A spine-tingling standalone novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune—a supernatural road-trip thriller featuring an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors on the run from cultists and the government.
Intrigued? Read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from TJ Klune’s The Bones Beneath My Skin, which is out February 4th 2025.
There’s nothing more human than a broken heart.
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he’s been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC.
With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family’s summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It’s not.
Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn’t exactly as she appears.
Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.
CHAPTER ONE
He sang along with the radio.
Something about taking a sad song and making it better. After, he laughed until he could barely breathe.
X
He crossed into Douglas County just before another song ended. There was a news break at the top of the hour, every hour.
A singer named Selena had been shot at a hotel in Texas. He’d never heard of her before.
TAROM Flight 371, leaving Bucharest and heading for Brussels, crashed shortly after takeoff. All sixty people on board died. An investigation was underway. Terrorism was not suspected at the moment.
The comet discovered last year, Markham-Tripp, was getting closer. Already it could be seen if you knew where to look, but no worries, folks. It’s going to swing right by us before heading back out into the great beyond.
And there was still no official word on the helicopter that went down outside of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Northern California last week. The cause was still under investigation, though it was implied it was related to that big storm that blew through the area. Officials weren’t saying if there were any fatalities.
And now for the weather. It’s gonna be a beautiful day, would you look at all that sunshine, can you just believe it?
It was March 31, 1995.
He continued south.
X
The air outside grew cooler the farther he went into the mountains. The sun warmed the hand he hung out the window. The blue sky stretched on and on. There were clouds, but only a few.
Nice day, he thought. Of course it is. That’s the way things go.
He hit the town in late afternoon. There was a sign, old and faded. It’d been there since he was a kid and his parents had taken him up to the cabin for a few weeks during the summer. It said:
Roseland, Oregon
Pop. 827 Established 1851
Elevation 2345 ft.
Gateway to the Cascades!
He passed by a diner. A church. Shops on either side. Some of them were open. The town wouldn’t hit tourist season for another month or two, but they’d be ready. People driving up from the bigger cities looking for an escape from the heat and grind would spend their money, take their photos, and then disappear back from where they came.
The air was filled with the scents of pine needles and earth. It was like he was ten years old again and his mom and dad were still in love, love, love. They would laugh and sing along with the radio. They would play road games. I Spy. Twenty questions. The license plate game where you’d try and get all fifty states. He’d learned early on that that was impossible. The most he’d ever gotten was seven. That had been a good day. One had been Maine, an impossibly faraway place.
He saw the sign for the gas station before the gas station itself. It spun lazily, but not before he caught the words Big Eddie’s Gas and Convenience. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to see that some things remained the same. Even after everything.
