SYNOPSIS
Nita doesn't murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet--her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they've been "acquired." Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared teenage boy is a step too far. But when she decides to save her mother's victim, she ends up sold in his place--because Nita herself isn't exactly "human." She has the ability to alter her biology, a talent that is priceless on the black market. Now on the other side of the bars, if she wants to escape, Nita must ask herself if she's willing to become the worst kind of monster.
MY INITIAL TAKE
"Not Even Bones" sucked me in and kept me up late at night reading. This fairly gruesome novel is a departure from my usual choice in stories. I prefer to follow heroic characters in stories with at least a bittersweet ending if it can't be happy, but Rebecca Schaeffer created a cast of antiheroes and straight-out villains that force you to love them, despite their warning signs.
Nita, a seventeen-year-old butcher on the black market, loves her job working with dead bodies, justifying that she has never personally killed anyone. She goes through several moral crises over the course of the book, but ultimately has no intent on changing her morals or crossing back over to the light--she is a part of the underground world through and through, and she intends to stay there. She is joined by the male lead Kovit, a Thai zannie (a vampire-like creature that feeds off physical pain), who works for the American mafia as a torturer. These two make no excuses for who they are, insisting that they are not misunderstood or helpless victims of their situations. They are, rather, active members of the criminal underworld who live there because they choose to be. While they arguably cannot leave the underworld without facing consequences, Nita points out that is in itself a choice. They are not good people and probably very bad ones, but nonetheless, they are hilarious, with delightful interactions.
The supporting cast is no less impressive. Reyes is a villain you love to hate for her tough, no-nonsense behavior and her paranoia over her very precarious position as the "queen of parts." Boulder is a creep, eating the raw body parts of supernatural beings...right in front of them. And Mirella, one of the more "good" characters, is ruthless in her quest to survive and hell-bent on vengeance.
WHAT I LOVED THE MOST
A good hero is always a joy to read about--they're fun to root for, easy to love, and they inspire others to find kindness in the world. A good villain, however, is always fun. They can go further, to more dramatic extremes, to reach their goals. They aren't held back by morals to making the "right" decision or sacrificing what they love for the greater good.
While Nita isn't a villain (yet), she is a distinctly morally ambiguous character. Early on, you can argue that she has little choice in her career. Her domineering and abusive mother would never let her leave, and has taught her a harsh lesson in what happens when Nita says "no." Still, Nita wants to think of herself as a decent person, at best, and at the very least, not the monster her mother is. This keeps her from completely losing herself. Something brought up late in the book is the importance of boundaries, even for villainous characters. A character who has been deeper in the criminal underworld than Nita has ever gone warns her of the importance of not losing herself to the brutality of the black market. She doesn't need to be moral, but she should keep some hard rules and lines.
This book is able to go places that others can't, because its characters are not good people. It explores the psyche of rising villains by examining what kind of life leads a person to kill and sell others on the black market, while also showing that no one is a total monster...at least, that such people don't last long. And it completely demolishes the concept of the Freudian excuse. Nothing in any of the characters' backstories is used to justify their actions--they do this because they enjoy it and because it grants them something that improves their lives. I am excited to read the next installments of "Market of Monsters" and to see how Nita evolves.
LOVING CRITICISM
Schaeffer's descriptions can get a little...extra. It might just be my personal preference, but while Nita's creative descriptions of Kovit's Slasher Smile are clearly meant to get his dangerousness and amoral personality across to the reader, they get pretty lengthy and awkward. This is especially the case when lengthy descriptions are repeatedly used with these characters.
MY FAVORITE CHARACTER
Choosing a favorite character is tough when each character has such a strong presence, but I would have to say Kovit is my favorite in this book. He's dramatic, he's over the top, and he's brutally honest about who he is. There is no woe-is-me from this character, and he isn't a broken man to be fixed. He doesn't want to be fixed, a nice break from other male leads, since, let's be real, the "broken man needs to be healed by a kind and gentle woman's love" is a little tiresome.
What really makes him a great character is how delightfully unhinged he gets. Man is a member of the American mafia, and he shows it. In the scenes where he tortures characters, he enjoys every minute of it, and in the scenes where he chooses to be vulnerable, he shows a real, human quality. Schaeffer has done an excellent job of creating complex characters that feel like real people.
SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?
This book is gory and gruesome, with murders, torture, and violence against children. If you have any triggers related to violence or are under the age of sixteen, then I do not recommend this book for you. But if you like stories that explore morality, have fast-paced action, and morally ambiguous plotlines, then this is the book for you.
You can buy "Not Even Bones" on Amazon or your favorite bookstore. The Webtoon adaption of the same name is available for free online and currently on-going.
No comments:
Post a Comment