To the Bone / Alena Bruzas / Book Review

TO THE BONE

It's 1609, and Ellis has nobody. She lost her mother, lost her baby sister, lost anyone who could care about her. Her older sister has her own family and no space for Ellis. If her father's alive, he's in the New World. So that's what Ellis sets her sights on: making it across the sea. But Ellis doesn't have the money to fund her own voyage. She has to sell her services instead. Henry Collins and his young wife seem nice enough, at least.

Arriving at James Fort opens up a lot of opportunities for Ellis. Here she has a fresh start. Here she has the chance for a bright future, the type of future a poor girl like her couldn't even dream of in London. And with more than one hopeful face in James Fort, Ellis has fast friends... and maybe the chance of something more.

But tensions are running high at James Fort, both inside the fort and out. Crimes committed against the native people have left the settlers less-than-safe in their new-claimed land, and food shortages mean tempers are up within the fort walls. And the upstanding gentlemen Ellis thought she had signed on to work for has turned out to be... a little less than upstanding, without the laws and social rules from back home, leaving Ellis not quite certain she'll make it through this winter and out the other side.

THOUGHTS

Alena Bruzas dives into a particularly dark bit of colonial American history here, and I can appreciate that. The tone, however, didn't quite fit right for me.

PROS

Colonial Tragedy	Colonial history is messy, and that's definitely the case here. The colonial forces, as depicted in this book, are violent. The rampant individualism--the quest for new land--leads to violent conflict, and the retaliation that comes as a result feels, well, only natural. But at the same time, for an indentured servant girl within Jamestown, the consequences are quite dire even if deserved. Bruzas balances well the threat of what we know will be genocide for the various indigenous American groups these colonists encounter with the very real threat of starvation--and the resulting desperation--that Ellis faces.
Brutal Reality	The Starving Time is a brutal piece of history, even in the history books that more or less gloss over it. And Bruzas certainly does not gloss over this bit of history. Even before things get really dire within the fort walls, the reality for Ellis is... not great. She's sold herself as a servant to the Collins family in a desperate attempt to get to the New World, to maybe find her father (if he survived after they lost contact years ago), and the situation she finds herself in, without the support and structure of home, is not great. As tensions rise between the colonists and the locals, too, there are escalating murders (well deserved, for the crimes these men have committed) that Ellis bears some form of witness to. And as the long winter sets in, well, Ellis has reason to fear she won't exactly be the kind of person who makes it through to the other end.
Obsessive Hunger	The gnawing hunger is palpable throughout this book. Ellis and her neighbors are starving, and their every thought, every movement, every decision is preoccupied with this hunger. As Ellis drifts throughout the day, she asks herself, can we eat horses, can we eat dogs, can we eat rats? And, of course, can we eat each other? What, exactly, is one willing to do to survive?

CONS

The biggest issue I had with this book is that the voice feels... off. Ellis reads very young, younger than she's meant to be. I think this is in part because Bruzas mimics a sort of "olden times" language in this book and imbues Ellis with a certain naivety that contributes to just how young she feels. But even in Ye Olden Days, teenagers would still sound like, well, teenagers. Or even older than that, given the responsibilities someone like Ellis would need to shoulder just to survive.	Juvenile Voice
At the same time Ellis reads very young, she is also very aware of her own sexuality. Which was quite disconcerting to read. Even a contemporary teenager--a teenager who knows a bit more about what type of sexualities might exist--is still likely to wrestle with this as they start to become aware of what and who they want. Because Ellis reads so young, too, it just threw me off. It seems unlikely that Ellis would be so very aware of her attraction to her neighbor Jane in this day and age--especially with the other things that really should be on her mind.	Self-Awareness
In Jamestown, they ate people. The history books say they ate people. The official mayoral records say they ate people. Recent archeological evidence says they ate people. This is just a fact. People were eaten so others might survive. At the same time... Bruzas's account feels a little bit like an overestimation. There is so much cannibalization happening in the background of this book, and it just doesn't feel like there would be so much, well, eating people. The contemporary records mark it down as something horrific, something people were pushed to do through desperation--an absolute last resort. And that's also how it is portrayed here, but that "last resort" stage is reached... pretty quickly. I don't know that it is true that everybody who survived at Jamestown ate multiple sombodies, you know?	Overestimation

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6/10

Fans of Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond will like this fresh dive into colonial life. Those who enjoyed Mary Pope Osborne's Standing in the Light will like this new look at high-tension colonial relationships.

Details Publisher: Rocky Pond Books Date: September 10, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley and Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.