the final page is turned, will find The Boneshaker worth more than a few reads, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Content:
Language - A few instances of damn and some religious exclamations are sporadically used, but these are not pervasive.
Violence - Nothing in terms of anything graphic or gory. There is an underlying eeriness surrounding the medicine show, especially regarding its various "treatments" and some of their practitioners. One character can telepathically control automatons, which lends itself to a few creepy moments but nothing turns horrific. Elsewhere, we're told about a photographer who took pictures of deceased children so their parents could have a one last memory of them before they were buried (this is intended to be sad rather than morbid). A character suffering from an illness is taken to the medicine show for help, which does more harm than good. Characters consume a crippling medication. Elsewhere, characters share stories about encounters with demons in disguise as well as with the Devil himself. The Devil is described as a dark being with skeletal hands that have faces on the fingers. Another character is said to have demon hands. We're also told about a flu epidemic in a neighboring town, but no details are shared. Lastly, Natalie runs into some bullies who insult her and act like they're going to steal her bike, but she stands up to them and they leave her and her bike alone. Lastly, there are some tense moments where Natalie faces off against dangerous characters, but she doesn't come to any harm.
Sexual Content - None.
The Boneshaker, by Kate Milford, is a stand-alone novel about Natalie Minks, tinkerer's daughter and lover of automata, who lives in the small town of Arcane, Missouri near the turn of the 20th Century. True to its name, Arcane is an odd little place as it has sprung up on the outskirts of the derelict Old Village. Life rolls by without too many surprises until the town's doctor drives away to help a neighboring town contend with a persistent sickness. Not long after his departure, a traveling medicine show led by crimson-haired Dr. Jake Limberleg rolls into town. As Natalie starts snooping around the fairgrounds, she uncovers all sorts of oddities, from clever curiosities to devilish devices. Armed with the truth, Natalie will dare to face down a devious evil - perhaps even the Devil himself.
As stated, this novel has now joined my super-exclusive club of favorite books and for good reason. It contains everything I want to see in a story and check marks elements that make a book great to me: its writing draws in the senses, its setting comes to life, its characters are realistic, its pacing and tone are spot-on, and its deeper messages are moving and powerful.
The Boneshaker is a rich novel with a workable inner lore, giving it a sense of depth and realism. Rather than being spoon-fed world-building, the characters' world is created by stories within a story. These meta-narratives are ingrained in the main story's world, serving as its backbone. So instead of just feeling like a small (fictional) mid-west American town with a mysterious past and equally mysterious happenings, Arcane becomes a real place with its own people, past, and folklore.
The novel's protagonist is Natalie Minks, a young girl who, while not perfect, displays honorable traits and unique skills. She loves to tinker in her father's repair shop and knows a great deal about machines and automata thanks to her father teaching her and her own innate curiosity. She loves her family and the Minks display strong bonds among each other. Familial love and loyalty win out in the end, even when Natalie feels she has let her family down or when she feels they have not been forthright with her. While this is very much Natalie's story, her family is by no means a batch of bystanders as they serve as a flawed but solid support system.
Natalie becomes a delightful character. To her credit, she doesn't remain static and avoids becoming a cliched "special snowflake." She is perfectly balanced where her strengths can become her weaknesses and vice versa. Her inquisitive ways both get her into trouble and save her life and the lives of others. Her stubbornness sometimes pits her against her friends, but at other times it helps her conqueror challenges, from riding her boneshaker (a real type of bike), to facing down forces of darkness. But she doesn't transform overnight. Instead, Natalie is pitted against a variety of antagonists until the ultimate villain is faced. Thus, her immature boldness evolves into courage, and her blossoming ability to be sensitive to evil forces serves her well in the end.
Characters take center stage in The Boneshaker though its plot is by no means overshadowed. Concerning the latter, the action's focus is on Dr. Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show, which sets up in Arcane to show off sundry "medical" demonstrations and treatments. In truth, these are placebos and panaceas, not anything medically sound. But there is more to its nature of operations as the story goes on, generating a sense of mystery before things get thorny. The sense of urgency and suspense combine to create delicious tension as the novel depicts how the forces of good and evil face off in a small town.
Aside from the narrative and storytelling elements, which are masterfully done, what was also executed brilliantly was the underlying theme. The Boneshaker becomes more than a mere good-vs.-evil plot as it takes a deeper view, delving into spiritual ramifications. While The Boneshaker isn't marketed as a Christian book, its depictions of sin, evil, and redemption fall in line with Biblical concepts but avoids becoming a homily.
Three characters who carry this central theme are Natalie, Old Tom, and Dr. Jake Limberleg. Taken at face value, their roles appear cut and dry, but there is more nuance here than simply this character being a hero or that character being a villain. Natalie serves as the chief heroine and represents the good, the beautiful, and the true. As noted, she isn't perfect, but she always tries to do the right thing. While she obviously becomes the crux of the story, she isn't the only major player.
Old Tom, an eccentric town musician, might be relegated to a secondary character, but he serves a pivotal role as both a stronghold against evil and an advisor to Natalie. In time, the novel reveals through its inner folklore that Old Tom once had an encounter with the Devil at the crossroads outside of town. In summation, the Devil challenged him but Old Tom eventually bested the Devil. Not only does this story-within-a-story present a sense of history to Old Tom's character, it also serves to set up the primary conflict that is carried over into Natalie's primary story as well as the novel's overall narrative.
Aside from functioning as a dispenser of wisdom to Natalie, Old Tom also serves as a messianic figure of sorts. He is implied to be quite old, possibly ageless, and defeated the Devil with grace. He recognizes evil, calls it out for what it is, laughs at it as it holds no sway over him, and doesn't fear it because he knows its doomed fate is certain. Lastly, Old Tom plays a steel guitar, but despite the instrument's mundane appearance, its music is anything but and projects a protective quality, as if it can shield good people from evil's influence. Thus, his character becomes elevated to a Christ-type figure in that he knows the Devil is a defeated foe and he protects those who don't desire to fall for satanic schemes.
Acting as Old Tom's antithesis is chief antagonist Dr. Jake Limberleg. Make no mistake - he's a conniving snake oil salesman. But there are facets to his character that cause him to become more than just a stock bad guy as there are reasons for his villainy. To delve into more would unearth spoilers, which I will avoid, but there are some non-spoiler elements I can touch on. To start, he is a man who seems in total control of his environment, the people around him, and the goings-on of the medicine show. As time goes on, cracks form in his proverbial armor, revealing that Dr. Limberleg's private persona is in near opposition to his public face. It makes for a stark contrast that is rich with fascinating depth.
Along these lines, Dr. Limberleg uses subtle tactics to promote his ideas and has the power of persuasion, using invented or twisted ideas as "facts" (logos), making emotional claims (pathos), and establishing himself as a trustworthy source of help and information (ethos). He urges people to forget what they know and cast aside the past in favor of embracing "new horizons, new hopes, new health," though he never expands on what these entail. He treats Natalie in the same way by trying to disprove her various arguments, namely that there is no such thing as truly perpetual motion, the power by which he insists his fair is operated. When Natalie's eyes are opened to the fair's evils, she warns others but to no avail. Old Tom tries to comfort her, saying the citizens of the town won't believe her "if they want to believe Limberleg more." Thus, the novel sets up a realistic dilemma where sometimes open and obvious truth is dismissed by others in favor of a more palatable, publicly acceptable version.
Along these lines, and returning to the novel's primary theme, The Boneshaker is a story about the nature of evil and the ability to discern and recognize it as such. Evil is depicted as subtle, infiltrating people's lives. Some persons are oblivious to it while others sense something is wrong but aren't sure how to respond. But there are a few characters who call evil for what it is and want nothing to do with it. There are numerous examples from which to pull, but one of the most poignant ones is an exchange between Old Tom and Natalie.
During this scene, Natalie wonders to herself what the Devil looks like and assumes a stereotyped view - red with horns and the like. "It wasn't hard to picture the Devil like that," she tells herself, but "[i]t also wasn't very scary." She invents other appearances until she muses, "[h]e might have looked just like anyone else in the world. He might have looked perfectly normal, and unless you had seen real evil...you might not recognize him at all. Which was a horrifying thought." This sets the stage as to how Natalie is able to discern where evil forces work and in whom they have taken control. In the novel, as is true in real life, evil assumes an unassuming face.
Natalie asks Old Tom about his encounter with the Devil. She can't understand how "looking at a terrifying thing can be better than not looking at it," but Tom assures her it is: When there's evil standing in your way, you got to get around it however you can....You got to look it in the eye, let it know you see it and that it can't creep up on you. What's dangerous is pretending it isn't there at all and letting it get closer and closer while you're looking someplace else, until suddenly evil's walking alongside you like you were two friends....So you look it in the face. You tell it with your eyes that you know what it is, that it don't have you fooled. You tell it you know what good looks like.
Thus, running parallel to the theme of the nature of evil is the ability of applying spiritual discernment so as to determine which things are good and truthful and which are not, and sometimes that distinction walks a fine line. Old Tom has such discernment and Natalie develops hers over time. Her evolving discernment is most often reflected in her strong gut feelings that something isn't right about Dr. Limberleg's medicine show. There are other times when she gets gut feelings where she can't present physical proof that something is wrong, but she is in tune with spiritual forces at work and knows things are amiss.
As noted above, Dr. Limberleg tries to convince her she is wrong, but Natalie refuses to believe him and feels compelled to disprove him ("Why it mattered so much to prove him wrong, she didn't know"). Dr. Limberleg pities her, saying, "[m]ost people are much older when they discover their world isn't the place they thought it was. By then...sometimes...it's too late. " Natalie always challenges him and sticks to her convictions, not out of a sense of prideful stubbornness, but because she knows, in faith, that what he says is a lie and what she believes is true.
In time the novel relates a story about a person I'll call Character B (so as not to reveal spoilers), which ties into the main narrative and its themes. Desperate to stop a plague, Character B makes a literal deal with the Devil. Even though this person is driven to do good, their rage gets the better of them and they are driven to murder and eventually seek the Devil's help. Character B feels justified in their actions as they asked the Devil for something that's actually good. But it cost this character a part of themselves as well as the inner frustration at not being able to do everything they should have done with such a gift.
However, despite Character B's gross missteps, this person is not a demon but someone who once did good deeds yet allowed themself to be controlled by the Devil. "This was a man who'd trafficked with the Devil, who's commanded demons, who'd let evil walk beside him for a very long time," a character muses. In the end, the heroic characters are tasked with undoing events Character B set in motion, so while Character B's life is a lost cause, other lives can be saved. All in all, this side story, which proves critical to the overall narrative, serves as a good analogy of how good intentions can still lead people to sin. But people are not compelled to give into evil or "defect," as the book calls it. It is a choice that is consciously made, but there are consequences for giving in as well as resisting.
Other side characters also possess Christian undertones in either their actions or individual plots. Included among the human characters are both angelic and demonic figures who observe the goings-on of Arcane and are particularly interested in the medicine fair. Among the three, one is a former fallen angel as their backstory is clearly a fictional depiction of the battle between God's and Satan's forces, with the devil's side being exiled. This character admits they could have chosen a side but, instead, chose to "jump" to Earth, so remaining here is their punishment. In contrast, another character is more demon than man who is cursed to roam the earth and seek out their own personal slice of Hell. But once more, even these characters are depicted as exercising free will - they made a choice to do right or wrong and now face the consequences for their decisions.
Natalie makes a life-changing choice near the novel's end as she gets a chance to accuse the Accuser himself. The progression of the Devil's "crimes" that she cites move from petty infractions to more desperate matters ("You are the gambler of souls. You are the [disease] and you are evil;. You can do anything at all as long as it's wicked"). In the end, without revealing spoilers, evil is defeated appropriately by fire, and characters stress the importance of remembering stories (perhaps an allusion to remembering Scripture) for the sake of others' spiritual safety and preservation.
In an aside, it is interesting that portions from Edgar Allen Poe's story Mesmeric Revelation are incorporated as snippets of actual dialogue. This particular work of Poe's relates a fictional conversation between an ill patient and his doctor as they discuss the wonders and mysteries of the universe, from God to the purpose of human existence. In truth, that is what this novel does with understated eloquence - raise questions about evil, sin, and human nature and provide answers through the power of story and truth.
Overall, The Boneshaker is a stunning work of older middle grade fiction that deserves to be read, re-read, and analyzed. Its bucolic setting, small-town atmosphere, perfectly punctuated eeriness, relatable characters, and timeless truths about good and evil make it an impactful book that combines both the charm and instructive nature of some of the best folk tales of Americana. At its core is a creative, thoughtful examination of the nature of sin and evil. Any reader, young or old, searching for a gripping novel that refuses to relinquish its hold until the final page is turned, will find The Boneshaker worth more than a few reads, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Content:
Language - A few instances of damn and some religious exclamations are sporadically used, but these are not pervasive.
Violence - Nothing in terms of anything graphic or gory. There is an underlying eeriness surrounding the medicine show, especially regarding its various "treatments" and some of their practitioners. One character can telepathically control automatons, which lends itself to a few creepy moments but nothing turns horrific. Elsewhere, we're told about a photographer who took pictures of deceased children so their parents could have a one last memory of them before they were buried (this is intended to be sad rather than morbid). A character suffering from an illness is taken to the medicine show for help, which does more harm than good. Characters consume a crippling medication. Elsewhere, characters share stories about encounters with demons in disguise as well as with the Devil himself. The Devil is described as a dark being with skeletal hands that have faces on the fingers. Another character is said to have demon hands. We're also told about a flu epidemic in a neighboring town, but no details are shared. Lastly, Natalie runs into some bullies who insult her and act like they're going to steal her bike, but she stands up to them and they leave her and her bike alone. Lastly, there are some tense moments where Natalie faces off against dangerous characters, but she doesn't come to any harm.
Sexual Content - None.
January 13, 2018
Didn’t grab me as much as Greenglass. It’s a very cool mix of fantasy and realism. I enjoyed the main character growing up as the story goes on and the inner stories scattered throughout.
September 5, 2017
Sejak awal hingga nyaris lembar terakhir, pembaca diajak menyusuri berbagai teka-teki. Deskripsinya detail, tapi terkadang sulit dibayangkan. Ceritanya padat, alur berjalan dengan cepat beserta misteri yang seakan tertutup rapat dan baru dibuka menjelang akhir. Sama seperti tokoh utama, Natalie, menyusuri rangkaian kata dalam novel ini rasanya seperti diajak berlari ke tempat yang tidak diketahui. Jangankan menebak, meraba sedikit saja terasa sulit. Saya bahkan sempat bertanya-tanya, “ini sebenarnya mau menceritakan tentang apa, sih?”
Nama sebagian tokohnya agak rumit sehingga saya harus kembali ke beberapa lembar sebelumnya. Ketika Miranda terkejut saat mengetahui Setan yang mengikuti Tom Guyot menyamar sebagai siapa, saya malah bertanya-tanya si 'siapa' ini siapa dan baru menemukan jawabannya di beberapa lembar awal. Terdapat beberapa typo seperti penulisan nama dan ada beberapa kata yang sepertinya 'hilang' (kalimat yang tak selesai), tapi tak terlalu berpengaruh, sih.
Nama sebagian tokohnya agak rumit sehingga saya harus kembali ke beberapa lembar sebelumnya. Ketika Miranda terkejut saat mengetahui Setan yang mengikuti Tom Guyot menyamar sebagai siapa, saya malah bertanya-tanya si 'siapa' ini siapa dan baru menemukan jawabannya di beberapa lembar awal. Terdapat beberapa typo seperti penulisan nama dan ada beberapa kata yang sepertinya 'hilang' (kalimat yang tak selesai), tapi tak terlalu berpengaruh, sih.
August 4, 2010
Somewhere near the beginning of the last century, deep down in Missouri, a 13-year-old girl gets on her bike and races out to the close-by cross-road, to bargain with the devil for the life of her town.
Kate Milford's 'The Boneshaker' is being cast as steampunk, but I don't know that I agree with that - it's certainly very different from Scott Westerfield's 'Leviathan', or Philip Reeves' series set in - and on - futuristic, mobile, scavenging cities.
Instead, Milford's book is set in that mysterious era when people rode on horseback and owned cars, where telegraphs were in place but distance was still deeply felt. And Natalie, our hero, isn't a knowing punky chick, but a girl who loves machines, who learns to put clues about what's going on around her together like parts of a machine.
So, the story. The day after Dr Fitzwater leaves town, heading to Pinnacle to deal with a flu epidemic, Doctor Jake Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show rolls into Arcane. The scene has already been set by Natalie's story-telling mother, who has rpimed us with tales about Old Tom Guynot, who met the Devil at the crossroads and beat him at his own game: we know something weird is going to go down. Natalie instinctively distrusts Limberleg and the Four Paragons - quack practitioners - who travel with him (one of the joys of the book is the details about snake oil salesmen and their treatments). And it turns out Natalie is dreadfully, horribly right ...
Cory Doctorow is one among several bloggers who have pointed out the affiliation between Milford's book and Ray Bradbury's writing. I haven't read anything by Bradbury yet, but if his writing is richly imagined, finely veined with horror, able to invoke magic and the supernatural without getting all fey about it, and very pacey, I'm looking forward to it.
This is not a book I loved as an adult - enjoyed and admired, sure, and would certainly recommend for the middle school (I guess 9-11 year old?) audience it's aimed at. What I did really appreciate though was a female hero is is not only brave and smart - they're common enough - but one who loves machines, whose mental patterns are constantly compared to intricate mechanical processes, who loving describes objects for the reader. Often female heroes are powered by their empathy and ability to keep faith (think Lucy in TLTWATW) or their smarts and loyalty (Meg Murray in A Wrinkle in Time). This is great, of course, but it was lovely to come across a female character who could take on a typically male trait without the writer having to cast her as a tomboy (implicitly, someone who will grow out of this messy stage).
Very enjoyable. Nat, I think Raley would like. The American-ness of it is wonderful, and apparently the tale is rooted in a sad Prohibition story, where 50,000 people were < a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003... by drinking jake, a patent medicine that was 85% alcohol topped up with Jamaican ginger root to disguise the taste.
Kate Milford's 'The Boneshaker' is being cast as steampunk, but I don't know that I agree with that - it's certainly very different from Scott Westerfield's 'Leviathan', or Philip Reeves' series set in - and on - futuristic, mobile, scavenging cities.
Instead, Milford's book is set in that mysterious era when people rode on horseback and owned cars, where telegraphs were in place but distance was still deeply felt. And Natalie, our hero, isn't a knowing punky chick, but a girl who loves machines, who learns to put clues about what's going on around her together like parts of a machine.
So, the story. The day after Dr Fitzwater leaves town, heading to Pinnacle to deal with a flu epidemic, Doctor Jake Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show rolls into Arcane. The scene has already been set by Natalie's story-telling mother, who has rpimed us with tales about Old Tom Guynot, who met the Devil at the crossroads and beat him at his own game: we know something weird is going to go down. Natalie instinctively distrusts Limberleg and the Four Paragons - quack practitioners - who travel with him (one of the joys of the book is the details about snake oil salesmen and their treatments). And it turns out Natalie is dreadfully, horribly right ...
Cory Doctorow is one among several bloggers who have pointed out the affiliation between Milford's book and Ray Bradbury's writing. I haven't read anything by Bradbury yet, but if his writing is richly imagined, finely veined with horror, able to invoke magic and the supernatural without getting all fey about it, and very pacey, I'm looking forward to it.
This is not a book I loved as an adult - enjoyed and admired, sure, and would certainly recommend for the middle school (I guess 9-11 year old?) audience it's aimed at. What I did really appreciate though was a female hero is is not only brave and smart - they're common enough - but one who loves machines, whose mental patterns are constantly compared to intricate mechanical processes, who loving describes objects for the reader. Often female heroes are powered by their empathy and ability to keep faith (think Lucy in TLTWATW) or their smarts and loyalty (Meg Murray in A Wrinkle in Time). This is great, of course, but it was lovely to come across a female character who could take on a typically male trait without the writer having to cast her as a tomboy (implicitly, someone who will grow out of this messy stage).
Very enjoyable. Nat, I think Raley would like. The American-ness of it is wonderful, and apparently the tale is rooted in a sad Prohibition story, where 50,000 people were < a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003... by drinking jake, a patent medicine that was 85% alcohol topped up with Jamaican ginger root to disguise the taste.
December 30, 2010
I have heard great things about this book and was excited to read it. I received this book as an advanced reading copy through the Amazon Vine Program. It was a wonderful book and I really enjoyed it.
Natalie Minks loves working on all things mechanical. She has an awesome bike that she built with her dad, but cannot ride. When a company of traveling medicine men shows up in town she thinks something is not right with them. When the lead Dr. of the group, Jake Limberleg, makes one of Natalie's automaton run without a key to wind it, Natalie's suspicions increase. As both Natalie's brother and mother seek help from Dr. Limberleg Natalie gets an ever increasing feeling of unease. Natalie ends up navigating the complicated maze of tents in the medicine show in an effort to find the truth. As she searches, Natalie finds out that the very Devil himself might be involved and that she may be the only one that can stop him...now if only she could ride her awesome bike...
This was an excellent book. The characters are well-developed and interesting; the discussions around mechanics are also intriguing. Milford does an excellent job of building suspense and mystery and really keeping the plot moving. This is a wonderful portrait of 1914 and visits many old American ideas. The explanation behind the various types of "medicine" employed by the traveling medicine show was wonderful and teaches an interesting history of the strange paths medicine has taken. This was just an excellent story, and Milford writes it in the style of a truly excellent story-teller.
The story has a bit of humor here and there and I loved the idea of one person in town being a storykeeper. The strengths of this story are the wonderful characterizations and the wonderful technical explanations behind medicine and machinery. I also loved the odd things included; like the fact that every wagon at the crossroads looses its right front wheel, then mysteriously they find a building in the ghost town with front wheels hanging on the walls.
The drawings in the ARC weren't all final yet, but the sketches that were included were well done and really evoke the feeling of the story. As far as I know this is a single book and not part of a series. The book would be appropriate for younger children, although there are some parts with demons and the Devil that get kind of scary.
Natalie is a great role model for young adults and the cast of crazy characters are bound to keep people of all ages interested. Milford is an author that I will definitely be keeping tabs on in the future.
Natalie Minks loves working on all things mechanical. She has an awesome bike that she built with her dad, but cannot ride. When a company of traveling medicine men shows up in town she thinks something is not right with them. When the lead Dr. of the group, Jake Limberleg, makes one of Natalie's automaton run without a key to wind it, Natalie's suspicions increase. As both Natalie's brother and mother seek help from Dr. Limberleg Natalie gets an ever increasing feeling of unease. Natalie ends up navigating the complicated maze of tents in the medicine show in an effort to find the truth. As she searches, Natalie finds out that the very Devil himself might be involved and that she may be the only one that can stop him...now if only she could ride her awesome bike...
This was an excellent book. The characters are well-developed and interesting; the discussions around mechanics are also intriguing. Milford does an excellent job of building suspense and mystery and really keeping the plot moving. This is a wonderful portrait of 1914 and visits many old American ideas. The explanation behind the various types of "medicine" employed by the traveling medicine show was wonderful and teaches an interesting history of the strange paths medicine has taken. This was just an excellent story, and Milford writes it in the style of a truly excellent story-teller.
The story has a bit of humor here and there and I loved the idea of one person in town being a storykeeper. The strengths of this story are the wonderful characterizations and the wonderful technical explanations behind medicine and machinery. I also loved the odd things included; like the fact that every wagon at the crossroads looses its right front wheel, then mysteriously they find a building in the ghost town with front wheels hanging on the walls.
The drawings in the ARC weren't all final yet, but the sketches that were included were well done and really evoke the feeling of the story. As far as I know this is a single book and not part of a series. The book would be appropriate for younger children, although there are some parts with demons and the Devil that get kind of scary.
Natalie is a great role model for young adults and the cast of crazy characters are bound to keep people of all ages interested. Milford is an author that I will definitely be keeping tabs on in the future.
November 1, 2010
A relatively complex, layered YA read, this book is most basically about the battle between good and evil. Natalie lives in a small town located near a crossroads, which, as we are reminded a number of time, is a place where strange things can happen. At the same time that Natalie is struggling to learn to ride "the fastest bike in the world," built for her by her father, a mysterious travelling medicine show comes to town and Natalie seems to be the only one who notices that anything is off about the show or it's staff and it's up to her to figure out what's wrong.
*** SORT OF SPOILER ALERT - READ NO FURTHER IF YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS ***
This book resonated with me the way other books, some movies and certain musicals have - Wicked and Hairspray in particular. These shows and other books may ostensibly be less about the ongoing battle between good and evil, but it's there. In Hairspray, the climactic song, "You Can't Stop the Beat," is less about rock'n'roll and much more about how eventually, love and truth will win out no matter how hard and long the liars and haters try to stop it. "Defying Gravity" from Wicked is about making the hard choice to live the truth even when those in power are pushing the lie as hard as they can and are offering you HUGE rewards to stick with their side. I'm off on a huge tangent at this point, but this book, along with these shows and other books and works of art, speaks to that part of me that wants to be reassured that love and truth do win out in the end. I don't think I've said this as clearly as I wanted to, but there you go.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Natalie is really cool character who, I think, deserves a place in the Cool YA Girl Characters Pantheon.
*** SORT OF SPOILER ALERT - READ NO FURTHER IF YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS ***
This book resonated with me the way other books, some movies and certain musicals have - Wicked and Hairspray in particular. These shows and other books may ostensibly be less about the ongoing battle between good and evil, but it's there. In Hairspray, the climactic song, "You Can't Stop the Beat," is less about rock'n'roll and much more about how eventually, love and truth will win out no matter how hard and long the liars and haters try to stop it. "Defying Gravity" from Wicked is about making the hard choice to live the truth even when those in power are pushing the lie as hard as they can and are offering you HUGE rewards to stick with their side. I'm off on a huge tangent at this point, but this book, along with these shows and other books and works of art, speaks to that part of me that wants to be reassured that love and truth do win out in the end. I don't think I've said this as clearly as I wanted to, but there you go.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Natalie is really cool character who, I think, deserves a place in the Cool YA Girl Characters Pantheon.
April 19, 2015
Default 3 star rating. In other words, I really don't know how to write this one.
I don't know what I think about this book. I think I wanted to like this book more than I did. There are parts I loved. Tom Guyot for a start, and Miranda, and Natalie herself - most of the characters are great, actually. There are parts this book that really worked. But on the other hand, there are parts that never really came together. Something about the writing, the way it's told frustrated me. I felt like I was fighting against the book somehow, and I kept having to force myself to read it. It felt a little all over the place.
The only other book of Milford's I've read is Greenglass House which I loved, but even that one didn't work for me right away. It started working for me faster though, maybe forty pages in. This one didn't click together for me until maybe fifty pages from the end, when all the disparate threads started to connect and create the stage for the final confrontation. That is just too long for a book to click.
I think part of my frustrations about this book stem from the fact that I wanted to love it. I wanted to love it a lot. I love the idea of it. I love the opening lines. I love the chapter titles. I love all the automatons. But I don't love the book. There was always something missing, something that just prevented it from reading smoothly for me. I couldn't get lost in the story. Sometimes reading it felt like work. In between, there were moments I loved, but I don't know.
I think I was just frustrated for a lot of the book, wanting more information, wanting to know what was going on. I don't know. I really like the world, is the thing. I'm just not entirely sold on the story, and the way it was told.
I don't know what I think about this book. I think I wanted to like this book more than I did. There are parts I loved. Tom Guyot for a start, and Miranda, and Natalie herself - most of the characters are great, actually. There are parts this book that really worked. But on the other hand, there are parts that never really came together. Something about the writing, the way it's told frustrated me. I felt like I was fighting against the book somehow, and I kept having to force myself to read it. It felt a little all over the place.
The only other book of Milford's I've read is Greenglass House which I loved, but even that one didn't work for me right away. It started working for me faster though, maybe forty pages in. This one didn't click together for me until maybe fifty pages from the end, when all the disparate threads started to connect and create the stage for the final confrontation. That is just too long for a book to click.
I think part of my frustrations about this book stem from the fact that I wanted to love it. I wanted to love it a lot. I love the idea of it. I love the opening lines. I love the chapter titles. I love all the automatons. But I don't love the book. There was always something missing, something that just prevented it from reading smoothly for me. I couldn't get lost in the story. Sometimes reading it felt like work. In between, there were moments I loved, but I don't know.
I think I was just frustrated for a lot of the book, wanting more information, wanting to know what was going on. I don't know. I really like the world, is the thing. I'm just not entirely sold on the story, and the way it was told.
September 3, 2010
A magical tale of secrets and wonder and the power of one's own confidence. The Boneshaker by Kate Milford (not to be mistaken with Boneshaker by Cherie Priest) begins with Natalie Minks in her sleepy little town of Arcane, where her biggest concern is trying to master riding her new bicycle, a bizarre contraption that her father built for her. Natalie's life, and the lives of Arcane's inhabitants, rapidly changes as a band of strangers, claiming to be Dr. Jake Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show, visit their town when they loose the wagon wheel at a nearby crossroads. "Strange things can happen at a crossroads; this much surely we have come to expect." (p. 359) The fate of the town may rest in the hands of one young girl, but will Natalie be able to stand up to true evil? The Boneshaker abounds with creepy clockwork automatons and crossroads deals with the Devil. An amazingly imaginative novel that will appeal to readers of all ages.
I recommend The Boneshaker to readers of young adult, middle grade, paranormal suspense, fantasy, historical fiction, and especially to fans of young adult adventure.
** This review originally posted on my blog: www.FromTheShadows.info **
I recommend The Boneshaker to readers of young adult, middle grade, paranormal suspense, fantasy, historical fiction, and especially to fans of young adult adventure.
** This review originally posted on my blog: www.FromTheShadows.info **
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