These supernatural elements all play a large role in the plot.

The fantasy mainly comes in through the use of the psychics, tarot, and what the book calls hoodoo (I’ve got no idea if this is the same thing as voodoo, but it seems similar).

In short, there’s some form of civilization, even though it’s only been fifty years since the nuclear missiles went off.As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Bone Dance is a mixture of science fiction and fantasy. There’s markets and nightclubs and people running theaters of salvaged televisions. Sparrow lives in a city (clues point towards it being Minneapolis) that still has electricity, even if it’s controlled by the one man who rules the city government. They go through some real difficulties, and I was feeling for them the entire time.The post-apocalyptic world of Bone Dance isn’t the lawless mad lands you tend to see in fiction. Sparrow’s confident and snarky, but also in over their head with the current situation. A large part of Bone Dance is diving into Sparrow’s concept of themself, as they learn to accept who they are and to open up to other people and form connections. When you first meet Sparrow, they are keeping themself permanently isolated and aloof from others. There’s not a lot about this element I can say without running into spoilers (although I think there is a key point worth noting), but this article on Sparrow’s gender is worth reading if you’re willing to brave the spoilers.“We’re all born nameless, aren’t we? And the name we end up with has only peripherally to do with our family tree.”Sparrow was easily my favorite part about Bone Dance. Sparrow’s physical sex or gender is not discussed until about a hundred pages in, about where a number of different pieces of the book start coming together. Therefore for the remainder of the review I will be referring to Sparrow with the singular “they/them” pronouns. Sparrow’s only comment on the matter is this:“You wouldn’t have so much trouble,” I muttered, straightening up carefully, “if you didn’t talk about me in the third person.”While this is fitting with Sparrow’s somewhat prickly personality, it’s not helpful for writing this review.

What’s going on?Sparrow is an agender protagonist who’s never given pronouns. But Sparrow’s been blacking out and losing memories. Sparrow is a trader of old videos and discs from before the nuclear missiles were set off by a group of psychics known as the Horsemen. Bone Dance is a strange but enjoyable mixture of the post-apocalyptic with the supernatural.

Territory by emma bull