Only Ashes Remain

Market of Monsters, Book 2

By: Rebecca Schaeffer

Narrated by: Almarie Guerra

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who seeks revenge on the boy who betrayed her, a sequel to the critically-acclaimed Not Even Bones.

After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she's still a prime target on the black market. There's only one way to keep herself safe. Nita must make herself so feared that no one would ever dare come after her again. And the best way to start building her reputation? Take her revenge on Fabricio, the boy who sold Nita to her kidnappers. But killing Fabricio is harder than Nita thought it would be, even with Kovit by her side. Now caught in a game of kill or be killed, Nita will do whatever it takes to win.

©2019 Rebecca Schaeffer (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Produced by special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Epic

I love this trilogy and I first came across it on a webtoon but I was so impatient that I decided to listen to the books! It’s so great and Almarie Guerra’s voice is so calming to listen to! I’m really looking forward for her to voice When Villains Rise :D

4 Star Rating Overall...4½ Stars Narration Rating

The setting has completely changed for this second book...the first book took place in South America, and most of the story played out from inside a jail cell. This one has moved all the way to Toronto, Canada, next to the only Great Lake that I've never personally seen, Lake Ontario.

Our morally gray characters have started second-guessing themselves a lot...Nita more so than Kovit, and she did a lot of soul-searching throughout this book. Eventually, she just decided...screw it...and did what had to be done, and thank goodness...because it was starting to feel like I was caught up in a self-imposed therapy session.

While there were elements I struggled with, I, for the most part, found this engaging and was totally there for the supernatural-ish world that the author has created, because it's so unlike anything I've ever read before. I did like learning a whole lot more about Kovit, and also there's a dabble of romance or something of the sort. Really, the whole theme going on here seems to be the question of whether Nita thinks her and Kovit are redeemable or does it even really matter if they're redeemable...since they're just trying to survive in a world that keeps knocking them down.

A bit downhill from the first book

I like the story line of this series, although I keep hoping for a little backstory as to HOW the mythical beings of legend became an open secret among humans in modern times. Did they voluntarily come out into the spotlight? Where they accidentally discovered a couple decades before?

This second installment was also much slower than the first, or maybe it only seemed that way because the protagonist spent a lot of time in her own head, dithering about what to do and how to feel. It was also pretty hard to reconcile her character, compared to her early portrayal in the first book. She doesn't seem to feel any guilt whatsoever for the innocent people she killed in the concluding events of the first book (among them unnatural prisoners like herself), and in this book she only doubles down on the blurry morals and unnecessary murder, while still trying to justify her actions to herself. I get that anti-heroes are trending right now, but Nita is sort of awkwardly stuck in the middle.

And speaking of trending - I know racism, sexism, and politics are hot topics in YA at the moment. It makes a character relatable , garners empathy... but nothing pulls me out of a fictional world faster then hearing repeated mentions of the brutality of the American police force towards "brown" people, the subtle slights they receive, the general messed-upness of modern politics in America and all over the world, the gender discrepancy, etc. when it has absolutely no bearing on the story. I'm not saying this stuff doesn't exist, but unless it personally affects the protagonist, please stop repeatedly reminding me, authors. I read to escape the world, not to hear a seventeen year old mass killer with super powers give me her inner tangents about it.

On the plus side, there were a couple new and interesting characters introduced, like the kelpie. And Covit is still his creepy, kind-of-endearing self.

The solution is always murder, right?!

This book picks up right where one left off, after Nita’s jailbreak and scorched earth takedown of the South American black market. Unfortunately, this entire book is Nita and Covit on the run, two socially kneecapped kids who don’t have a clue how to live in the normal world, much less navigate the minefield of everyone hunting for Nita the magical, healing, maybe-fountain of youth. Predictably, Nita and Covit fail miserably at each step.

On the plus side, this book adds a little dark humor and new characters like Kelpie Adair and Ghoul Diana to expand the author’s fresh takes on magical humanoids in this alternate modern day earth. I love that so many of the characters are shades of grey instead of clearly good or bad- it makes for a much more suspenseful story. Further, this book sets up the larger plot line of the treatment of magical creatures for the final book, so I wouldn’t recommend skipping it.

On the downside, other than forecasting the humans vs. magicals showdown, this book doesn’t do much to advance the story, except to bond Nita and Covit through their shared dark and damaged lives. There’s way too much time spent thinking about what it means to be a monster, or talking about what it means to be a monster… on top of showing what it means to be a monster. This book could’ve used about four hours less telling and just stuck with showing. Also, while I thought the development of Covit’s walk on the dark side was well done, I found Nita’s dark side, and her decisions, to be frustratingly shallow and illogical. In the last book, she was ruthless and smart, even though (as would be expected of a teen) not all of her plans worked out. In this book, I regretted that she wasn’t more like serial killer Dexter, who did his homework and thought things through before feeding his dark passenger. Nita was just “oh, he did me wrong, time for him to die,” repeatedly. Every decision Nita makes is impulsive and fails to recognize her role in creating bad situations until she’s already committed herself to a foolish courses of action.

The next book tones down the “I’m such a monster” self-flagellation but replaces it with lots of thoughts and talk about accepting one’s monster nature. In spite of the bad tell vs. show ratio, the resolution is satisfying and dark, but you should already know that redemption is not in the cards.

I am so glad webtoon brought me here!

I love the story, yes, but Almarie Guerra really had me goosebumped up!! Her pace was on point, slowing during the tense/intimate moments, but speaking at an exciting pace during the action! My favorite part is when she voiced Adair. When she was reading as him being angry, I was scared myself! Happily continuing onto the next one!

good vs evil

Nita is forced to reevaluate her moral choices. is she a master? is Covit a better person. she learns to judge people by their actions.

Loved it

One of the best books I’ve ever read and I would read it over and over again!😅

Gods I LOVE THIS SERIES!

if you like horror, True Crime, and serial killers. you will LOVE THIS SERIES! this is the sequel to NOT EVEN BONES and picks up beautifully where it left off! the only thing I will say is. I wish there was a recap!

its good

not at good as the first to me but its still worth the read

Eyebrows

Love the books! Just thought maybe the author could try to find some other ways to express raised eyebrows.