Bones and All
Camille DeAngelis writes one of the strangest coming-of-age novels of the last decade, a road trip through Reagan-era America narrated by a sixteen-year-old girl who eats anyone who shows her unconditional love. Maren Yearly's mother has packed up and left her on her birthday, fed up with cleaning up the consumed bodies of the people Maren has cared about, and Maren sets off in search of the father whose name is on a birth certificate she has never been allowed to see. On the road she meets others like her, including a charismatic stranger who claims he can teach her to live with what she is. Adapted by Luca Guadagnino into the 2022 Timothee Chalamet film, the novel is at heart a ferocious metaphor for adolescent appetite, queerness, and the question of whether a person can be loved bones and all.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Bones and All
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Sixteen-year-old Maren has a problem that has cost her every friend, school, and home she has ever had. Set loose by her mother, she meets Lee, a young man with the same hunger, and they take to the road.
Yes. Luca Guadagnino directed a 2022 film adaptation starring Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell. The film is faithful to the novel's blend of romance, road trip, and cannibalism. It won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Bones and All contains graphic depictions of cannibalism, abandonment, and violence. The tone balances tenderness with body horror, but readers sensitive to gore or eating-disorder-adjacent content should approach with care.
Bones and All was written by Camille DeAngelis, published in 2015 by St. Martin's Press.
Bones and All is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Bones and All takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Bones and All is a standalone novel by Camille DeAngelis, not part of a series.
Bones and All is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.