Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

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.

Oh my God. I devoured this book. Swallowed it whole in a sitting.  It's all that with a big slice of more.

This book is grim, brutal, edge of your seat... Exactly what you need for a pandemic depression. Not a book for the squeamish or the tenderhearted. I am, obviously, neither. It was sitting on the Kindle (thank you Carolyn!!) and I had just finished reading Book 2 of the Glimmer Lake series (Suddenly Psychic and Semi Psychic Life). Enjoyable books about a group of friends over the age of 40 with chin hairs, tattoos, exhaustion and oh yeah, sudden psychic abilities. Cute books, highly recommend. So I was looking for my next read and opened Not Even Bones to see what it was and got sucked in like blood in a vampire's teeth.

Nita, the protagonist of the book, is young, timid and likes dissecting dead bodies that her parents sell on the dark web. Nita thinks she's a good person and she doesn't even think about the fact that all these dissected bodies were murdered by her mother. Until Mom brings home a living teenage boy that she wants to slowly dissect while keeping him alive.

Nita helps the boy escape and finds herself in his place (kind of). She's kidnapped and is finding herself being sold on the black market, in pieces. And then wow, the story goes to places you'd never dream.

So much happens. I don't want to spoil any of it but there's another character who is a 'zannie', a creature who eats people's pain. He's a great torturer. Untrustworthy. Terrifying.

But he's far from the most terrifying. Because Nita quickly changes in this situation. She's completely feral, her morals become a memory. She's Jane Doe with bad luck and even more savagery.

This is not an easy book and Nita isn't an easy heroine. Kovit, the zannie, is a terrible and yet perfect character. This is Book 1 of Market of Monsters, a trilogy. I just bought book 2, Only Ashes Remain. Book 3, When Villains Rise, the last of the trilogy will be released in September.

I fucking loved this book and I am not suggesting it for others. You know if it's a book you can tolerate. If I had known what it was before I started it, I might not have tried it. I'm glad I did. You might not be quite so glad.

But it's a stunner of a book.