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Bones and All is a novel that spans multiple genres that are not often associated with one another, including horror, science-fiction, fantasy, and romance. At its core, however, Bones and All is a coming-of-age story. Maren, at sixteen years old, is at the threshold between childhood and adulthood. Though her circumstances are abnormal and unique, many of her problems–difficulties fitting in at school, an uneasy relationship with her mother, strange new desires that she cannot control or understand–are, in a sense, typical features of teenage life. Except for an early incident in which an infant Maren attacked and killed Penny, her baby-sitter, the arrival of her cannibalistic urges coincides with her growing awareness of boys and the onset of puberty. Throughout the novel, Maren’s cannibalism is closely associated with her sexuality. While girls instinctively distrust her, Maren is considered attractive by the boys at her school, who invite her to their homes under the pretext of studying. All the acts of cannibalism committed by Maren after infancy are tied to romantic or sexual intimacy. Luke flirts with her at summer camp, Jamie exposes himself to her, Andy holds her hand in his car, and, at the end of the novel, Lee removes his clothing and lies next to her in bed. In each case, the initiation of intimacy triggers Maren’s cannibalism, implying a strong relationship between sexuality and violence in the novel. Conversely, Maren is unable to eat those who she does not consider attractive, such as Travis, whose request to be eaten disgusts her.
At the beginning of the novel, Maren is immature and inexperienced. When she fails to resist her cannibalistic urges, she relies upon her mother to clean up after her (sometimes quite literally) and take care of things. Though the nature of her condition is bizarre, her childish reliance upon her mother is quite ordinary. When her mother abandons her, however, she is completely distraught, with no sense of how to look after herself. Her first thought is to find her mother, even though she knows that Janelle will not take her back. Her decision to follow Janelle to Pennsylvania is a costly mistake, leaving her with insufficient money to find her father, Francis, in Minnesota. Lost and alone, she hides in the bathroom of the bus station and cries. In the early chapters of the story, Maren is entirely dependent upon the charity of others, such as Mrs. Harmon, who cooks her breakfast and gives her a place to sleep, Andy, an unfortunate Walmart employee who brings her food and keeps her company, and Lee, who drives her across the country. In addition to being reliant upon others, Maren is somewhat naive in the novel’s early chapters. Until Lee points out the difficulties involved in such a task, she never even considers that she might not find her father once she arrives in Minnesota. She develops an elaborate though unrealistic fantasy involving her father, imagining him idealistically as a kind, wise, and refined gentleman who will swoop in to rescue and take care of her.
The disappointing reality that her father has been institutionalized in a mental care facility for over a decade forces Maren to take responsibility for her own life. Though she spends the first half of the novel searching for her father, her journey is ultimately one of self-discovery, and she finds in herself personal strengths, skills, and talents that she never previously imagined. On her own, she is able to discover the truth about Sully and defend herself against him, drive a car across the country, survive for weeks on an abandoned farm, reunite with Lee, and, ultimately, start a new life without him. The ending of the novel marks significant personal changes for Maren. Though she is not actually enrolled in the university, she attends courses, seduces a male student, obtains an on-campus job, and pays rent on her own apartment. Maren, then, passes the threshold into independent adulthood, without needing to rely on others. No longer ashamed of her cannibalism, nor terrified of intimacy, she fully accepts herself, bones and all.
