Not Even Bones

*Not Even Bones* is the first book in the Market of Monsters trilogy written by Rebecca Schaeffer. It was released on September 4, 2018 and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The cover art shows a bloody scalpel on a white background. The tagline reads: "Betrayal is a bloody business."

## Synopsis

**"Twisty, grisly, genre-bending and immersive, *Not Even Bones* will grab you by the throat and drag you along as it gleefully tramples all of your expectations." —Sara Holland, *New York Times* best-selling author of *Everless***
***Dexter*meets *This Savage Song* in this dark fantasy about a girl who sells magical body parts on the black market — until she’s betrayed.**

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.” Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared teenage boy is a step too far. But when she decides to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold in his place—because Nita herself isn’t exactly “human.” She has the ability to alter her biology, a talent that is priceless on the black market. Now on the other side of the bars, if she wants to escape, Nita must ask herself if she’s willing to become the worst kind of monster.

## Plot

There is a corpse on the table in front of Nita, a zannie that her mother has just brought home for her to dissect. After working on so many zannies in Southeast Asia, Nita had hoped to work on other unnaturals now that they are in Peru, but begins her work to prepare the body to be sold. She first goes through his wallet, with all of the credit cards already used by her mother, and doesn't look at anything that will tell her about the man, since she won't be able to dissect him if she knows him. Nita aspires to go to college and become a scientist but loves being able to dissect the bodies her mother brings home. As she works, her mother announces that she will be leaving for Buenos Aires that night for another target. By the next afternoon, her mother has returned with her target and they talk about her trip. When her mother brings her to the basement to see the new corpse, she soon realizes what her mother brought home. Inside the room (where she works) she finds a ducka boy handcuffed in a cage. Her mother plans to keep him alive and sell parts of his body, and before she left Argentina, she already cut off and sold one of his toes online. The boy makes eye contact with Nita and says "ayudame," or "help me."

Nita, who has never killed anyone herself and only works on dead bodies, feels extremely unsettled at the thought of dissecting the boy while he is still alive. Nita and her mother prepare the zannie from last night to be shipped to the family warehouse in the states, where her father will take care of online sales, storage, and shipping, while her mother deals with getting the body. Nita can justify dissecting the other unnaturals, as she considers them to be monsters who will absolutely kill people but cannot justify dissecting the boy. After dinner, her mother reveals that she has just sold off his ear and will remove it after she comes back from buying water. Nita tells her that she should wait until the morning so that the parts are fresh when they are shipped in the morning, then confesses that she doesn't want to hear him screaming throughout the night, and her mother agrees to start in the morning before heading towards the door. When she hears the door close, Nita brings a slice of pizza to the boy, who thanks her and eats. She doesn't know how to act around him, since she is inexperienced in social skills. As he eats, he asks for her name, and she tells him. She then asks for his, and he tells her he is called "Fabricio Tacunan." After conversing for a bit, Nita realizes that she shouldn't have talked to him. As she leaves the room, Fabricio asks what will happen to him. Unable to tell him the truth, Nita lies and tells her that she does not know.

When Nita enters the kitchen, she sees that her mother has not left and is waiting for her. When her mother asks if she spoke to him, she shakes her head, but remembers why she is terrified of her mother and can't defy her. When Nita was 12 and they still lived in Chicago, her mother would bring home crates of dacts, which Nita loved. Not wanting them to be killed, Nita would bring them to a 24 hour emergency vet clinic while her parents were sleeping. Her mother, angry, came home with dead dacts instead of live ones. In response, Nita flushed 5 pounds of powdered unicorn bone and still brought the dead dacts to the emergency vet clinic. Her father calmed them both down, but her mother, still angry, left dead dacts in Nita's bed for a week. Since then, Nita has realized that if she ever disobeyed her mother again, her punishment would be much worse. Nita tells her mother that she simply gave him food and said "you're welcome" when he thanked her for the food. Her mother tells her to go to the store to buy water.

The next morning, Nita is woken up to screaming. She grabs her scalpel on her nightstand and runs to the room where she finds her mother trying to cut off Fabricio's ear. Not wanting to help her mother, she goes to finish cutting off the ear and allows herself to get cut by the scalpel while Fabricio resists. Her mother tells her to heal herself, but Nita tells her that she cannot heal herself in time to help her finish the job. Her mother throws the scalpel into the cage and slices off the remainder of his ear.

Unable to remain in the room, Nita goes for a walk. Her father texts her. Using discreet language (so that the phones can be used as covers), she tells her father that she does not like the new "pet" that her mother has brought back, and her father tells her not to do anything stupid.

When Nita comes home with dinner, her mother questions her bringing home so much food. She says she got some for the boy, almost accidentally saying his name. Desperate to change the subject, she tells him she heard someone on the news talking about killing unnaturals, likely from the Unnatural Extermination Agenda (UEA), a hate group that targets unnaturals. Despite being an unnatural herself, her mother is a member of the UEA so that she can more easily get her targets. Nita says that she is going to feed Fabricio, accidentally starting to say his name before catching herself. When Nita comes in, Fabricio says that her mother told him that she was going to take one of his eyes tomorrow. He asks Nita to save him, and Nita leaves the room before altering her hormones so that she can calm herself. In the middle of the night, Nita sneaks into the room with bolt cutters and gets Fabricio out of the cage. She brings him to the bus station so that he can escape to Ecuador, an INHUP member country, and get put in the Unnatural Protection Program. She pays for the ticket with all the money she had saved for college and gives Fabricio her own cell phone so that he can call INHUP when he arrives. Fabricio tells Nita that he is sorry for her (for having to deal with her mother when she returns) and thanks her before leaving.

When Nita gets home, she finds her mother at the kitchen table next to the bolt cutters. After asking how long ago since Fabricio has left, her mother tells her to pack her things. They hurrily leave their home and walk for an hour until they get to a hotel. Her mother leaves right after to take care of any shipments going to their home, refusing to talk to her about what Nita has just done. Nita takes her mother's laptop and emails her father, writing "I think I did something really stupid. I'm scared. I've never seen Mom like this before." She then hears someone at the door, not noticing a person entering through the open window behind her. The person stabs her with a needle and drugs her. The drugs work too fast for Nita to be able to counteract it. Nita resists and tries to escape to the bathroom, but passes out before she can.

Nita wakes up and passes out twice, unsure of where she is. The third time she wakes up, she is able to stay awake and tries to push the drugs out of her system, but is unable to because of her headache. Thinking it is drugged, she hesistates to drink from the bottle she found, but is reassured and drinks when a pink-grey girl on the other side tells her it is not drugged. With her mind clearer, she sees that she is trapped in a glass box. The girl in the other glass box is Mirella, a 16 year old girl. Nita looks for a way to escape, but Mirella tells her it is a waste of time. She asks where they are, and Mirella is surprised that she doesn't know, and tells her that they are in the Death Market

Nita and Mirella discuss the Market when a young man and a woman walk in. The woman tells the man, called Kovit, to go on, and he pulls out a switchblade before entering the glass box. Kovit moves and skins her arms and is pleasured by her pain. Scared, Nita shuts off her ability to perceive pain. Kovit feels this and is stunned, and Nita realizes that he is a zannie, a word Kovit says he hates. Kovit leaves the cage and the woman, Reyes, is pleased by how fast Nita is healing her arm. Nita realizes that everything that just happened was filmed, and the two leave. She realizes that she was targeted for her ability, coming to the conclusion that her mother sold her to the black market as punishment.

After realizing everything, Nita begins to panic. When she calms down, she and Mirella discuss their location. Mirella tells her the legend told among those who live along the Amazon River: a pale man with a hat walks to a village and lures a girl to the river to be his bride, then either drowns her or impregnates her before leaving. They both agree that they like the version where the girl is drowned. Mirella says that this legend was based off of her people, and that her skin color can change depending on her diet. Thinking about her own ability, Nita realizes that her mother can make herself stronger by enhancing her muscles. She tries to do this and punches the glass. In the process, she breaks 3 of her fingers and goes to heal them, but doesn't have the energy to do so. Kovit reenters with food and water. Nita automatically thanks Kovit, who is surprised she said anything. She continues on, asking how to turn on the shower. Kovit tells her that only he can turn it on, and that he'll be back. After he leaves, Mirella tells her that she is surprised Nita talked to him, calling him a monster. Later, Kovit returns with a towel, sweatpants, and an oversized shirt, then leaves again to turn the shower on. Nita thanks him again, and he looks at her and gives her a crazy smile. Nita matches with her own, and Kovit laughs and says "you're welcome."

Nita falls asleep, and finds more food when she awakes. She looks at the sleeping Mirella and notes that she represents all the traits she finds annoying. She heals her wounds, then Mirella awakens. She tells Nita that Kovit watches the security cameras. Hoping to learn more about him and the situation, Nita waves at the camera, and Kovit walks into the room. He tells her that someone (he) always has to watch the camera. Nita tells him that she is bored, and that Mirella is not good company. She asks for a book and he brings one that he says is bad (and also the only book he has). Kovit tells her that he's curious about how she turned off her pain, and says he would have done the same if he were her. He tells her that he knows what pain feels like himself, and Nita learns that zannies cannot eat their own pain. Nita tells him that zannies are monstrous for inflicting pain when they know what it feels like themselves, and Kovit unexpectedly laughs and agrees. After he leaves, Nita begins the book and agrees that it is awful.

Nita stops reading halfway through. Reyes, Kovit, and a new man, Boulder, enters. His focus is on Mirella and says he is happy to see her again. He says he heard that if you look at a person through the eye of a dolphin, they'll fall in love with you, and wants to eat an eye to see what powers he will gain. Boulder asks about Nita and wonders if eating her will give the consumer the same healing abilities. He asks for a demonstration, so Reyes sends Kovit in. Not having a better option (and still unable to feel pain), Nita allows herself to be skinned, but doesn't heal herself. As punishment, Reyes tells Kovit to cut off her fingers to see if they can regrow, so Nita hurriedly heals herself. Boulder is pleased and buys the strip of her skin, then eats it there. After Boulder leaves, Reyes confronts one of the bodyguards, Lorenzo, about being high on powdered unicorn bone while working, and threatens to give him to Kovit if he does it again. She then orders Mirella to be brought to the workroom, then reminds Kovit and Nita about her punishment. Seeming uncomfortable, Kovit tells Reyes that she can't feel pain, so Reyes let's her choose between losing 3 fingers or turning her pain back on and stay with Kovit for an hour, then she leaves. Nita refuses to turn her pain back on, and Kovit leaves without doing anything.

Kovit brings her more food and water, but doesn't touch them from the fear of having her fingers cut off. As she sits, she thinks of the market and Fabricio. She enjoys cutting up bodies, but realizes that if she escapes, she'll never be able to work in the black market again. She falls asleep and has a nightmare, and wakes up screaming, causing Kovit to run in. He leaves and comes back with a homemade deck of cards, and the two play poker. She asks, and he tells her that he won't cut off her fingers because it would be a waste if he couldn't feel her pain, but Nita sees that he is lying. She asks why he hates the word "zannie", and he says it's because the word's origin comes from when Europe was colonized Asia, and a zannie's nickname, Sang (meaning blood), was miscommunicated to "zannie." Kovit tells her the other names for zannies (*krasue* in Thai, *kasu* in Lao, *ahp* in Khmer, etc). As they chat, Kovit tells her that he was born in Thailand and left at age 10 when he called INHUP to take his mother away, and she was then executed. His sister, not a zannie, hid him so that he wouldn't be found and was taken away by INHUP. Nita tells Kovit that her mother turned her in. They stop when Reyes comes in, with 2 bodyguards carrying Mirella, who now has one eye. Kovit lies and tells Reyes that Nita opted for torture. Reyes promises him a "treat", and the two leave the room, with Kovit very excited.

Kovit and Reyes reenter with the 2 guards and 4 clients. They ask for a demonstration of Nita, and this time, she complies. One of the clients, a vampire, asks for her name, then for if she knew of others with the same abilities. Reyes tells him that he will need to buy her before talking to her. The vampire asks if she knew a woman names "Monica" and describes her mother. "Monica" is one of her mother's many aliases. The guards take Mirella from her cage, saying that she will be punished (which is giving her to Kovit) for resisting Reyes.

Nita sits in her cell, trying (but failing) to block out Mirella's screams. She continues working on thinking of how to escape, and damages then repairs her spine to find where to strike. She tries to make a weapon, but doesn't have many options. Kovit brings Mirella back and is looks visibly better after eating. Nita asks for some water, and Kovit leaves to get some. While he's gone, Nita jams a piece of a broken plastic bottle into her food tray to block the door. Kovit is unable to open it when he comes back, and tells Nita to stay by the back of the cage so he can come in. When he opens the door, she uses a blanket to trap him and attacks him. She hits him in his spine, paralyzing him.

Now free, Nita frees Mirella, who is happy that Kovit isn't dead so that he will be killed by Reyes. They walk through the facilities. In Kovit's room, Mirella uses a t-shirt to wrap her hair and Nita takes his cell phone, but is unable to find money. Determined to leave, they open the door to the outside.

Now in the rainforest, Mirella leads them to the pier, where the arrived, walking through the market. The pier is guarded by armed men, but with no other solution, Mirella goes to steal a boat while Nita finds a distraction. Nita kicks over a stand, but is unable to get enough attention, then sees Boulder on the dock, and he shoots Mirella. As he walks towards her, Mirella pulls herself into the river and she disappears.

Nita runs away from the pier. She realizes that she needs money to escape, and also that she'll never be able to fulfill her dream of going to college, since Reyes uploaded the video of her.

Nita returns to the building where she was held. In the security room, she sees Kovit now lying on the cot, glancing at the camera. She calls her father but is answered by the Chicago Police Department. Confused, she hangs up, and notices Kovit waving at the camera. She goes to the room, and brings him food when he asks. She asks why he is here. Kovit says that he screwed up, but not while working for Reyes. Nita realizes that she could poison Kovit and dissect him. Kovit gets scared as she tells him how she used to a lot of bodies, specifically zannies. Realizing herself, she knows that she can't dissect him and leaves, telling him she will let Reyes decide what will happen to him.

Nita receives a message to Kovit from Reyes saying that she will be back at 11. She takes a shower and changes into Kovit's clothing, then falls asleep. She wakes up in the middle of the night, then goes back to the other room. Kovit questions why she hasn't left yet and tells her he will say why he is here after she tells him her story. Nita tells about her work with her mother, Fabricio, and that her mom sold her out. Kovit tells her that he started working for a crime family in the U.S. since he was 10 to torture. He refused to torture one of his friends, and the people around stopped associating him with fear. The Family got a new zannie and sent him to Reyes. Nita tells him that she is unable to dissect people when she knows about them, and Kovit tells her that he can't hurt people he knows, which means that Nita is now safe from him. Nita tells Kovit that she agrees that his actions aren't sympathetic or moral, but doesn't think that he is a monster because he is selectively empathetic, whereas Reyes, who lacks any form of empathy, is a monster. WhenNita gets up to leave, Kovit tells her that where to find a hidden gun.

With the gun, Nita finds another switchblade, a Spanish textbook, and American cash (less than $40). She leaves for the pier, hoping to bargain for a boat ride. Unable to find a ride, she heads back and sees Reyes entering the building, 6 hours before she was expected.

Nita walks into the building, gun ready. Reyes finds Kovit and questions him, then orders him outside to be executed. Nita shoots Reyes, allowing Kovit to attack and kill her. Kovit and Nita agree to work as partners in order to escape.

Kovit takes Reyes' keys from her pocket. Since her home requires her thumbprint, Nita cuts it off, and Kovit watches her. Kovit leads them to her house and they go in. They open a safe and find evidence of her bribes from numerous organizations. They decide to search the rest of the house separately. Alone, Nita starts crying. Then Kovit rushes to her and says that Reyes' 2 guards are knocking on the door.

Kovit goes to see what they want. They tell Kovit to give them a package, an arm, and Nita realizes that Reyes had sold one of her arms overnight. She gets Kovit's attention by turning on some of her pain. They make a plan and Nita goes back to dissect Reyes.

Nita cuts of an arm and brings it to Kovit, who hand it over to Lorenzo and Jorge.

Kovit and Nita take a break in the house. Kovit tells her a story he heard from an internet friend. As they plan their escape, they realize their problems: Nita will be recognized from the video, and Kovit will be exposed as a zannie to INHUP if the Family thinks he's escaped. In need of money, the two realize that they can sell the rest of Reyes' body.

Nita works on dissecting Reyes, and Kovit tells the 2 guards that he has something Reyes wants them to sell, telling them that it is Mirella's body. The guards call Reyes' phone to confirm, and Nita tries her best to imitate her. It works, and the guards come to take away the body parts.

They were unable to sell most of it. Kovit asks how much they made, but the guards were told to never give Kovit money. They call Reyes to check (with Nita picking up) and give Kovit the money. They still need more, so Nita suggests that they rob Boulder's house.

The two make their way to Boulder's house in the dark. Kovit, being able to feel everyone's pain, counts 5 people in the building. They sneak into the house and attack the surprised men inside, eventually getting ahold of Boulder. Kovit decides to not kill the guards, as they will die soon anyway. Boulder refuses to hand over any of his money, so he is left with Kovit.

Boulder caves after 30 seconds of being with him, quickly giving up the password to his safe where he has thousands of dollars, as well as folders of blackmail and a hard drive. Nita remembers her dream of becoming a researcher, but also that she won't be able to pursue it after being revealed as an unnatural. She begins considering gaining a fearful reputation so that she will be safe. But then, they hear people approaching the room. Lorenzo and Jorge enter, and Nita falls after being shot in the shoulder.

Lorenzo tells Kovit that they were called by the guard that was left to die. They were able to hide from Kovit by taking unicorn bone to hide their pain. They force Kovit to pick up Nita, and they lock them both into the glass cage.

Nita tells Kovit to remove the bullet from her shoulder. After some time, Lorenzo and Jorge return, followed by Boulder. They ask what happened to Reyes, and Kovit reveals that the guards had sold her parts to the market. Boulder, looking for revenge, tells Kovit that he plans to eat a part of Nita every day; once Kovit has cut off all her parts and she has been eaten, he will give him some freedom.

Kovit refuses to follow Boulder, knowing that Boulder hates him and would shoot him anyway. Kovit taunts him, telling him to come in himself. Boulder begins to enter the cage, but shoots Kovit once the door opens. Nita tackles one of the guards but is overpowered. She resists, but eventually, her toe gets cut off. Boulder eats her toe, then leave Nita and Kovit in the cage, both hurt.

With limited resources in the cage, Nita is only able to help Kovit by pressing his shirt to plug his wound. Kovit teaches Nita how to throw a knife. She does, and the knife embeds in the glass. He then teaches her how to throw a punch. Nita strengthens her muscles and punches the knife further into the glass, breaking the glass.

With more resources now, Nita tends to Kovit's (who is weak against pain) wound. While he changes, Nita looks through Reyes' storage box and finds a picture of herself that was only on her phone. Going through Reyes' phone, she finds that she had texted someone from her own cell phone, sending Reyes pictures of her and revealing her abilities to her. Nita realizes that Fabricio, not her mother, was the one to betray her. She asks Kovit if he recognizes his name, and he tells her that he knows of an Alfredo Tacunan, an Argentinian lawyer who keeps criminals from getting in trouble. The Family that he worked for was one of his clients. Nita tells Kovit that they are going to leave, but not before burning down the market.

Nita tells Kovit her plan. They will separate and ignite propane tanks from opposite sides of the market. He will be signaled when Nita lets herself feel pain. As the market burns, they run to the docks. They manage to steal a boat, but Kovit is unable to function from feeling all of the pain around him, so Nita rows them away.

On the Amazon river, Nita comes across others trying to escape but sees that their boats are being tipped by pink dolphins. They fall into the water, but don't resurface. She sees Boulder, Jorge, and Lorenzo trying to escape the dolphins, but their boat still gets caught and the 3 are drowned. Nita begins to feel their boat rocking, so she speaks to the water, telling them that she is a friend of Mirella and another prisoner trying to escape. Mirella swims to the surface as a human, revealing that she is still alive. The dolphins allow her to escape. Mirella tells Nita that she will make sure that no one escapes and that the death market cannot be rebuilt here before swimming away.

After some time, Kovit awakens and takes over rowing. Kovit tells Nita that he has rules, lines that he won't cross so that he won't lose himself. He tells her that his mother had fled Myanmar as a teenager and settled in Thailand. In order to feed themselves, they always had a "visitor" in the basement. One day, his mom fed them off of his friend (a child). When Kovit tried to stop her, she hurt him. Kovit saw that his mother had changed over the years, so he called INHUP. He also noticed that all the zannies he met had fell to their desires and lost what made them human Not wanting to become like this, he made rules for himself, and suggest to Nita that she make her own lines. Nita realizes that she is responsible for killing a lot of people and didn't like that she was becoming more like her mother. She apologizes to Kovit for asking him to kill people and assuming that he would.

Nita and Kovit take turns rowing the boat. Kovit laughs and realizes that he is free because the Family will assume that he is dead. Nita tells Kovit that she plans to go to INHUP to get a plane ticket home. They arrive at a pier. Kovit tells her that she is welcome to live quietly with him, but Nita refuses his offer. Before they separate, Kovit tells her that he will try to live a different life, maybe find his sister, and tells her his email so that they can stay in contact.

Nita is in a car in Bogota and arrives at INHUP. She is interrogated by Agent Quispe. She tells her that she was kidnapped but escaped the death market during the fire. After Nita showers, she is questioned again, and Agent Quispe shows her a picture of the vampire that had visited her, asking if she's seen him. Nita only tells her that he was a potential customer. Quispe tells Nita that the vampire is a fixer for mafia groups and was spotted in Nita's hometown recently. She then tells her that her father was murdered a week ago, and Nita finally begins to cry.

3 days later, Qusipe gives her Reyes' phone, saying that it was submerged in rice and that it can turn on. Nita then emails Kovit and asks how his wound is. Once Quispe tells her that they got her a flight to Toronto, she introduces her to a boy who has gone through a similar experience, and Nita sees Fabricio in front of her.