Not Even Bones

by Rebecca Schaeffer

• ISBN13: 9781328863546
• Publish Date: 4 September 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

DNF @ 50%

Not Even Bones was high on my TBR and one of my top priorities at ALA this June! While I'm not necessarily huge on paranormal romance, the synopsis sounded amazing! I love the idea of a dark, Dexter-style book about a girl who finds herself on the brink of being sold for parts. I was lucky enough to receive a copy and started reading it shortly after I got home.

This book begins with Nita working on dissecting bodies for her mother (and loving every minute of it). Her mom brings home bodies of supernatural beings and Nita takes them apart for her mother to sell on the black market. It's work she has been doing, and loving, for her entire life. She doesn't concern herself with where the bodies came from or how they came to be deceased, but when her mom brings home a boy who's still alive, she's forced to confront the morality of what she's doing.

I thought that Nita's moral struggle was really interesting. She knows that taking apart a live person is wrong and decides to help him get away, knowing this will bring down her mother's wrath. I appreciated that she was able to understand the issue with what her mother was asking her to do, but it seemed like she never connected that back to the dead bodies she dissected and planned to continue dissecting. I'm assuming this was dealt with later in the book, but it's very strange to see how her brain is able to keep the two things separate.

Soon after helping the boy, Nina finds herself up for purchase and then has to deal with the fact that all "bad" supernatural beings may not be completely bad. Again, it's interesting to watch her realize that the world is actually shades of gray.

Unfortunately, all of her realizations drag on and on and I lost interest. Nothing in Not Even Bones was exactly bad, it was just boring. Even the big events lacked urgency and I found myself dreading reading another page of Nita sitting in a glass room and talking to the girl next to her or the guard who feeds off pain.

Everything in this book had potential to be really good! The world could have been interesting had we seen more of it, the variance in supernatural beings was interesting, and Nita's family dynamics while working for her criminal mother were certainly interesting. I just wish it had all moved along a bit faster. I gave up at 50% and at that point Nita was still sitting around talking to people. I'm sure many people will love Not Even Bones! It just isn't the book for me.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

4.5*

I love a dark book. Sometimes, books that are advertised as "dark" don't end up being such. Worry not, because Not Even Bones absolutely delivers on all promises of being messed up, while still managing to tell an intriguing story. I have seen some reviews that mention trigger warnings but... I wouldn't even know where to start, so I'll just say this: 'tis not for the squeamish among you. So why don't we talk about what I enjoyed about this one!

• The aforementioned disturbing fuckery. Oh how I love a book that makes me wonder how an author can come up with such depravity! I mean, when a book starts with a teenager prepping for an autopsy on her kitchen table, you know you're in for some shenanigans. And it truly is just the tip of the iceberg!



• How did I end up loving these characters with very questionable (if any) morality? I don't know, but I did. Nita was making all kinds of messed up choices based on self-preservation (or even, in the case of the dissections, pure morbid fascination), and sometimes she'd make me mad but then... nope. I liked her. I somehow liked a person who needs a scalpel in hand to relax. And then. Then I started to like one of the "bad" guys, and maybe I too am a terrible person, who can tell? In seriousness, I think that was kind of the point- that even though the main characters certainly aren't "good guys"... well, maybe there are no good guys. (You're welcome for sneaking that The 100 reference in.)



• Not everyone is... strictly human. There are all kinds of hybrid creatures- human passing, for the most part, but with some sort of supernatural ability or quirk. And because humanity as a whole is pretty horrible, people will pay a ton of money for umm bits and pieces of said supernatural beings. Hence the whole "dissection and sales" portion of the book. Even more, a lot of the supernatural creatures are loathed- and not just the ones with violent tendencies. It certainly brings up the very relevant real world question: why are many people so intolerant of anyone who's "different"? 



• The story had me on the edge of my seat! I had no idea how this was going to turn out, really. I didn't know at the time that there would be a sequel, and I am so happy that there will be. The story is non-stop excitement, even in the calmer, more character-driven moments.



• Speaking of character-driven moments, Nita (and even some of the other characters) went through some great development during the story. Nita was forced to do a whole lot of self-reflecting during the course of the book, and she had to come face to face with some things she might not have loved to acknowledge about herself. But she also found some strength and awareness she didn't know she had, too. The character growth was pretty fabulous.  

Will I Read the Sequel: Oh yes yes definitely, I will take it now please and thank you. (Nevermind the fact that it's probably as yet unwritten.)

Bottom Line: So wonderfully, completely demented, yet somehow managing to make me care for the equally maladjusted characters, this book definitely lived up to its premise!