I’m not a person who can handle gruesome depictions of core when presented with the slow, deliberate pace of a medical show or some darker parts of fantasy. When in the middle of an action scene, sure, but torture is something I struggle with. As I’ve read more horror over the years though, I’ve started to appreciate it more and more. And if you’re interested in a dark story that feels a lot like watching Dexter or You, then Market of Monsters will be right up your alley
Read If Looking For: body horror, fun twists, urban fantasy that goes beyond werewolves and vampires
Avoid if Looking For: bespoke prose, books where characters make smart choices, healthy family dynamics
Elevator Pitch:
Nita is the teenage child of a couple who hunts and kills supernatural creatures. Some are monsters, but others are intelligent people, basically humans with some extra bells and whistle. Nita dissects the bodies, packaging them for sale on the black market. But when her mother brings a live … specimen in, Nita lets him go. And then her mother puts Nita on the black market, to be killed for the highest bidder. Because Nita isn’t totally human either.
What Worked for Me
This book was funnnnnnn. It’s YA, and has some of the prose traits that the best YA does. It moves quick, focuses on dialogue and action, with the express goal of being as immersive as possible. If found myself sucked into this one pretty immediately, and the book didn’t let off the gas pedal for most of the book. When the twists came, they were interesting, unexpected (but in hindsight totally plausible), and heightened tension.
Nita herself was a great character to see the world though. She definitely felt neurodivergent-coded, and while a relationship ends up a significant part of the book, definitely identifies as Asexual (I think also Aromantic, but I was a bit fuzzier on that one. The internet seems to point in that direction). Anyways, she’s got this cold, calculating antihero vibe that I don’t see much, as there’s usually a cop-out in books like these to make characters more likeable. I did find myself yelling at her through the book quite often at some of the decisions she made, but that’s part of the fun in book like these.
What Didn’t Work for Me
As much as I enjoyed this book, I don’t think the book was particularly deep. There were a lot of serious elements presented: an abusive family, enslavement and trafficking (including sexual), and while most of it is presented as BAD, there wasn’t as much of an exploration of how Nita was participating in that system, and this is doubly true for how I think the relationship dynamic with her family (especially mom) was handled. It wasn’t actively bad, but it was definitely a missed opportunity.
In Conclusion: A fucked up story about a girl in a black market being sold piece by piece.
- Characters – 4
- Worldbuilding – 3
- Craft – 4
- Themes – 3
- Enjoyment – 4
Marked for Plot 