Bones & All

Starred review from January 19, 2015
DeAngelis (Mary Modern), who coincidentally went vegan shortly before starting work on this novel, serves up a cannibal story that successfully blends metaphor with the macabre. Maren's 16th birthday seems too good to be trueâand sure enough, she awakens the morning after a near-perfect celebration with her mother to find an envelope of cash and a note from her mom: "I love you but I can't do this anymore." Ever since Maren literally devoured her babysitter when she was a little girl, her family has been on the runâMaren doesn't let people get too close to her, but when they do, they're liable to get eaten. The other thing Maren's mother left her is her birth certificate, which includes the name of the father she's never known. Hopeful that she might find acceptance and answers, Maren embarks on a cross-country journey in search of her dad. Along the way she discoversâoften under gruesome circumstancesâthat she is not the only one of her kind, but she is, in a very real way, destined to be alone. This story of a young woman who actually consumes anyone attracted to her provides a strange glimpse into a truly profound depth of loneliness. Maren's story also offers readers plenty to chew on: issues of feminism, family, and the very idea of flesh eating. What's more, it's a genuinely entertaining (though occasionally stomach-turning) story of a young ghoul's coming of age. Delicious fun.

January 1, 2015
Love is challenging for any species-but things get more complicated when you're a ghoul who wants to eat anyone who gets close to you. In DeAngelis' (Petty Magic, 2010, etc.) third novel, 16-year-old Maren is determined to track down her father after her mother, who clearly loves her but is scared for her own life, abandons her, leaving behind some money and the girl's birth certificate, which includes some important information: her father's name. Maren started eating people when she was a little kid. She devoured the kind babysitter who showed her affection, and things only got worse from there. She ate a boy who befriended her at summer camp. She ate the son of her mother's boss during a party. She ate other people. It isn't until she sets out on the road to find her father that she finally meets one of her own kind. Sully is a talkative man, and there's something a bit sinister about him, too. He weaves a rope out of hair from people he's eaten. Maren decides to find her dad by herself, and at a Wal-Mart in the middle of the country, she finally meets another cannibal closer to her own age. Lee is someone she quickly relates to. His first kill was his babysitter, too. But as she tells him: "I make friends...I just can't keep them." Lee joins Maren on her quest to find her father, and a good portion of the book is about their developing relationship. Even though there are entertaining moments, DeAngelis' prose is run-of-the-mill and her observations, somewhat obvious. The book reads like a cheesy episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2015

Maren and her mother have always been ready to run at a moment's notice, one step ahead of the consequences of Maren's bad habit of involuntary cannibalism. Anyone Maren gets too close to could get eaten, and one day her mother finally leaves her 16-year-old daughter behind and hits the road. Maren decides to look for her father, hoping to learn more about her nature, and meets others on her journey. VERDICT Maren's loneliness makes her a vulnerable and completely believable protagonist, as she trusts too easily. DeAngelis (Mary Modern; Petty Magic) doesn't shy away from Maren's dark nature but manages to keep her sweet somehow, giving us a portrait of a young girl who wants to fit in. The publisher seems to be marketing this both to adult and teen audiences, which should double the fan base for this unusual novel. [See Barbara Hoffert's "ALA Midwinter Preview," Prepub Alert, 1/12/15.]

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
DeAngelis' latest starts grisly: Maren, a little girl, eating her babysitter down to every last speck of flesh and bone. The impossibility of this feat is the first tip-off of the book's nearmagic realism. A cannibal story, yes, but this is no Ed Geinstyle nightmare. The story picks up at Maren's sixteenth birthday, with her mother, exhausted from covering up years of slaughter, leaving her daughter to fend for herself. So Maren hits the roadthis is, in fact, a sensitive road novelto track down her absent father to see if he, too, is an eater. DeAngelis portrays cannibalism as irresistible, sense-heightened yearnings: I could smell the cocktail sauce on his breath, the little pieces of shellfish rotting in the dark corners of his mouth. Maren encounters (improbably, though it jives with the book's gauzy feel) two others of her misfit fringe: the folksy old Sully, perhaps not to be trusted, and charming 19-year-old Lee. Despite the genre signals, this is a melancholy story of a broken family and is an intriguing, if acquired, taste.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)