TO THE BONE by ALENA BRUZAS
A REVIEW by ALEXA DUNCAN
Imagine living in a place you’ve never been before–so few people have–where you are unwelcome, unwanted, and…you’re starving. Everyone around you is starving, too. This is the reality for Ellis, a teen girl living in the American colony of Jamestown in the 1600s. Ellis is a servant, indentured to a man named Henry Collins. Not only that, Ellis is in love with the spirited Jane Eddowes, but she must hide her feelings from the rest of the colony before they find out her deepest secret. As summer fades to brutal winter, the colony at Jamestown begins to collapse in sickness, starvation, and anarchy.
To the Bone might be my favorite book of the year so far. I doubt anything will be able to top it, but I’m willing to see! This spare, brutal young adult novel refuses to shy aw
ay from the harsh realities of life in Jamestown. Ellis, Jane, and their friend Rowan, are teenagers, but they struggle to feel like it in a colony on the brink of ruin. I loved Ellis as a character. She is sensitive and struggles with wanting to be good versus doing what she thinks is evil–being with Jane. There are so many heavy-hitting themes here, including the inherent darkness of colonialism. Bruzas makes every effort to stress how the English colonists had no idea what they were doing and felt as though they owned the land the Native Americans already lived on. The writing is also spectacular. It is clipped while also being horrifically evocative of the horrors that happen in Jamestown. This horror is now called The Starving Time by today’s historians.
Overall, To the Bone is an incredibly dark read, but an incredibly compelling one as well. Bruzas masterfully takes a lesser-known time in history–the Starving Time at Jamestown–and spins it into a brutal tale of love and survival. It’s perfect for older teens and anyone looking to read about a more obscure historical event.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Starvation, cannibalism, homophobia, gore, animal death