When Villains Rise

Market of Monsters, Book 3

By: Rebecca Schaeffer

Narrated by: Almarie Guerra

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who is determined to take down the black market once and for all in the conclusion to the trilogy that started with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.

Nita finally has Fabricio, the boy who betrayed her to the black market, within her grasp. But when proof that Kovit’s a zannie - a monster who eats pain in order to survive - is leaked to the world, Nita must reevalute her plans.

With enemies closing in on all sides, the only way out is for Nita and Kovit to take on the most dangerous man in the world: Fabricio’s father. He protects the secrets of the monsters who run the black market. Stealing those secrets could be the one thing that stands between Nita and Kovit and certain death in the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy that began with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.

©2020 Rebecca Schaeffer. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

"Villains rise and shine in this final entry in the Market of Monsters trilogy.... Although the novel never crosses a line into sugarcoating their inexcusable choices, it does show sympathy for its devils as it sails into a grand finale full of twists and turns.... A dark, compelling ending to an uncomfortable, morally gray series." (Kirkus)

Resolution without redemption

The wounds created by this series aren’t so much healed as they are covered with battle scars. This was a mostly satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, with some decent twists and turns and great character arcs for Kovit, Nita, and Fabricio. In the end, while this was a darkly engaging story, these weren’t characters I truly rooted for.

There were three things that kept this from being a 5 star series. First, even villains or anti-heroes need to have some redeeming features to engage the listener. Kovit ends up with some humanizing arcs, but Nita remains a sociopath to the end. Second, there isn’t enough humor, fun, or heart to balance the darkness. At least book 2 had the black humor of Adair’s “don’t look in the basement” schtick. This book is just an ever expanding number of characters who are all monsters. Third, there’s still too much telling compared to showing. Lots of thoughts and talks about what it means to be a monster when the monstrous things these folks do speak volumes. And speaking of too much telling, there were also too many of the same phrases repeated over and over again (for instance, I swear you could get drunk chugging every time the author mentions Kovit’s mussed hair).

☠️ For a better anti hero you can still root for (even if he never turns good), try Roach by Rhett Bruno.
☠️ Or, if you want more urban fantasy in your visceral, not-hero, try Nightwise by R.S. Belcher.
☠️ Want female anti-heros with somewhat better redemption arcs, more humor, and bigger action? Try the Wells of Sorcery trilogy by Django Wexler.
☠️ Or, try my latest favorite, the Lifelike trilogy by Jay Kristoff (this last one still cuts ruthlessly deep, and yet has way more pulpy fun and action).

Good story… not so good narration

I’ll keep it short ;)
great story, I gasped occasionally and maybe screamed in my car when certain plot twists hit and found it very entertaining.
But the narration was hard to get used to, felt like she sounded dry or unemotional many times (I’m not sure if it was intentional or not) I’ve heard better narrators and think this story would do well with more variance in tone, pitch etc.

Definitely recommend though

Difficult for advanced readers

I read the series as a quick light read and while it was that, I struggled at how the author assumed you hadn’t read it’s predecessors. The continued recaps about characters, events, and plots from prior stories was not exhausting to repeat but felt like filler material and was in the way of the story. I kept reading because I liked the story and wanted to know the outcome. However could have definitely been 2 books instead of 3.

Amazing

I started reading a webcomic called Not Even Bones and fell in love. It wasn't until later that I found out it was based off of a trilogy by Rebecca Schaeffer. I downloaded them because I didn't want to wait every week for a new episode to upload every week and boy am I glad I did. This book is amazing as are the first two. Its amazing being able to be inside Nita's head and get to hear her internal conflicts, her hypocrisy, her self realizations and her growth towards becoming her own person. The emphasis of powerful, yet nonromantic relationships. Just amazing 👏

Great narrator

The natator is very skilled, I always know who is talking and what they feel.

Good story, but lacking a few things.

I haven’t been able to put my phone down since I started listening to this trilogy, but the ending seemed rushed, compared to detailed narrating the author usually gives. Don’t get me wrong, I love this series, but the end didn’t be as good as hype building up to it

excellent!

I really enjoyed the series. the narrator was great! this was a really good story and a really good end.

amazing ending

amazing ending to an aging trilogy!!!!
endings are hard. no one likes them but Rebecca did am amazing job at giving this story the end it deserves!

lot of loose ends.

I feel she rushed the ending of the story. Nitas mothers death was rather sudden and anti climatic compared to how methodical Nita was in the books prior to this one. Its still a good story over all and the series had a great build up.

AMAZING

Ajsjjdjd NO WORDS THIS BOOK IS AMAZING I LOVED THE WHOLE SERIES I WAS SO EXCITED TO SEE BOOK 3 AVAILABLE HERE ON AUDIBLE FOR PRE ORDER, LITERALLY FINISHED THIS IN A COUPLE DAYS🥲