Well I found this book delightfully bloody. It's what was promised--but I find not every YA book delivers on the allure of blood. It's not gothic creepy--more slasher-flick, monster-horror creepy. Very fun and fast read, with decently adept writing. I also very much enjoyed the rumination of what it means to be a monster. Perfect October read.

This is a YA book that I’d recommend with caution, but I enjoyed it. There are scenes of violence, and some scenes that are really gory, and the main characters are pretty morally grey.
Nita is not your normal teenager. Living with her mother, Nita has always had an affinity for cutting things. She turns a blind eye to some of the jobs her mother does, but she will dissect bodies and help with the sale of parts on the black market. However, when her mother brings a live boy back and asks Nita to cut him Nita cannot bring herself to do so.
Very interesting!

I received an eARC of Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer from Netgalley, and I am so excited to share my thoughts on this bloody, poignant, monster book! Read on to find out why I gave it 5 stars.

So if you follow me on Goodreads you will see that I gave this book 4.5 stars, but honestly, it’s worth rounding it up to 5. The more I think about this one the more I love it. This Savage Song really is an excellent comparison, as Not Even Bones delves deep into issues of immoral and amorality, what it means to be a monster, and where monsters lurk in everyday life.

“Stories here didn’t get neat endings tied up in a bow.”

The main character of the story, Nita, was instantly relatable to me. She enjoys listening to show tunes while she dissects monsters. As someone with both a background in science and signing, I found my new best friend. But there is so much more to Nita! She has a very complicated relationship with both of her parents and the rest of the Unnatural world of monsters. I almost got a Mother Gothel vibe from her mother, with Nita being the sheltered protected Rapunzel.

The pacing of the book is the one critique I had. There’s a section in the middle that gets repetitive, but overall it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story.

The real meat of the book is in its themes. Nita struggles to feel like a proper human in a lot of ways. She worries that she doesn’t grieve correctly, or empathize correctly. Issues like human trafficking, unjust incarceration, racism (or speciesism in this case), and the objectification of people take the forefront. All of these elements kept me thinking, and I was fascinated to see how the characters in the book related to these themes.

“Most people weren’t working with people who reveled in the pain of others. Right?”

More and more lately, I am finding books that include primary characters that aren’t always the good guy. Rin from The Poppy War is the first example that springs to mind. It forces the reader to consider that in some instances a net positive change for the world can require negative acts from an individual. Seeing the effect of those negative choices and actions is so important. I love seeing this addressed more frequently.

If you can stomach some gore and blood in your dark fantasy, then keep an eye out for this one on September 4th!

All quotes are taken from the eARC and are subject to change.

Nita dissects supernatural creatures at her mother's behest and they sell the body parts on the black market. Nita enjoys her dissection but she is a little scared of her mother, for good reason, and when she defies her she finds herself in a cage ready to be sold on the black market herself.

I enjoyed this depraved little story. The characters are compelling if somewhat... despicable and the hook is original and well sustained. I will probably seek out the next one even though it isn't perfect. I do think the plot is unfocused at times, flitting from one thing to another but there's a good foundation and I feel like it's going to be a series that will get stronger as it goes. I hope I'm right!

However, I could not finish Not for Bones.

DNF- I couldn’t connect with Nita as a character. I did feel sympathy for her being sold by her mother to the black market in the Amazon jungle (assuming she is right about that). However, outside of that, I couldn’t connect with her, Mirella or Kovit. It made no sense that her father would let her mother do such a thing (and maybe all this is explained later but I was never hooked enough to continue with the book to care enough to find out).

What most disappointed me was how much potential this book had- I did request it and I did want to read it. I hadn’t read a “necro” book before and was excited to read something different. The suspense, potential to build between empathy and revulsion (aka The Girl With all the Gifts by Carey) was definitely there but never accomplished. Nita could’ve have been made much more complex rather than making her someone who just was able to turn a blind eye to what her mother did if the body came back did. If we could explore her thought process during dissection… and then make that go deeper when her mother came home with a living body… make the characters more 3D and their interactions more dynamic, it could’ve made the ability to care and get lost in the thickening of the plot, the character conflicts much more palatable.

This is definitely one of those books that I’d recommend with caution, but I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would initially.
Nita is not your normal teenager. Living with her mother, Nita has always had an affinity for cutting things. She turns a blind eye to some of the jobs her mother does, but she will dissect bodies and help with the sale of parts on the black market. However, when her mother brings a live boy back and asks Nita to cut him Nita cannot bring herself to do so.
Nita’s help in the boy’s escape sets in place an awful chain of events that results in Nita being kidnapped and put in a cage. People are intrigued by her ability to cut off pain and heal herself. They are prepared to pay serious money for her, and so we watch Nita in her desperate attempts to escape.
I don’t want to give the details away, but things are not what we’re led to believe. There seems to be clear hints of some kind of plot that Nita is unaware of. A lot of violence, and some sinister characters/events but there was an attempt to portray the humanity of characters who, in many eyes, would be seen as monsters.
A huge thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Nita has always had an interest in anatomy so jumping into the family business didn’t seem like a bad thing when it let Nita study the corpses her mother brought home. You see, there’s a market for the body parts of supernatural beings and Nita turns a blind eye to how her mother acquires these beings in the interest of her studies.

Nita however never expected her mother to show up one day with a live boy captive and still expect Nita to still procure the necessary body parts for profit. This is the line that rattles Nita to her part in the family business and when she defies her mother then next thing Nita knows the tables are turned and she’s waking up in her own cage having been captured on the black market.

Well now, it would probably go without saying that Not Even Bones would not be a read for the faint of heart. Gone are the super special heroine who uses her super special powers fighting the evil of the world and in walks dark and twisted Nita and her diabolical mother. Yep, a bit of a gruesome tale right from the start but certainly a creative young adult paranormal fantasy read.

This one has the urban fantasy feel being set in a world like ours only with paranormals existing among the humans but does take place in areas not often used in novels. Nita is also completely different than regular characters with the Dexter comparison really showing. Not sure I ever really “rooted” for her but some may and her story was certainly compelling. This is one I’d recommend to those looking for a more dark and twisted read out of the norm.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Gritty. Blood-drenched. Action-packed. This book met all my expectations! DON'T read this book while eating a nice meal, especially the bits about dissection.

I learned more than I need to know about the disassembly of human anatomy, and it was fascinating. But what makes this book a stand-out is the way it raises gruesome "what if's" and holds up a mirror to the reader's face. What if your body parts were about to be sold off to the highest bidder. What would you do to escape? What lines would you cross?

There are so many things I loved. Nita has depth. Fear of her mother, who brings home the corpses Nita dissects. Fear of the world around her. She learned at an early age to keep her mouth shut to avoid betraying her family's dark secrets. And fear, once she comes to understand the part she plays in the dangerous black market for supernatural body parts, of who and what she is. She thought her role was okay. Why not cut them up, they're already dead? But is it?

Not Even Bones takes the reader into an enchanting fantasy world that forces them to think closely about the way we categorize people, and whether it's fair or inherently prejudiced. It keeps the turning pages until it finally reveals Nita's fate.

Highly recommended!

Review will post 9/28 on thewingedpen.com.

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect and it took me a little bit to understand what the unnaturals were. There were so many twists in this book and they were executed perfectly by Schaeffer. I loved the little bit of gore with reminders about morality from an unexpected source. This book was wonderful and I need another one - stat!

This book was an intense, quick read, and I can't help but wish I could get my hands on what must be the forthcoming sequel. Schaeffer builds a dark, believable world, and pulls no punches with the gore. This book isn't perfect- some elements are stilted, and the descriptions are sometimes lacking. Because this is a first novel, though, I'm interested to see how the author grows in the next book. And quite honestly, the book is gripping. This will be an easy sell to reluctant readers who aren't bothered by a bit of gore. It's definitely not for the faint-hearted, and the levels of body related horror might be a bit too intense for many teens. That said, I personally am looking forward to this author's next entry.

This was so unique and something that I didn't even know I needed! I am completely blown away by not just the story, but the entire world that this author has created. And also that ending WOW!!

My favorite part about this book has to be the world. I love monster books and Schaeffer takes a whole new spin on the monter/paranormal world. She has created some unique characters and they were all 100% creepy and amazing! I didn't think I could be surprised or learn anything new in this genre and she has managed to totally surprise me and teach me so many new things!

I also loved the ick factor! Nita loves to dissect monsters and the author doens't shy away from showing how addicted Nita is to this part of herself. It's strange and gross and just so cool!

If you are looking for something completely different than anything else on the shelf you need to pick this one up! It's amazing!

If you like your YA on the gruesome side, NOT EVEN BONES is definitely up your alley. A bloody, macabre, and masterful take on the supernatural.

Wow! I have to agree with the other positive reviews I read. This book is not for the faint of heart (or stomach). It does dive into the uncomfortable, sad and unfair world of human trafficking, but with a supernatural twist. It focuses on the world of illegally acquiring supernatural beings who possess highly desired abilities, and selling them to buyers on the black market. The heroine is badass, complicated, and not easy to morally define. This was delightfully gruesome, and amazing for doing right for others and getting retribution in the process. If you cannot handle graphic bodily details. be warned. But this kept me hooked, and everything points to a sequel. It does end on a huge cliffhanger ;) Well done, Rebecca Schaeffer!

This book was amazing! It was everything I've been wanting in a book for the last couple years, but haven't been able to find. It was tightly-paced and character driven, and every time I thought I knew what was going to happen it took a sharp turn in the opposite direction. Rebecca plays with the conventions of the suspense and horror genres, and I loved every second of it. The characters leave you wondering about ethics and holding the monster within at bay, without ever feeling preachy or overbearing. Overall, this book was amazing and I'll be shoving it in everyone's faces come September 4th.

Not Even Bones was one of the most unique fantasy books I've read in a long time. I loved that the fantasy elements were interwoven in our world in believable yet unique ways. Monsters, both new and old, are a very real part of this alternate world and our MC is one along with her mother.

Nita reminded me very much of Dexter. They both love what they do, though Nita doesn't do the killing, yet they have soft spots for their family. But when Nita goes out on a limb and it betrayed, she's stuck in the world she's been working for her whole life.

The side characters in this one were utterly fantastic. I love Mirellia and how she seemed to be Nita's first ever friend. I wanted a little more from her parents, however. They aren't in the story for very long before Nita is sold but I think I wanted a little more from her father, specifically, to better understand the family dynamic. The mother was a no nonsense monster. She slaughtered monsters to continue her fortune and seemed to be very good at it. Her father, however, seemed to not belong. He stayed back in the states to sell their products but also keep up pretense that they were a normal family. I honestly didn't understand how he could let his wife and only daughter leave for three years to hunt monsters all over the world. He seemed to have minimal contact with his family and it doesn't seem to fit with Nita's love for him.

Our two MC's in this one aren't heroes by any means. Nor are they good people at all. But Rebecca Schaeffer does a fantastic job of making me care for them. I wanted them to escape and find their lives again. Korvo tortures people and eats their pain, yet I felt sorry for the situation he was stuck in. I thought he deserved better. I wanted Nita to go home to her father and dissect things again. I was rooting for her to escape the island and enroll in college. These are anti-heroes for sure but that didn't make their plight appeal to me any less.

The twists and turns of this one kept me guessing and rethinking everything I thought I knew. The ending cliffhanger had me wanting to throw my kindle at the wall in frustration and shock. It was a great twist, leaving me itching for the next one. That's exactly what a good cliffhanger does.

Oh, this was fun. "Fun" might be a weird adjective to apply to a book that's relentlessly dark and violent, but it's true--the action never let up and main character was a clever, cool-headed guide through her horrific and fascinating world. NOT EVEN BONES feels fresh and different in a lot of ways: the South American jungle setting isn't one I've encountered in YA before, and while I guess this is technically contemporary fantasy, it reads more like a thriller. Highly recommended (for those who can handle body horror)!

Absolutely adored this one. Completely unique and delightfully gory, this is a must-by for all YA collections.

Wow.

Just...wow. In a good way. In the best way. You want to know how to do horror and gore and also troubled family dynamics and colonialism in a single YA book? Look no further. Rebecca Schaeffer's Not Even Bones is your dark remedy to the fact that Darkdawn got pushed back. This is one of the most innovative books I've read all year, and it doesn't even seem to be trying hard. The whole concept feels so effortless, so intuitive, that you can miss how much thought and effort went into crafting this world and Nita's place within it.

Nita is the daughter of some Very Bad People, traffickers in human remains. Specifically the remains of Unnaturals, people who have anything from enhanced healing to just rose-pink melanin. It doesn't matter if those abilities persist after death, or accomplish anything: if there's an Unnatural, someone will want the body.

That's where Nita comes in. Nita doesn't kill or maim. That's as far as she's willing to think about things, because she doesn't like feeling bad. And dissecting bodies of the conveniently-already-dead makes her feel good. She really enjoys her work. Removing organs and powdering bone is the life she wants. Even when she's kidnapped to be sold, she wants to get back to the life she had. Right?

Nita is an unusual but hardly unprecedented heroine in her clinical remove from her own emotions. She prefers medical textbooks and sterile dissection rooms to human interaction, but then again, with whom would she interact? Her parents have moved her all around the world and isolated her, since their black market business doesn't exactly make friends. It's hard to say whether it's emotional trauma and neglect that have rendered her remote from others, or whether she has some innate neurological differences. I'm glad that it's ambiguous, since slapping labels on things destroys the nuance of individuals, who are, as the book so succinctly and excellently points out: "people were never just one thing."

Nobody is what they seem, and not in a trite, romantic way. The rude, broody hunk really is a sadistic maniac. No part of his sadistic mania is downplayed just because he also happened to have a rough childhood or supernatural hungers. This book makes no excuses for its characters, and yet manages to paint each of them as fully formed human beings. Not evil caricatures. Not even blood-spattered anti-heroes.

This has been compared to Dexter, which I see superficially, but it's actually much closer to Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff. Mia and Nita don't overlay perfectly, but Mia's love of chemistry and Nita's expertise in biology leads me to think they would get along. The heroines wrestle with trading their hearts for stones, so as to not feel badly about cutting people up. They both want vengeance and survival, not to gratify an urge.

Kovit, Nita's maybe-captor maybe-ally, does need to feed an urge, but not for serial murder. He literally must feed on pain in order to survive. Though presumably he could get by on haunting ERs and speed-dating venues, causing pain directly is far more delicious to him. Literally. He is part of a particular strain of Unnatural who gravitate toward dictatorial regimes and crime families for employment, since torture feeds their bodies—and wreaks havoc with their minds. Having to subsist on human misery—from infancy no less—can skew anyone's perceptions.

Perception of morality rather than absolute morality is a consistent theme in Not Even Bones, done with a deft touch. Two teenagers trying to survive in an already pitch-dark moral universe can only choose between bad and worse. And sure, they could swear to avenge their brethren and take down all black market crime, but their skills and resources are limited. Nita doesn't even know how to throw a punch, and she misses about half the shots she takes with her gun (thank you, Rebecca Schaeffer, for making that realistic). Ideals die quickly in this world, but not hope.

A lot of times I have trouble with YA not considering the implications of its own fantasy or SF elements. Not Even Bones is not one of those books; it is meticulously and brilliantly conceived in the broad strokes and the details. Geopolitics and international police forces interact in the background of Nita's life as she goes about her daily business of dissection and research.

What impresses me most is that Schaeffer understands how to build a world not from facts but also from ignorance. No one fully understands how certain Unnatural traits work or where they come from, and regular humans exploit and oppress Unnaturals out of fear or mistaken notions. Just like consuming tiger and pangolin for supposed magical qualities, people eat or even snort parts of Unnatural bodies to gain real or imagined effects. And to justify it to themselves, they consistently refer to Unnaturals by “it” or “that,” dehumanizing them as much as possible.

But humanity is a tricky concept, and blurry around the edges. Certainly the kidnappers, mobsters, and others involved in the black market have lost their humanity. Or, if they represent humanity—neither Nita nor Kovit have known anything else, after all—then maybe being human isn’t what they want in the end.

And that ending! I find cliffhangers torturous, but usually because they're contrived. This ending is torturous because there is another entire year before the next book comes out. I wanted to howl. I think my "no!" did hit an impressively high octave when I read the last page. But I can't complain, because this is the perfect example of a cliffhanger done right: the main story has been satisfyingly concluded, but the larger arc of loose ends carries questions—and not action—beyond the final page. I'm sure there will be action, and plenty of it, but nothing felt left undone for this book.

Not Even Bones will be published September 4th.

Originally, I’d given this 4 stars on goodreads and honestly?

I don’t know why. I loved this book. Why would I give it 4 stars? Not Even Bones was everything dark and morally grey I wanted in a book for so long. Screw 4 stars. This deserves all 5 of them.

Past Mith was not thinking, evidently, but current Mith—me!! current me!—is thinking. And I say that this book is a solid debut and you need to pre-order if you can.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably craved a dark YA that pushes the boundaries. Or wished a book dug a little deeper, got a little—a lot—darker. Schaeffer does that. I hope she continues to do that.

I just loved it. I loved how messy and grey the main character was. How deeply Not Good all the other characters acted. But, Nita. Man, if Nita doesn’t have my heart—I’ll refrain from including a bad line here. She was such a badass and she got things done. She was logical, level-headed, and didn’t suffer from that self-sacrificing nonsense. She was always her first priority and I adored it.

Not Even Bones has a lot of great things going on for it, but one of my favourite parts was how Schaeffer talked about privilege in the book. It’s not something I’m super nuanced in actually, properly discussing, unfortunately, but it is something I’m becoming more and more aware of and I’m glad Schaeffer brought it up.

There wasn’t a lot that really bothered me? I mean, maybe a small thing here or there, but mostly that was the different supernaturals mentioned. They each had something that made them unique, and dropping stuff like that doesn’t help my confusion lmao. I loved that they were part of the world, though.

I was not expecting most of what happens in this book outside of what’s mentioned in the synopsis. So all the twists? Definitely caught me off guard and definitely added to my enjoyment of the book. It was also what made Not Even Bones so difficult to put down!

Would I recommend this? Oh, yes. Yes, I definitely would. Dark, sort of gory, and bloody, this was a wild start and a wilder finish. If you’re squeamish, maybe skip this one. But if you’re not, I definitely say check it out!

Wow, so.... the "Dexter meets This Savage Song" comparison really encapsulates this? This is a deeply fucked up book, in a good way. You know how sometimes, you read YA fantasy and you just feel like it could have gone darker and it doesn’t? Not Even Bones just keeps Going There.

Not Even Bones follows Nita, a girl who dissects other supernatural beings for the black market - until she’s sold into the black market herself. So first of all, this book is impossible to put down and so addicting. It's almost a thriller and almost an urban fantasy book and either way, it's so fun to read. I never knew what was coming next - all I knew was that I was desperate to find out.

And better yet, this book features some seriously cool worldbuilding. Nita lives in a world where supernatural beings are prized for their parts but despised for their being, but also look exactly like other humans.

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.

Okay, I’ve enthused a lot about the worldbuilding and all that, but I really think what made this book for me was the character work. All these lead characters are so awful and I love them. This is one of those books where the leads toe the line between villain and hero. Also, if you don’t like villain leads, you should probably not read this. Lol.

One of the things I really liked about this book is that the lead character doesn’t prioritize the survival of other people over herself. In a lot of fiction I’ve read with these vibes, the leads are something I’d like to call Unrealistically Good. Not to shit on unrealistically self-sacrificing people, but people do not tend to be willing to risk their lives for others at the drop of a hat. Nita, by contrast, is out for herself. And it’s not even what makes her an antihero!! She’s a total antihero, don’t get me wrong, but I think this book really understands the general human impulse to save your own skin [haha. Skin.]. Instead of prioritizing normal morals, this book puts the emphasis on a personal moral code, and the lines we refuse to cross so we do not lose our humanity. Nita is willing to kill and dismember and dissect, but she has lines.

Oh, and Nita? I love Nita. I would die for Nita. Her character development is incredibly excellent. And also Kovit is… a character. I can’t spoil shit but I love them and I also really like a certain side character and I am so here for it.

Oh, and this book in general was pretty twisty, but there was also this one twist in this book that I think might have been the end of my brain. I guess plot twists a lot but this was just… fucking wild, I feel like I should have guessed it and I did not at all. I need the second book immediately. @Rebecca Schaeffer where are you give me the fucking second book I need this

I guess if I were to critique this, I would say that the writing is a bit… fanfictiony? I don’t know, man, it’s a debut and it happens.

Anyway, you should read this. It is so fucked up and the lead and love interest are both so terrible and it scared me shitless and it is the BEST.
TW: so much body horror, sadism.