The Bones of Ruin is big scope sci-fi with an alt-steampunk edge

The Bones of Ruin is a big book. It’s the thick kind of upper mglit book that starts with that age range, but demos north for some readers. This is a story whose scope of action grows with each chapter and new character introduction and mysterious ability that they have. Aside from having one of the coolest titles I’ve seen in ages, The Bones of Ruin comes across as a book that will make the rounds for high school kids as a smart, alternate history tale that could possibly lead to the apocalypse.

Oh joy, another teen apocalypse novel with subtle love interests and a cast that’s too big, you say. And I completely understand why folks would say that. The success of The Hunger Games movies led to dystopian burnout with some readers rolling their eyes at books that might even cross over into what could be that category. The Bones of Ruin will certainly appeal to folks who ran in those circles, but it’ll also dig into more circles in the Venn diagram of books for teens than just ‘dystopia’.

Iris is an African tightrope walker living in London who can’t die, talk about having an ace in the hole when it comes to your career choice. She’s making a decent living in the underground circus circuit because her act never fails. Granted, she does fall from time to time when she gets distracted. Hitting the ground might knock her out and give the audience the appearance of limbs that have gone askew from her body. But after a couple of seconds rest she’ll come to, crack her neck, amaze the audience, and keep her boss happy.

Except, Iris is not happy, she wants to know who she is and move on to bigger things. She can’t remember anything about her youth and only has sketchy memories of life before London. The reason for her most recent fall was because she spotted a handsome and mysterious person in the crowd. He looked familiar, but given that her memories are akin to Swiss cheese, she can’t be sure. As coincidences or end-of-the-world stories go with a secret society holding a battle royale would have it, that handsome man plays a key part in her life.

He’s Adam Temple and has a job offer with her reward being the prospect of some of her back story being filled in. Unfortunately, the job is that she has to participate in the Tournament of Freaks, a series of challenges where teams of people with abilities compete to the death. It’s also revealed that the end of the world is coming and that the tournament’s organizers have something to do with it or at least control who gets through it.

There are a lot of details in the book’s plot and minutia that simply went over my head. However, I am not the book’s key demographic. Those upper middle school readers and up, who want a book whose plot twists like the bones of a girl who can’t die will enjoy it. The Bones of Ruin mainly focuses on the mystery and action of London in the late 1800s, with just a bit of alternate history. It’s not full-on steampunk, but it’s Victorian England, with magic and the wherewithal to let readers know that something is different. There are mild romantic elements, but just enough to hook in the girls who want Iris and Adam, which they’ll probably do in the second book.

The Bones of Ruin is by Sarah Raughley and available on Simon & Schuster.

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