Not Even Bones: 1 (Market of Monsters)

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Beast and Beauty: Nita and Kovit, obviously, but Diana and Adair fit even better since kelpies are actually completely non-human-like fish-reptile-esque creatures. Diana even gets a moment where she stops Nita from shooting Adair and tells her he’s not the monster, she is. It's got a lot of dark characters, and basically nobody in this story is a completely good person. They've all led to one person or another's death, and it's really horrifying, when you actually think about it. But some murderers (or murderer adjacent people) are better than others, and that's who we end up rooting for throughout the novel.

However, here is my biggest praise for this book: There is a Thai main character. If you know me then you’ll know that I am Thai, and I have NEVER read a single YA book where there is a Thai character. So I was literally jumping for joy and tweeting about it when I was introduced to Kovit. Not only is he Thai but he also tells us the creepy story about the krasue, a Thai folk tale involving a female monster that’s nothing more than a floating disembodied head with its spine and intestines still attached. Yes, that’s right, MY OWN GRANDMOTHER used to tell me that a krasue would come take me away if I didn’t fall asleep right away. HOW are you supposed to sleep after knowing about THAT THING!?

What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: To Nita, the new feeling she experiences for Kovit is "this weird, amorphous thing in her." Daddy's Little Villain: Gold — her father is the head of the Family, the criminal organization Kovit belongs to. Fire-Forged Friends: Nita and Kovit become friends out of a mutual sense of gratitude (he saved her from being tortured, and she subsequently saved his life) and a mutual desire to escape from Death Market. Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: This is how Nita feels about disobeying her mother to save Fabricio. "She'd done something, something bad, because it was good." Nita and Mirella get along, though weren't super close. Mirella cared for Nita, and vice versa, though the two didn't try to talk and understand each other deeply. Nita describes them as not being friends, but allies, and never forgets the sacrifices and pain Mirella went through in the Death Market.

Okay, but seriously, I really did like Kovit a lot. He was the type of unapologetic, morally grey character I like in a horror/fantasy stories. I just wasn’t a fan of Nita or, really, the entire plot. But major props to Rebecca Schaeffer for including such diverse characters! Unscaled Merfolk: There's Mirella, the shapeshifting human-dolphin, for one. Later, Nita sees a man in INHUP headquarters with eight octopus legs, whom she identifies as a ningyo (Japanese mermaid). Something I liked here is there is some seriously biting social commentary slipped in there? Set in Peru and following American characters, this book doesn’t shy away from the obvious discussion of colonialism and privilege in America. With a lead cast of almost entirely characters of color, it’s a very interesting read. There’s also some discussion of eugenics-ish politics, which as some of you may know is something I’m super passionate about. To teach Nita who's in charge, Reyes tells her she can either turn her pain receptors on and let Kovit torture her for an hour, or let him cut off three of her fingers. I will do my best to not scream about spoilers because, hi, there are some amazing twists in here. But the writing itself is also just so good even without the other elements?? I absolutely loved the sparse, blunt prose in here with it's morbid touches of a lovely poetic slant. For this to be a debut novel and be written this good??? Oh yes, we have talent here. I was also reminded so much of Victoria Schwab's writing with this book ( which I love) and how, even though this stands out uniquely on its own, it still was like something I wish I had to read after the hollowness left by This Savage Song& Vicious.I guess I just wish Nita's morals were explored a little more, but she also has character development to go through in the next book! Even though she did learn about drawing the line and deciding where her morals lie, I did feel like she could have just learned more and understood more.

was Kovit's former mentor when he was active in the Family, a mafia group Kovit joined as a child. He taught Kovit how to torture victims, and is shown to obviously enjoy it 'unnaturally' immensely himself.

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Nita tells Kovit to remove the bullet from her shoulder. After some time, Lorenzo and Jorge return, followed by Boulder. They ask what happened to Reyes, and Kovit reveals that the guards had sold her parts to the market. Boulder, looking for revenge, tells Kovit that he plans to eat a part of Nita every day; once Kovit has cut off all her parts and she has been eaten, he will give him some freedom. Nita is a morally grey heroine, and very complex one. She's not evil, nor is she completely good. She is very much a human growing up under her circumstances and I loved how her character and inner POV was done. This is the kind of main character I love to follow! She was mentioned to also be a zannie and always had a “visitor” in the basement of their house. She made sure young Kovit knew where his “food” came from, and Kovit loved her a lot. However, her personality rapidly deteriorated as Kovit grew up, and at one point, she tortured one of his friends. Shaken, he called INHUP, which swiftly captured and executed her. He expresses regret at indirectly killing her, though confesses she was no longer the person he used to know and care for.

Half-Human Hybrid: Kovit gives Nita a book that theorizes that unnaturals are the offspring of humans and creatures from another dimension. At least some of them have eight tentacles instead of legs. (In one named example they are purple.) Diana is able to serve as this to some degree for Adair. He's about to throw Nita and Kovit out when the cops start looking for them and only changes his mind because Diana asks him to. Henry seriously underestimates how attached Kovit is to Nita, admitting during their confrontation in Adair's store that he just doesn't get it. He truly couldn't fathom that Kovit would ever choose Nita over him, let alone how he'd react when he learned Henry planned to kill her... Henry clearly never once considered things would result the way they did when he threatened the girl he assumed was already Kovit's lover.With more resources now, Nita tends to Kovit's (who is weak against pain) wound. While he changes, Nita looks through Reyes' storage box and finds a picture of herself that was only on her phone. Going through Reyes' phone, she finds that she had texted someone from her own cell phone, sending Reyes pictures of her and revealing her abilities to her. Nita realizes that Fabricio, not her mother, was the one to betray her. She asks Kovit if he recognizes his name, and he tells her that he knows of an Alfredo Tacunan, an Argentinian lawyer who keeps criminals from getting in trouble. The Family that he worked for was one of his clients. Nita tells Kovit that they are going to leave, but not before burning down the market. In Not Even Bones, Boulder assumes consuming Nita's body parts would grant him immortality, but this is never proven right nor wrong.