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The Boneshaker of the title is a mining device that figures largely in the background, but not the events, of this story. Invented to access gold beneath the ice, the Boneshaker instead destroyed a part of Seattle and released an unknown gas that transformed those who fell victim to it into zombie-like Rotters. The ravaged area and the victims were enclosed in walls to keep the blight from spreading.

Sixteen years after this disaster the inventor's teenage son Zeke ventures into the ruined area looking for evidence to exonerate his father. When his mother Briar realizes that he is in danger she goes after him, facing zombies, drug-dealers, mad scientists and other dangers to save her son. The two encounter an array of colorful characters and must sort lies from truth to find one another again.

Briar and Zeke were both believable and sympathetic characters, and the people setting, and larger world-building were interesting and imaginative. I could see more adventures occurring in this alternate history. The one serious weakness that kept grating on me as I read was that the author never convincingly explains why so many people continue to live in the blighted area where they face constant deprivation and danger. In most similar novels this issue is handled in one of two ways: 1) There has been a fairly universal apocalypse and there is nowhere better to go. 2) Some outside force (the government, alien forcefields, etc) has created a barrier and keeps the people trapped inside it (because they are mutants, or exposed to a disease, or as a punishment). In this case it is relatively easy to get in and out of the city, and we are told that quite a few people come and go, usually to obtain drugs. So why doesn't everyone else leave?