You've probably noticed that in most of our stories with a young person as the main character, the MC is orphaned, or at least comes from a broken homYou've probably noticed that in most of our stories with a young person as the main character, the MC is orphaned, or at least comes from a broken home. We assume as readers (and as writers) that stories about children have to be this way. If the child characters are going to have adventures, their parents have to get out of the way. The author has said that she wrote the Rae, the star of this short story, with the intention of breaking that trope. One of my favorite things about The Bone Knife is watching Rae interact with her family in a loving, but funny way, and still manage to have adventures. She even gets her parents' permission! One of the other reviewers mentioned that she wanted to see Rae form a romantic attachment in this story. I was actually really pleased with the fact that the only relationships Rae had in this story were with her family. We need more fiction like this that breaks the negative traditions that require main characters to have romantic relationships and come from broken homes.