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A review by ana24gs
Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer
Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.
I do not usually review the books that I have abandoned, especially because I do not usually abandon books that I have advanced more than half of it. But Not Even Bones is one of those few books that I started and liked, but the more I read, the less it made sense to keep reading.
Not Even Bones has a very interesting premise, a girl who sells organs of magical creatures on the black market, but one day she is captured because she is a magical creature and now they want to sell her, with effort she manages to escape and now she will do everything so that she is not captured again. That is the vague idea of the book and sadly it seems to be the only thing the author really planned. I feel that the moment Nita (the protagonist) is captured, the author began to write on the road without planning the reasons for the scenes. In short, while reading I felt that the book did not know where to go, it is as if the author had a very basic idea of what she wanted to write, but it was not enough for a whole story so while writing she puts filler in.
Now, the positive thing that I saw in it is the representation of Peru, I am Peruvian and it seemed very organic to me the way she incorporated little things from the culture and history of Peru. It was not wow, but compared to the representation in The Bane Chronicles you could tell that the author knew what she was talking about and was informed (you don't have to inform yourself so much to add other cultures, and if you do have doubts as to whether it is a good representation or not, there are sensitive readers who will be able to tell if your representation is harmful or realistic).
Another positive aspect is Nita's path of realization, she did not have a great knowledge of this entire industry of human trafficking and now that she had to experience it in first person she is realizing how hypocritical she had been with herself and how she always had ignored this part of her job. In addition, she also shows how human trafficking can totally ruin a person's life, that Nita can no longer attend universities because her image is already tainted by this event and it will be difficult to get it out of her.
Although there were aspects that I liked, the little planning of the book (in my opinion) made me not understand what the author wanted. Personally, I think it would have been thousand times more interesting for Nita to work alone, for bad people to give her bodies and she dissected them for them. Thus Nita already has a much greater reputation in the black market, in addition to being able to collect more information from this industry that would have helped her at the time of her kidnapping where, instead of planning a plan that went well by sheer luck, she would have known heartbreaking stories of different unnatural beings in addition to living it in her own skin and thus starting a revolt, escape and from there ... I don't know, make Nita become an organ seller by becoming what she never planned to be because it was the only way to earn money to get out of the place where they kept her, or with all her colleagues to start dismantling the traffic establishments (maybe that happens in the book but as I left it I will never know).
Finally, I don't know why the heck the author is stating that the love interest for these books is going to be a literal torturer. NOP NOP, if you want me to truly fall in love with a torturer and possible murderer, introduce him to me in different circumstances where first you make me like him and then tell me that he is a torturer (even then it would be difficult for me to like him).
That's all I have to say, obviously it is the opinion of someone who did not finish the book so I am not the best to guide your decision to read it all or not.
Not Even Bones has a very interesting premise, a girl who sells organs of magical creatures on the black market, but one day she is captured because she is a magical creature and now they want to sell her, with effort she manages to escape and now she will do everything so that she is not captured again. That is the vague idea of the book and sadly it seems to be the only thing the author really planned. I feel that the moment Nita (the protagonist) is captured, the author began to write on the road without planning the reasons for the scenes. In short, while reading I felt that the book did not know where to go, it is as if the author had a very basic idea of what she wanted to write, but it was not enough for a whole story so while writing she puts filler in.
Now, the positive thing that I saw in it is the representation of Peru, I am Peruvian and it seemed very organic to me the way she incorporated little things from the culture and history of Peru. It was not wow, but compared to the representation in The Bane Chronicles you could tell that the author knew what she was talking about and was informed (you don't have to inform yourself so much to add other cultures, and if you do have doubts as to whether it is a good representation or not, there are sensitive readers who will be able to tell if your representation is harmful or realistic).
Another positive aspect is Nita's path of realization, she did not have a great knowledge of this entire industry of human trafficking and now that she had to experience it in first person she is realizing how hypocritical she had been with herself and how she always had ignored this part of her job. In addition, she also shows how human trafficking can totally ruin a person's life, that Nita can no longer attend universities because her image is already tainted by this event and it will be difficult to get it out of her.
Although there were aspects that I liked, the little planning of the book (in my opinion) made me not understand what the author wanted. Personally, I think it would have been thousand times more interesting for Nita to work alone, for bad people to give her bodies and she dissected them for them. Thus Nita already has a much greater reputation in the black market, in addition to being able to collect more information from this industry that would have helped her at the time of her kidnapping where, instead of planning a plan that went well by sheer luck, she would have known heartbreaking stories of different unnatural beings in addition to living it in her own skin and thus starting a revolt, escape and from there ... I don't know, make Nita become an organ seller by becoming what she never planned to be because it was the only way to earn money to get out of the place where they kept her, or with all her colleagues to start dismantling the traffic establishments (maybe that happens in the book but as I left it I will never know).
Finally, I don't know why the heck the author is stating that the love interest for these books is going to be a literal torturer. NOP NOP, if you want me to truly fall in love with a torturer and possible murderer, introduce him to me in different circumstances where first you make me like him and then tell me that he is a torturer (even then it would be difficult for me to like him).
That's all I have to say, obviously it is the opinion of someone who did not finish the book so I am not the best to guide your decision to read it all or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, and Trafficking