I first read this story about two years ago and loved it. When I learned that it was getting republished and was available as an ARC I jumped at the chance to read it again. I might have loved it even more the second time. T.J. Klune writes a beautifully moving sci-fi adventure about love, grief, found family, and what it means to be human. No one writes about found family the way T.J. Klune does.

"𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨. 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨. 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙩."

In this story, we follow Nate who is metaphorically lost and looking for a place to hide and regroup after the violent death of his estranged parents and losing his job. He travels to the family cabin he inherited just to find himself at the wrong end of a gun pointed by a man, Alex, who is squatting at the cabin along with an oddly endearing young girl named Artemis Darth Vader. This sets Nate on a course he never could have predicted.

"'𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙖𝙨𝙩, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙. 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠, 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙧𝙮.[...] 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤𝙖𝙨𝙩,' 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙. '𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣. 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤𝙖𝙨𝙩. 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤.'"

I genuinely loved the characters in this story. I'm a big fan of T.J. Klune's writing style and how he confronts heavy topics with a light hand and creates quirky, lovable, flawed characters. You'll definitely find all of that in this book. The romance is slow-burn but is so worth it.

This one didn’t do it for me. The first part of the book instantly pulled me in. Once I had more information about the plot, and got to know more about the other characters, I lost interest.

Felt like it was similar to something that has been previously explored in the author’s other titles.

More sci-fi than fantasy for me.

TJ Klune never disappoints! This book is one of the best books I've read by Klune. It's funny, sad, action-packed, gut-wrenching, and heartwarming. I don't know how he creates magic the way he does, but he is a magician--a multi-talented author that I can always count on to put me in my feels. This book is like an adult spicy ET meets Escape to Witch Mountain story that dives deep into the conversation about humanity's need for control over and to destroy what they don't understand, which I think is a great representation of the way that people in the LGBTQIA+ communities are treated by radical christians. If aliens came to earth today, how do you think our governments would react? If history has taught us anything, I believe it has taught us that aliens would not be safe on earth even if an alien was in the form of a ten year old girl.

This book is truly something special that tugged on my heartstrings. Something that Klune is so good about is making sure that kindness is at the forefront of all of his books. Kindness would solve so many issues in our world. If majority of people stopped believing they were superior to others and showed them kindness, I think that the world would be a much happier place, which is what I believe Klune is discussing through the lens of two male characters who form a familial bond to an alien in The Bones Beneath My Skin. It's truly a beautiful story that I will admit made me cry. If you like Klune's work or if you are wanting to jump into his books, I think that this book is a great place to start.

Well, I requested this book because I have read books by this author before and enjoyed it, and the synopsis seemed interesting to me.
Unfortunately, the execution didn't please that much.
I understand (now) that this book has been published before but it's getting a new edition from the publishing Tor (in February 2025), and that's something I didn't know before I requested this book. Had I known that probably I wouldn't have requested this.
Personally, I don't have a good history with older books by TJ Klune. Older than 2020, I mean. Everything he's been wirting and publishing since 2020 I tend to enjoy. But his backlist? Nope. I've tried some of his older books before and I actually DNFed all of them. Curiously, I'd skipped this title for some unkown reason...

THE BONES BENEATH MY SKIN has some of the usual tropes (or clichés?) typical in Klune's books: a lonely gay man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, who has also been bullied or outcast by being gay; a unique or special child whose big part of the story is centered around them; an unlikable character who will get redemption and 'become a better person' by the end of the book; and let's not forget the magical and romance elements.
I mean, if you are a fan of this author I'd say this book will most likely please you. Pick this up if you haven't already.
But to me this book wasn't the best time I've had with this author.
I did enjoy the child character. As usual, Klune's best written and more fun characters are the children.
Also in my opinion, this book is too long. After the 60% mark I got the feeling the story was dragging on and on and becoming repetitive, even some dialogues were being repeated. Even though I like aliens stuff, I got bored by the alien storyline here. And the vulgar and porn sex scene that happens around the 75% mark? Totally unnecessary and uncalled for. Completely out of context here. To bring smut into this story makes no sense at all.

Anyway, as I said before I'm sure TJ Klune's fans will love this book. I didn't, but I recommend it to the fans.
Thank you, NetGalley and Tor, for providing me with a free eARC of this new edition in exchange for my honest review.

Another excellent magical novel by TJ Kline! A story of family, love, loss and grief. It was as engaging as it was entertaining.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.