NOT EVEN BONES
by Rebecca Schaeffer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: September 4, 2018
From Goodreads:
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.” But when her mom brings home a live specimen, Nita decides she wants out — dissecting living people is a step too far.
But 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. Now Nita is on the other side of the bars, and there is no line she won’t cross to escape and make sure no one can ever capture her again.
Nita did a good deed, and it cost her everything. Now she’s going to do a lot of bad deeds to get it all back.
I was provided with a copy of Not Even Bones by the good people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Raincoast Books in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The comparison of Dexter meets This Savage Song came from the description of Not Even Bones. This Savage Song was pretty good and I was a big fan of Dexter. While this book didn’t quite reach Dexter levels, it has tons and tons of promise.
Everything is set in the world we know and love, with a little extra. Monsters exist, though the term monster is relative. There are several species of… I don’t know, non-humans. Unnaturals? You get my drift. Some of them are quite harmless, while others are dangerous. Or are they?
Nita, and the rest of NEB’s characters are decent, though I had trouble connecting with them. They seemed to always be making the right decision, or lamenting over the fact that they didn’t make the right decision.
The plot was interesting, though it did move a lot slower than I thought it would. Things that I thought were small stops in the overall story ended up being much bigger events than I had thought. The ending was okay, but left me feeling unfulfilled.
Right now, you’re probably thinking I sound like I didn’t really dig this book. If everything is ‘meh’ than why do I have positive feelings toward it?
What this book really has going for it is the books beyond this one. Not Even Bones has set the world and characters up for something that could be pretty amazing. I’ll be keeping my eye out for a sequel on this one.
Fun fact about this post: Today is the start of a me having a WHOLE WEEK OFF!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Great review! This book was the YA pick for the subscription box I have with my hometown indie bookstore, and I am excited to read it! I don’t mind slow moving plots if there is good worldbuilding and character development, so I hope I enjoy it!