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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
This book was fucking amazing! But also very disturbing.
I had to take breaks between chapters because the plot really got to me. I don´t know how many times I literally said NOOO please out loud.
I really liked Nita and i can´t wait to read the rest of the series and see where the plot will take her. Ohh and I ship her with Kovit like butter on bread.
I had to take breaks between chapters because the plot really got to me. I don´t know how many times I literally said NOOO please out loud.
I really liked Nita and i can´t wait to read the rest of the series and see where the plot will take her. Ohh and I ship her with Kovit like butter on bread.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Nita dissects supernatural creatures when her mother brings their bodies home to sell on the black market. She never asks where the bodies come from, how they were killed, or who they used to be. It's easier to go into her comfort zone when dissecting if she doesn't think of them as people. This all goes out the window when her mother brings a living boy home with the intent to cut off pieces of him to sell while he's still alive. Nita is faced with the worst part of her life and has to decide what she's going to do about it: follow her mom's lead and torture the boy or release him and face her mother's wrath. She decides to save him and, while hiding in a hotel room, she is abducted. Nita is imprisoned and put in the boy's place, a supernatural being about to be carved up for money.
Not Even Bones tackles relevant themes through a fantastical lens. The world building sucked me in. Different types of fantasticaly creatures are real and range from being rather innocuous and unrecognizable as different to extremely dangerous, feeding directly on humans. The International Non-Human Police controls information disseminated about these beings that on one hand leads to the protection of these people and on the other leads to misinformation and ignorance in the general public. The existence of supernaturals is common knowledge, but they typically choose to stay hidden due to fear and prejudice. They are legally treated as humans except if the being is on a list that has to feed on humans to survive. The black market is booming with supernatural byproducts with both legitimate and fraudulent, a reflection of the poaching of endangered animals for unfounded traditional uses. This world rings true on all levels due to how humanity acts towards people outside of societal norms and the treatment of people and animals on the black market.
Nita and her parents directly profit off of the exploitation and killing of supernatural beings, selling their wares on the black market. While her parents are enthusiastic participants in this, Nita is forced by circumstance and the cruel retaliation of her mother to work with them. She undeniably loves the dissections and would love to go to school to become a scientist in this field, which her parents would never allow. The one time she sabotaged their work, her mother retaliated in the most cruel way possible until it cost her money to continue due to Nita being unable to work. The living boy to be tortured makes Nita face all the things about her mom and her life she avoids by throwing herself into her work and by not seeing the dead she works on as people. To make matters more complicated, Nita and her mother are supernatural beings themselves who could suffer the same fate as the people they victimize. I feel for Nita since she essentially has no choice as a teen exploited by her parents, but she can't ignore that she is also complicit in exploiting others.
When the tables are turned and she is behind bars, Nita is faced with the reality of how she and her parents live. She is literally in the shoes of those she has carved up and how their bank account stays full. Nita regenerates and has the ability to manipulate her body chemistry, tissues, and organs. Whether it's true or not, people believe if they eat her flesh, they will become younger or live forever plus she has been actively supporting ideas like these with her work. Many of her preconceived notions are challenged through this experience, namely her hatred of zannies, people who feed off of pain. Is someone who commits immoral acts for survival more or less evil than someone who commits them because they choose to? Kovit, the zannie, befriends her and shows himself to be a normal person also capable of torturing someone to feed. She is also faced with more moral decisions that force her to see how far she will go to survive. Are her morals worth dying for?
Not Even Bones is a trip through the dark, seedy underbelly of a fantastical world. I loved every second of it. The world was so similar to our own with small but significant changes and deals with many of the same problems. It was unpredictable and full of moral ambiguity. In Nita's world, you can't think in absolutist black and white. There is too much nuance, too many exceptions, and too much at risk. I eagerly await the next in the series.
Not Even Bones tackles relevant themes through a fantastical lens. The world building sucked me in. Different types of fantasticaly creatures are real and range from being rather innocuous and unrecognizable as different to extremely dangerous, feeding directly on humans. The International Non-Human Police controls information disseminated about these beings that on one hand leads to the protection of these people and on the other leads to misinformation and ignorance in the general public. The existence of supernaturals is common knowledge, but they typically choose to stay hidden due to fear and prejudice. They are legally treated as humans except if the being is on a list that has to feed on humans to survive. The black market is booming with supernatural byproducts with both legitimate and fraudulent, a reflection of the poaching of endangered animals for unfounded traditional uses. This world rings true on all levels due to how humanity acts towards people outside of societal norms and the treatment of people and animals on the black market.
Nita and her parents directly profit off of the exploitation and killing of supernatural beings, selling their wares on the black market. While her parents are enthusiastic participants in this, Nita is forced by circumstance and the cruel retaliation of her mother to work with them. She undeniably loves the dissections and would love to go to school to become a scientist in this field, which her parents would never allow. The one time she sabotaged their work, her mother retaliated in the most cruel way possible until it cost her money to continue due to Nita being unable to work. The living boy to be tortured makes Nita face all the things about her mom and her life she avoids by throwing herself into her work and by not seeing the dead she works on as people. To make matters more complicated, Nita and her mother are supernatural beings themselves who could suffer the same fate as the people they victimize. I feel for Nita since she essentially has no choice as a teen exploited by her parents, but she can't ignore that she is also complicit in exploiting others.
When the tables are turned and she is behind bars, Nita is faced with the reality of how she and her parents live. She is literally in the shoes of those she has carved up and how their bank account stays full. Nita regenerates and has the ability to manipulate her body chemistry, tissues, and organs. Whether it's true or not, people believe if they eat her flesh, they will become younger or live forever plus she has been actively supporting ideas like these with her work. Many of her preconceived notions are challenged through this experience, namely her hatred of zannies, people who feed off of pain. Is someone who commits immoral acts for survival more or less evil than someone who commits them because they choose to? Kovit, the zannie, befriends her and shows himself to be a normal person also capable of torturing someone to feed. She is also faced with more moral decisions that force her to see how far she will go to survive. Are her morals worth dying for?
Not Even Bones is a trip through the dark, seedy underbelly of a fantastical world. I loved every second of it. The world was so similar to our own with small but significant changes and deals with many of the same problems. It was unpredictable and full of moral ambiguity. In Nita's world, you can't think in absolutist black and white. There is too much nuance, too many exceptions, and too much at risk. I eagerly await the next in the series.
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Does this count as cannibalism? No, cause they’re different species?? It sure felt like cannibalism •__•
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Alright, this books is pretty well-written and descriptive. Believe me when I say not to eat during the fight scenes because you will throw up from all the descriptive gore. The book is pretty “bone-chilling”(get it? Cause the title is Not eve- …you know I mean). The plot has some common cliches here in there, but it still keeps you on your toes (wink wink, anyone get the reference lol). A lot of times the dark plot makes the small instances of normalcy stand out and create like a push and pull situation that only sucks you more in. Characters are quite interesting and all of them are morally gray except maybe Boulder, Reyes, and couple minor characters The villains tend to be very morally black, and the rest characters are somewhere on the gray side of morals, which to me is a genius choice for a book in this setting. The characters and the details are used very well to portray identity and morals. Nita imagining a scalpel to calm down, Kovid’s rules, Lorenzo and Jorge relationship . These details really added personality and flaws to the characters. If you want a book that explores, justification for killing, pain, and other dark subjects and some supernatural gore mixed in, this might be the perfect fit for you. Beware there’s a lot of dark subjects that can be triggering for people in this book. Overall a very good read, and exciting start to the series, Can’t wait to read the other ones.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror
Minor: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Torture, Trafficking, Murder
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No