“Bone Diggers” by Rose Sinclair and Alexandra Tauber

So I subscribed to The Great Ace Digital Book Box! Every month they send out a free ebook with an asexual character. October’s selection was Bone Diggers, a book about the various disguises we wear throughout our life. (If you want to sign up, click here!)

The story follows Owen, an investigative journalist who moonlights as a Bone Digger, or someone who finds out who players of a video game are in real life. Of course, he is also an avid player of the game. He ends up developing a close relationship with two NPCs, as close as irl friendship. It follows him as he tries to balance these two sides of his life and the relationships he forms along the way.

Now keep in mind that this is a free ebook. There are a number of grammatical errors, minor things like misspelled words and forgetting to close a quotation mark or things like that. So it could have maybe used an extra editor or two along the way. There are also passages where it’s really hard to figure out what is going on and whether we are in the video game or in real life. This is especially true for the video game since it takes place in the 1200s and it can be difficult to parse out the political motivations at play and things like that. As a result some plot points are pretty unclear.

Honestly the video game in general could have used some fleshing out. I have no idea if you can pick the character you play as, how much control you have over that. Clearly there’s some customization, but it also seems as though the game registers the avatars as their own individuals as well. Owen often speaks of his character, Daniel, as though he is a totally different person. And what happens if you leave the game for a long period of time? It seems as though the game is on its own timeline, but Owen often interacts with his real life friend Charlie within the game as well. So if they are on the same timeline, then what do their characters do if they abandon the game for a week? There’s also a side plot about Owen finding a glitch or a limit to the game or something that gets completely abandoned and never explained. That could have used a wrap-up. I found myself wondering about the mechanics pretty frequently, since the game is so important to the story here.

Having said that, the book’s biggest strength is its representation. Owen comes to terms with his bisexuality over the course of the story, triggered by his character’s sexuality and his relationship with the NPC Lance. (Which is where my confusion comes in, if Daniel was bi and Owen wasn’t, what would happen there? Did Owen choose to play as a bi character?) Over the course of the story Owen has relationships with both men and women, but the authors are careful to paint both in equal light and not as a competition between genders or partners for him. It’s a really great handling of bisexuality that is so rarely seen. Then there’s Charlie, Owen’s friend. Charlie is non-binary, and asexual. Our hero! I do wish that there was more of Charlie, but the parts they were in were lovely.

So that is my discussion of the first month I participated in the Great Ace Digital Book Box. I can tell already that this is going to be a lovely experience! Can’t wait for the next one!