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WORK TITLE: To the Bone
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WEBSITE: https://www.alenabruzas.com
CITY: Lincoln
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 407
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PERSONAL
ADDRESS
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Author.
MEMBER:Serves on the board for Ten Thousand Villages.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2023, Donna Scanlon, review of Ever Since, p. 46.
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2023, review of Ever Since.
School Library Journal, June 6, 2023, Rebekah J. Buchanan, review of Ever Since, p. 86.
ONLINE
Alexa Bruzas website, https://www.alenabruzas.com (November 14, 2023).
Penguin Teen, https://www.penguinteen.com/ (November 14, 2023), author essay.
School Library Journal blog, https://teenlibrariantoolbox.com/ (May 23, 2023), Amanda MacGregor, author interview.*
AlenaBruzas0254_edited.jpg
Alena grew up in Seattle, spent some time in Olympia, and currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with her two fabulous kids and various small animals.
Alena is a writer, a bookseller, an editorial assistant, and she serves on the board for Ten Thousand Villages, Lincoln. She also occasionally cooks dinner, worries about commas, and wanders the prairie.
Alena Bruzas | A gripping, shocking, and exquisitely crafted survival story
September 11, 2024
1–What is the title of your latest release?
TO THE BONE
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
This gripping, shocking, and exquisitely crafted survival story reveals the truth of America’s colonial history in a powerful new way—visceral and breathtaking.
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
It had to take place in Jamestown, Virginia, because it’s based on historical fact!
4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Maybe! She’s about the age of my oldest son. Maybe they would be friends!
5–What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Naive, rebellious, and curious.
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
All about “The Starving Time,” when an estimated 90% of settlers starved in the Jamestown Colony.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both! I am a pantser with OCD.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Real bakery bread, especially if it’s heirloom sourdough.
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I’m just redoing it now! When it’s done it will have an ikea dining table as my desk, a bookshelf for my finished books, and green wallpaper on one wall, my first attempt at wallpapering!
10–Who is an author you admire?
Stephen Graham Jones writes the kind of literary horror I aspire to.
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
Alice Hoffman’s Here On Earth was the first time I experienced an unreliable narrator, specifically in the sense that she didn’t suspect her partner was abusive until he actually hurt her. It had a profound impact on my knowledge of what was possible as a writer, but also as a person who was, at the time, in an abusive relationship.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was extremely sleep deprived and at a wilderness park with my then-four-year-old. We were both in our pajamas and had unbrushed hair. I just didn’t have the energy to get dressed that day, but hey we still made it to the park! We were playing in the mud and I’m pretty sure I had a frog in my hand. Best day ever.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
Unfair question!
14–What’s your favorite movie?
Also unfair question! Official answer: Interstellar. Unofficial answer: My Neighbor Totoro.
15–What is your favorite season?
Definitely Fall. I don’t mind being basic.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Hide from the world.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Strange Darling. Totally not what I expected!
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Worry about things.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
A retelling of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale!
TO THE BONE by Alena Bruzas
To the Bone
This gripping, shocking, and exquisitely crafted survival story reveals the truth of America’s colonial history in a powerful new way—visceral and breathtaking.
After the long journey from England, Ellis arrives in America full of hope. James Fort is where a better life will begin for her: where she will work as an indentured servant to Henry Collins and his pregnant wife, gain financial security, and fall deeply in love with bold, glorious Jane Eddowes.
But as summer turns to fall, Ellis begins to notice the cracks in this new life—the viciousness of the colonists toward the Indigenous people and the terrifying anger Henry uses to control his wife and Ellis—leaving her to wonder if she has sentenced herself to a prison rather than a new home.
Then winter arrives and hunger grips the Fort. Ellis is about to learn that people will do whatever it takes to survive.
To the Bone is a riveting story of survival and horror that forcefully overturns the mythos of the American settler. It will stay with you, forever.
Young Adult Historical [Penguin Young Readers Group, On Sale: September 10, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593616208 / eISBN: 9780593616222]
Buy TO THE BONE: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com | Target.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Alena Bruzas
Alena Bruzas
Alena Bruzas grew up in Seattle and currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her family. She is the author of the acclaimed novel Ever Since, and she hopes her writing will find the people who need it most. When she’s not writing, Alena serves on the board for Ten Thousand Villages, Lincoln. She also occasionally cooks dinner, worries about commas, and wanders the prairie.
“To the Bone”: Lincoln author’s novel of history, cannibalism and love
Izzy Lewis Sept. 19, 2024
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On Sept. 13, Francie & Finch hosted a book launch of Lincoln author Alena Bruzas’ new book, “To the Bone.” Bruzas discussed her book, held a Q&A with the crowd and signed copies of her book.
In conversation with Dr. Kelsy Burke, a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Bruzas delved into the writing of controversial topics.
“By writing about these things, bringing them into light, they lose their power,” Burke said. “Then we can also take charge of some of the voices or messages that are out in the world.”
Bruzas’ first book, “Ever Since,” tackles the subject of abuse while “To the Bone” details a darker side of a history many may have not considered before. “To the Bone” follows a teenage girl in 1609 colonial America who is struggling with poverty and indentured servitude in an unfamiliar land. As winter approaches, starvation looms on the horizon for the colony.
“I think we forget that people who lived 400 years ago through these horrible, yet historical times were actually teenagers,” Bruzas said. “These young kids, you know, are grappling with their own death.”
“To the Bone” is a young adult historical horror novel. Set in historical times, the book also includes darker elements. Bruzas provides trigger warnings for the book including cannibalism, murder, domestic abuse, racial slurs, racism, violence related to colonialism, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, child death, body horror, blood, gore, starvation and more.
While the book has dark subject matter, there is also an exploration of teenage innocence. Three of the characters are teenagers, coping with the problems facing their community together. The main character experiences young love juxtaposed with the grim reality around her. Bruzas urges readers to undergo a thought exercise of considering what it would be like to be a teenager in these times.
“One thing that I really did my very best on was to make it totally historically accurate, because I think that’s how we honor the people who actually lived in this story,” Bruzas said. “I’m trying to tell the story that happened.”
Bruzas credited some of her inspiration to a Smithsonian article that presented archeological evidence of a young girl who was cannibalized in the Jamestown Colony. Additionally, Bruzas mentioned she received further influence from the book “Love and Hate in Jamestown” by David Price. Her dedication to getting the facts right allows readers to understand the conditions of the time.
“I’m writing it to honor this person who died in such a grotesque way, but who was loved and whose life mattered,” Bruzas said. “I’m drawn to dark subjects, but part of the grotesqueness is just the reality, and I wouldn’t want to skip over that.”
Throughout the event, Bruzas emphasized the importance of acknowledging and elevating Indigenous voices. She directed audience members to visit her website to view a blog post where she discusses the Land Back movement.
Acknowledging the nuance required to write about something such as an American colony, Bruzas recommends readers also pick up books about Indigenous peoples from the colonial time period as well.
“It’s just so exciting when we have a room full of people that are interested and the author’s telling interesting stories,” Leslie Huerta, owner of Francie & Finch, said. “Usually there’s a Q&A and a book signing where people get to meet the author… it’s just an exciting vibe.”
Francie & Finch hosts events with a wide variety of authors. The store opened in 2016 and has a newsletter that goes out to 10,000 people every week. The store also holds an art gallery, which currently features work from Howard Kaye. Proceeds from the sale of his art will go to Lincoln Literacy and prison libraries.
Bruzas is currently working on her third book. Her next novel will be a fairytale retelling set on the Nebraskan prairie. She looks forward to having future events at Francie & Finch.
culture@dailynebraskan.com
Giving a Name to the Nameless in History
Contributor: Alena Bruzas
Alena Bruzas
October 30, 2024
5 min read
Giving a Name To The Nameless in History To the Bone
To the Bone by Alena Bruzas
In the early days of the Jamestown colony, a woman was murdered and cannibalized by her husband. In the written accounts she is never named other than by her husband’s name. The infamous John Smith even jokes about the manor and motivation for her death: “And one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was knowne … now whether shee was better roasted, boyled or carbonado’d, I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of.”
When I wrote my novel To the Bone, which explores the cannibalism that happened during The Starving Time at Jamestown, I felt compelled to give this woman a name, to explore her experience, because even though she was treated with casual cruelty by her contemporaries, her life and death mattered.
To the Bone is about a fifteen-year-old girl named Ellis, but the first, powerful motivation in writing about this time came from reading about Henry Collins, the man who murdered his wife. Contemporary accounts tell us that his wife was pregnant when he murdered her and he claimed that he did not eat the dead body of the fetus but washed it down the James River. (As if it somehow lessens his crime because, in his mind, the woman doesn’t count as much as the fetus.)
Because I have been in an abusive relationship, I find myself compelled by stories of abused women. Maybe I’m morbid or maybe it helps me process my trauma, but especially by stories of women who did not escape. We so often talk about “survivors,” but what about the women who didn’t survive?
This woman, who is not named in the accounts, did not survive. She was a victim, not only of a series of grave mistakes beginning with the idea of colonialism, but she was also, clearly, the victim of an abusive man. Because, while people were starving, and they were also resorting to survival cannibalism, they were eating people who were already dead. Mrs. Collins was alive when her husband murdered her.
Imagine you’re married to somebody who you can’t trust. Who hurts you. Who manipulates you. Who makes you feel crazy for feeing abused. Because make no mistake, she was abused before he murdered her. Nice, sane men do not murder their pregnant wives out of the blue. In fact, the leading cause of death for pregnant women in the United States is homicide related to intimate partner violence.
Imagine being trapped in a tiny house with a violent and abusive man. Your situation is dire. The food has run out. You are surrounded by a howling wilderness. You are besieged in a fort, because the reality is, you are the invader, and the people who were here first are defending themselves against your invasion. Maybe you realize at this point that you made a mistake in coming, but it’s too late.
The abuse escalates, as it always does in times of stress. You are isolated. Your family is three thousand miles and an ocean away. There is no escape. Not for you, anyway.
He’s looking at you with hungry eyes. You’re afraid of what he will do. You’re more afraid than you have ever been before. And when the murder happens, it is brutal.
And then, when your body has been desecrated and your child swept out to sea, you are made fun of. You are treated like a joke. The centuries slip by and it has been so long that the brutality of your death doesn’t seem real. It’s described in such strange, antiquated English that it seems silly.
But this woman was real. And her life mattered. And her manner of death was not funny.
I named her Blythe. Blythe means joyous. It’s not ironic, it’s defiant. She deserved joy, just like anybody. By naming her Blythe, maybe I’m giving her some.
Is it appropriate to arbitrarily give names to real people? She had a name, of course, but we don’t know it because her contemporaries didn’t bother to write it down. I wanted to write her story, as best as I could, and so I had to give her a name. I hope, wherever she is, she doesn’t mind.
Alena Bruzas grew up in Seattle and currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her family. When she’s not writing, Alena serves on the board for Ten Thousand Villages, Lincoln. She also occasionally cooks dinner, worries about commas, and wanders the prairie.
Bruzas, Alena EVER SINCE Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (Teen None) $18.99 5, 23 ISBN: 9780593616178
The summer before senior year, friendships are fractured by secrets and a revelation of sexual abuse.
Virginia has a reputation for making poor choices, including sleeping with Edison, her friend Thalia's boyfriend, behind her back. She and her close-knit group of friends are determined to spend the summer living it up, when suddenly, without explanation, her best friend, Poppy, leaves to spend the summer at her grandpa's. Virginia feels unmoored because Poppy offered her harbor from her own house, where she does not feel safe amid her neglectful parents' parties that include Him, their friend who sexually abused her when she was a child. Virginia starts spending time with Rumi, Poppy's boyfriend, with whom she develops an intense emotional connection. But when she realizes that Rumi's 11-year-old sister is being groomed by this same abuser, Virginia must find the courage to finally speak up. What follows is a harrowing journey, compounded by the fact that not everybody is receptive to her revelations. In the process of coming to terms with what happened to her, Virginia must also reckon with her revictimization and ask whether her sexual activity with Edison was consensual. Virginia, Thalia, Edison, and Poppy are cued White; ethnically ambiguous Rumi has reddish-brown skin. The supporting cast includes diversity in race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; these characters sometimes feel too perfect to be fully realized people.
Lyrical prose combines with a searing indictment of how society treats young women. (content note, author's note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Bruzas, Alena: EVER SINCE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A743460598/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=53ce05cb. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
Ever Since. By Alena Bruzas, May 2023.272p. Penguin/Rocky Pond, $18.99 (9780593616178). Gr. 9-12.
Bruzas' debut novel is at once gritty and tender, exploring boundaries, friendship, and self-esteem. Virginia tells herself fairy tales and myths in search of a happy ending, a path her life lacks. She thinks of herself as "That Kind of Girl," the one who experiments with drugs, alcohol, and sex at an early age. Now, at 17, this includes hooking up with the boyfriend of a close friend, something that does nothing for her self worth. Her four best friends love and support her, but none of them knows her secret: Virginia has been sexually abused by a friend of her parents since she was one year old. When her friend Poppy leaves abruptly for the summer, Virginia starts to hang out with Poppy's boyfriend, Rumi, but their connection is emotional, not sexual, something Virginia appreciates. But then she realizes that her abuser is grooming Rumi's 11-year-old sister, and when she plucks up her courage to warn him, Rumi rejects her. Heartbroken, Virginia gets support and help from her friend Ro and Ro's parents. Virginia is a warm, sympathetic character who believes that she is responsible for her abuse until she recognizes that her behaviors stem from it and from lack of guidance from her self-absorbed parents. Bruzas handles the complex plot deftly, and the crowning achievement is when the story Virginia tells herself is her own.--Donna Scanlon
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Scanlon, Donna. "Ever Since." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 18, 15 May 2023, p. 46. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A751443187/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=352ce8bf. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
BRUZAS, Alena. Ever Since. 288p. Penguin/ Rocky Pond. May 2023. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780593616178.
Gr 10 Up--Seventeen-year-old Virginia doesn't feel safe in her home. Her parents are always fighting, and she lives in fear that He may be there, so she stays away as much as possible. She knows she doesn't always make the best choices, spending her time partying, drinking, and having risky sex. She just needs a close group of friends. But when her closest friend, Poppy, suddenly moves away without warning, Virginia starts spending more time with Poppy's boyfriend, Rumi, and starts to fall for him. She becomes close to Rumi's younger sister, Lyra, and soon realizes that Lyra is being groomed for abuse by the same person who once abused her. Virginia has spent so much time hiding her secret from everyone, but she does not want Lyra to become His next victim. Virginia needs to decide what to do and who to trust to not only save Lyra but to save herself. The content may trigger some readers, but realistically presents the aftermath of childhood sexual assault and a community serial abuser. VERDICT A powerful story of childhood trauma and what it means to confront sexual assault, Bruzas's debut novel addresses the complexities of survival and the importance of a strong circle of support.--Rebekah J. Buchanan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Buchanan, Rebekah J. "BRUZAS, Alena. Ever Since." School Library Journal, vol. 69, no. 6, June 2023, p. 86. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A751405801/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=34b7f113. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
To the Bone
Alena Bruzas. Rocky Pond, $19.99 (256p)
ISBN 978-0-593616-20-8
Bruzas (Ever Since) interweaves real-life U.S. history with brutal horror elements to craft a grotesque reimagining of the founding of America set in 1609 James Fort. Teenage Ellis thought that becoming an indentured servant to the wealthy Collinses would be her ticket to freedom. Instead, she witnesses the collapse of both her employer's family and the fledgling society they live in. Conditions within James Fort have worsened as the colonizers wage war on the Indigenous population, Master Collins is physically abusive toward Ellis and his pregnant wife, and the protections promised to Ellis by Collins seem much more tenuous than she had anticipated. When she meets Jane, the daughter of the nearby Eddowes family, she falls hopelessly in love and dreams of a future in which she owns land and can be with Jane freely. But as winter approaches and a haze of desperation and hunger descends upon James Fort, things take a turn for the worse. Meandering descriptions of Ellis's everyday life are occasionally repetitive. Nevertheless, via first-rate prose, Bruzas seeds pockets of tenderness, warmth, and romance throughout, lending emotional weight to the unfolding horrors. An author's note concludes. Characters are white. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
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"To the Bone." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 24, 17 June 2024, p. 120. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800405186/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ae2c6ceb. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
Bruzas, Alena TO THE BONE Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (Teen None) $18.99 9, 10 ISBN: 9780593616208
A young woman goes hungry--and falls in love--in the Virginia Company's colony of James Fort.
The year is 1609, and Ellis has traveled alone across the ocean from England to be an indentured servant to Henry Collins. She's come to seek a better life, her family back home fractured by death and poverty, but she soon learns that this land is no undiscovered Eden, ripe for the taking. Tensions are rising between the Indigenous Powhatan people and the invading European settlers, and the cruelty of claim-laying extends to Ellis' own hearth, where Henry treats her as property and abuses both her and his pregnant wife. Meanwhile, winter draws ever closer, and with it the specter of starvation. A bright light in all this darkness is Jane, a spritely young woman who loves Ellis fiercely and shamelessly. Ellis loves her, too--as secretly as she can, given Henry's violent disapproval. The two are friends with Rowan, a deeply kind young man who's come to the settlement alone; he's their companion in misadventure as they seek sustenance and survival. Bruzas pulls no punches with her lean, lyrical prose. Ellis' voice is entirely convincing, her quiet observations of people and situations around her perfectly embedded in her own experiences even as they elucidate for a contemporary audience the brutal harm done by her settlement.
Ruthless and tender by turns: a triumph of historical fiction. (content note, author's note, end note, select bibliography)(Historical fiction. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Bruzas, Alena: TO THE BONE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A801499527/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=091410f1. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
BRUZAS, Alena. To the Bone. 256p. Penguin/ Rocky Pond. Sept. 2024. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9780593616208.
Gr 9 Up--By combining historical and archaeological facts with a compelling love story, Bruzas has created a powerful, engaging tale that illuminates social, economic, and moral lines in colonial America. When Ellis arrives at James Fort as an indentured servant, it is 1609, and she is desperately hoping to find her father. Instead, she finds love with the beautiful Jane Eddowes while trying to survive her brutal employer Henry Collins. As relations between the colonists and the Native Americans deteriorate during the fall of 1609, food grows increasingly scarce. When winter truly sets in, Ellis becomes trapped within the fort as the hunger and subsequent death count swells. It becomes truly horrifying once the bodies start disappearing. Bruzas skillfully uses the weather to set the mood, while building believable and empathetic primary and secondary characters through connected relationships and events. The main character presents as white and LGBTQIA+. Bruzas includes a detailed author's note as well as select bibliography for further information in the back matter. VERDICT Hand this title to fans of Tracy Smith's First Lady of Jamestown and Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds. A general purchase for high school libraries.--Susan Catlett
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Catlett, Susan. "BRUZAS, Alena. To the Bone." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 9, Sept. 2024, p. 110. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A836879096/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=def2e948. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.