The Batiste family consists of Daddy (Claude), his daughter Esch (the narrator), and his sons Randall, Skeetah (Jason), and Junior.

As the water continues to rise, they make a desperate bid to swim to another house on a hill, but in the maelstrom China and her puppies are lost.

After the end of the storm, the entire town has been leveled, Manny refuses to take responsibility for Esch's baby, and Skeetah still holds out hope that he will find China.

[4] In March/April 2012 issue of Bookmarks, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) with the summary saying, "A few critics noted that Salvage the Bones could have been a disaster with its shopworn focus on rural poverty but that Ward's sensitive and honest handling of familial relationships and passions amid such circumstance makes the novel a standout in its genre".

[6] Similarly the New York Times Sunday Book Review called the novel "a taut, wily novel, smartly plotted and voluptuously written".