The Bones Beneath My Skin
by TJ Klune
Pan Macmillan
It is the spring of 1995 and Nate Cartwright has lost everything. He had built a life in Washington after his father’s bigotry and his mother’s silence rejected his because of his sexuality. His estranged brother lets him know that his parents have died and he has inherited his father’s old pickup truck and a cabin in the woods of Oregon.
At the same time, he lost his dream job as a journalist for the Washington Post through an indiscretion and he decided to go to the cabin to feel sorry for himself, drink himself into a stupor and then pick himself up. “Gather all the pieces that had broken and try to see if there was a way to fit them back together”.
The cabin should have been deserted but there are squatters. Alex Delgado, a crazy injured ex-military man is pointing a gun at him and a precocious 10 year-old girl, who spoke like she was trapped in a bad Spaghetti Western, named Artemis Darth Vader (Art for short).
To add to the surreal experience, a comet is making its way across the skies, conspiracy theories about extraterrestrials fill the airwaves and the two squatters are on the run from government agents because there is something special about the girl.
Science fiction, action drama and romance mix together as the three mismatched people end up going on a road trip and discovering their inner most strengths and desires. They learn that they can fear what they don’t understand, but in the end, they still have to be brave.
Being queer himself, TJ Klune believes it is important to have stories that show queer people overcoming all the obstacles thrown at them and get support from found families.
TJ Klune explains that Nate, Art and Alex are broken pieces of a puzzle. “They don’t necessarily fit together to make a perfect picture, but they do fit together. They are parts of a whole.”
Lezly Herbert
