
Member Reviews

This is such a weird and beautiful little story and I had a blast with it (and also cried, so there's that). It tells the story of Nate who just inherited a remote cabin from his late parents only to find a man with a gun accompanied by a very strange little girl there. Neither of them seems to be who they tell him they are, and thus begins what Klune himself calls an action movie in book format.
I generally just like Klune's writing, although I do feel like this book leaned heavily into the really short sentences which I didn't enjoy as much. Nate's narrative voice is not my favourite. The book also feels tonally inconsistent at times. It's also rather less humorous than the last books I've read by the author, but it fits the tone of the story perfectly. One of its major themes is grief and I loved the way it was explored here.
The characters are complex, well-written and just so so loveable, and the found family in here made me bawl my eyes out at times. There's a love story, too, and it is beautifully told - although I admittedly wouldn't have needed that random sex scene because it just made no sense for it to happen when it happens and is partly what I meant with the tonal inconsistency Anyway, Nate and Alex are special, though not as special as Art. Artemis Darth Vader, the strange little girl, is most definitely the star of the whole show and the heart of it.
It's cute, it's emotionally engaging, it has love and found family and action-packed scenes and all in all, it doesn't matter that there are a few plotholes here and there or that Nate falls into the well-known "I'm literally scared for my life but damn look at his muscles" kind of instalust trap. It just makes you feel good in the end, despite the heartbreak, the grief and the dangers lurking behind every corner.
So in conclusion? Dear Art, I would also always go on an adventure with you.
4 stars.

The Bones beneath my skins is a heartwarming read. Nate, grieving his parents, heads to his family’s cabin and meets Alex and Artemis Darth Vader.
This is more than a sci-fi adventure. It’s a touching story about love, loss, and the families we create.
Another 5⭐️ read by this accomplished author.

Tj Klune’s writing has a way of tugging on your heartstrings, making you question what humanity is, experience a deep sense of friendship and family all between two covers and this book is just the same.
I did not expect a lot starting this, didn’t know a lot about it, and yet it hit every bar possible. It’s hilarious and action packed, the characters Nate, Alex and Artemis Darth Vader are so deep with feeling and love and you just can’t help but get attached.
The romance starts small and is slowly developing at a pace I really appreciate, you fall in love with the characters at the same time they do with each other. It’s weird in just the right way, action packed and both grieving and hilarious. It will have you sobbing and giggling at the same time.
It’s one of those you can’t put down, you must know what happens next, it got helicopters falling for the sky, gun wielding strangers in the middle of nowhere, culty people, shady government organizations and a found family fighting to protect each other with a love so intense you feel it clear as day.
Juggling the feeling of loss and grief with newfound love this book gets a clear 5 star from me.

5⭐
Wow. It has been some time since a book has made me cry so hard that I can no longer read the words on the page - it might even have beeen another TJ Klune that accomplished the feat last! TJK has such a distinctively beautiful, emotive style of storytelling, wrapped in farfetched worlds of sci-fi and fantasy, but so deeply rooted in our most present feelings and values.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for a review - a rerelease of a previously independent publication.
This book is bonkers - the author admits this himself in his concluding author's note - it is actions and aliens. The reader is brought into the world of Artemis Darth Vader, a ten year old, and her fearsome protector, Alex, through the medium of Nate. This character is grieving, though we learn that it's not as simple as it might seem, and throws his life to the wind when he gets tangled in the troublesome pair's problems. He is nervous, afraid, confused. His life is in danger multiple times before he really understands why. But he watches a little girl try bacon for the first time, walks through a field of blooming flowers and slowly, all at once, the unlikely trio become a family in the most meaningful sense of the world.
The Bones Beneath My Skin is about aliens... kind of. Mostly it's about all the heartbreaking, joyful, confusing, romantic parts of being human.
Finally, the climatic scene near the end made me feel SICK whilst horrifically sobbing. 5 STARS.

This book was so cute! As per usual another delightful novel by T.J.Klune. In this we follow Nate as he’s recently lost his parents and was left with a truck and their old cabin. In there he finds Alex and Art, a man and a young girl running away from something. While trying to navigate living together, they get closer; just as danger also closes on them. Will they be able to find a way out without losing each other in the mean time?
I loved all the three characters in this, as per usual they were super endearing and lovely, even Alex and his silent treatments. The plot was super fun, especially when it picked up around the halfway. The writing style as per usual also was super easy to read and fun!
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

SO beautiful, SO heartwarming but I didn’t expect anything less
I always go into books blind, sometimes that makes things confusing but other times, it makes the story so much better and this was one of those times.
As always, Klune writes some beautiful characters, all of which I want to be friends with. Nate and Art and Alex are just wonderful individually but even better when they’re together.
This was another incredible story of found family and what it means to be human. It will hold a special place in my heart forever.

Having read quite a few of TJ Klune’s books I was expecting a gentle, funny enemies-to-lovers plot. Prepare for something very different! An action movie in book form, this was a fast moving, thrilling adventure with characters you’ll fall in love with. Some may call it weird, I call it awesome.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

The Bones Beneath My Skin is such a good story. This book is a masterpiece!!! So so good. I loved every single second of it. I totally recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good and the characters are fantastic.

This is a high 4 for me. On one hand I’m not into sci fi alien stories but on the other hand TJ Kline is an amazing author with a talent for telling stories in the most beautiful ways.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review.

It's been a while since I have been so excited about reading a book. TJ Klune has quickly become an author that I will read without question when he has a book coming out, each book better and stronger than the last. The characters in The Bones Beneath My Skin are so deeply built and explored, you can tell how much love the author put into them. Art, Nate and Alex all have this weakness that becomes stronger when they're together, the need for love without realising just how vital it is works in both a familial sense as a trio but also romantically between our leads.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC for reviewing.

TJ Klune is always an automatic read for me, so when I was invited to read this early, I was so excited!! And whilst this story is very different from Klune’s normal works.. it did not disappoint!!
Different in a good way, may I add!! And more so the fact that this book is more conspiracy theory/space/action/military than any of his previous works. But as always, Kline writes witty characters with big hearts and the themes of self discovery as well as found family are ever present. I loved the ‘what does it mean to be human?’ Side of this book too! And seeing the 3 main characters grow together and learn to accommodate and love each other was such a sweet read!
There was also at least one Easter egg in there too which I got excited about!! 😂
Another amazing 5 star read!

Wow. Just wow. I absolutely loved this read, it was honestly the fastest I’ve read a book for a while because I just couldn’t stop! Honestly an author that never disappoints. It wasn’t the story I was expecting, but it was brilliant. I want to keep this completely spoiler free so I’ll stop there!

Never read anyone love bacon as artimus darth Vader.
Nate has lost everything and now he has returned back to his family cabin where me meets Alex and artimus.
I loved this book it was great to seen Nate become to what he is and the relationships between them all grow.

Embrace the weird.
I love the diversity of TJ’s stories. One day you are reading about Werewolves, the next it’s angels, then you get a bit of alien body invaders with a side of bacon thrown in for good measure.
Artemis Darth Vader might be the rootingist tootingist book character to mosey on into my reading list this year. She’s wise beyond her years and takes joy in the simplest of things. Like waitresses. And cowboy books.
Nate Cartwright goes to spend time at his parents’ cabin to lick his wounds, after losing his job following a scandal involving a senator and a BJ. He calls in to see Big Eddie on his way (I awwwwwwed at that). He doesn’t expect to find a strange little girl and her protector, Alex, in his cabin.
Nate gets sucked into a wild adventure that sees him starting to love a strange little girl and fall in love with Alex. Things get blown up. People die - I was going to say, unlike any other TJ Klune book, and then I thought about Green Creek, where lots of things get blown up and lots of people die, so not that different really.
Art, stole the show. TJ’s writing and creativity is perfection. If an alien wants to come and see our world, I say let them. We are fucked up and too many people in this world don’t appreciate that we are the same. We are all made of dust and stars.
My favourite words of wisdom:
“Just take it for what it is. Kindness. Sometimes people need it, even if they don’t know how to ask for it.”
“He had Pulitzer dreams on a lower-middle-class salary that barely kept him afloat in a city that bled red, white, and blue, oozing in time with the beat of a diseased heart. It had been killing him.”
“I wondered what you would be like. Humans. What you would be capable of. How your minds would work. How your hearts would beat. You are animals. Fierce and wild. You are harsh and brutal and beautiful. There is no one like you in all the universe. You have the power for such destruction within you. And such joy. It’s a dichotomy that shouldn’t exist, and yet here it is. Within you. Within all of you.”
We are all made of dust and stars, and we shouldn’t ever forget it.

I wish I had read TJ Klunes books earlier, I was late coming to that party but glad that I am catching up. Nobody else writes with such warmth and this book is just the same, different slant to this story but the same fuzzy warm feeling. I find these books very comforting and renew my faith in humanity.

Nate is leaving his life behind after a few misteps and makes his way to the cabin left to him after the tragic death of his parents
He expects to relax away from the world, what he doesn't expect is to find an ex Marine and a young girl who may be more than meets the eye.
Nate is torn on what to do, but something makes him stay in that cabin with Alex and Art and he couldn't have possibly imagined how much two people could change his whole life
Nate, Alex and Art have a journey to make and need to stay safe whilst doing it, but can they get Art back to where she came from, without losing themselves along the way...
Definitely a different premise for Klune leaning more scifi, but still hold the same found family vibes we have came to know and love from him
I loved spending time with these three and hope you all do too
Released February so lots of time to get those preorders in. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the early review copy, all opinions my own

The Bones Beneath My Skin once again reminded me why I love Klunes books. No one writes found family like him. I did not expect to love a book about Aliens as much as his others but I did. Loved Artemis Darth Vader to pieces, as well as Alex and Nate. The story was action filled but also had these beautifully written slow moments.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
T.J Klune does not fail in this wonderfully intense novel. The addictive readability is a real thing through out this book.
The world/character building as always is phenomenal. Although there is a spattering of humour it is a fairly intense and serious story. This is definitely a sci-fi with a side of romance as opposed to romance in a sci-fi setting (not saying this is a bad thing).
Although this is not one of my favourite T.J Klune books I was not disappointed.