Rating: 4.5 Stars
Publication: September 3rd, 2019
Not Even Bones #2
Genre: Fantasy
Format: ARC
Summary:
Dexter meets This Savage Song in this dark fantasy about a girl who sells magical body parts on the black market until she’s betrayed. Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet, her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies. Until one day her mother brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out. Dissecting living people is a step too far and when she tries to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold on the black market in his place because Nita herself is a supernatural being. After experiencing the other side of the bars, Nita is going to make sure no one can ever capture her again. She did one good deed, and it cost her everything. Now she’s going to do a lot of bad deeds to get it all back.
Thoughts:
After the events of the first book all Nita wants is to start over without having to look over her shoulder constantly, but with her identity plastered all over the dark web the black market wont stop hunting her unless she gives herself such a terrifying reputation that no one will dare cross her. We get to see Nita struggle to come to terms with her decisions and the killer shes becoming. Justifying her actions until she can no longer hide from the truth that she has more in common with the monsters in her life than she wants to admit. She also has an unhealthy coping mechanism for her stress and social anxiety by wishing for her scapel and a dead body to dissect. Not a surprise considering how she was raised. On top of her mothers line of work selling body parts on the black market, Nita had to deal with her short temper and cruel streak.
Finally out from under her mothers thumb Nita is free to make her own choices and that includes meeting back up with Kovit, the pain eating zannie who helped her escape the black market. With his help Nita plans to take revenge on the boy who sold her to the black market. These two dark and twisted characters were both super compelling. I loved their relationship and how after being isolated for so long they have each other. Instead of bringing out the worse instincts in each other by encouraging more murder they seem to actually hold each other more accountable. We meet a selkie with a sense of humour and a knack for acquiring all kinds of information. The hacker the selkie introduces to Nita and Kovit also happens to be a ghoul with a strong sense of right and wrong.
The plot was intense and high stakes with Nita being hunted and doing some hunting of her own. I really enjoyed her strategizing on how to avoid capture, stop the hunters, and get her revenge. There werent that many surprised, but I also wasnt sure what would happen next. The pace was super gripping and had the perfect balance of inner and external struggle for me. The characters dont develop that much, but I didnt mind it because I didnt want them to suddenly realize the errors of their ways and stop seeking revenge. The writing was so easy to get lost in that the pages just flew by. It had a nice flow to it and a good amount of natural dialogue. I could have read all of it in one day. I enjoyed this sequel more than the first book and felt like even the writing has improved.
I loved reading books that take place somewhere Im familiar with. Since I live in Canada and have visited Toronto I feel like I could really picture the descriptions of the setting. The world is just like our own, but with a whole bunch of different types of fascinating paranormal creatures based on all kinds of mythologies. The way they were incorporated onto the world felt pretty realistic. They have their own protection agency and struggles they have to face for being different. I did find it weird that the agency wasnt aware or didnt care that they had a poisonous plant on the property. I enjoyed the themes of morality, prejudice, and revenge. I cant wait to read the third book and I totally recommend the series if you're into monsters and revenge stories like me.
Diversity: POC MC
Trigger/Content Warnings: Murder, Violence, Blood, Torture, Social Anxiety, Discrimination, Grief, Loss of a Parent,
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