School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Nita dissects bodies for a living-her mother captures and kills Unnaturals and sells their parts on the black market, and it is Nita's job to harvest the organs. But when her mother brings home a living boy, Nita has reached her breaking point. Helping the boy escape turns out to be her undoing, and Nita, who has been hiding her own abilities, is captured to be sold instead. Now she must survive with people trying to cut off her extremities, getting out the cage she's held in, and escaping from the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Readers who are tired of the same recycled story lines will find something original here. Despite how dark and graphic the book gets-scenes of dissection on living and dead characters occur multiple times throughout-the story is so compelling that readers have to keep going to find out how, or if Nita gets out of this mess. The narrative, while dark and gruesome, is one of survival and betrayal, and will make teens question their own thoughts on humanity and how far they would be willing to go to save themselves. VERDICT Recommended for budding horror fans.-Amanda Toth, Lane Libraries, Fairfield, OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An adolescent, yet Nietzschean, examination of humanity and horror.Nita is a monster. Literally. She can heal her own wounds and even block her pain receptors. But she and her mother also deal in monsters, species regulated by the International Non-Human Police, selling their body parts on the black market. Her ghoulish mother hunts and kills, while Nita dissects them with a meditative grace, trying to think of herself as innocent. But when Nita's conscience inconveniently prevents her from vivisecting a live specimen, she's kidnapped and taken to the Amazon, caged by people in the same business. Menaced by a zannie (creatures that feed off physical pain) and a ruthless woman, Nita, who is mixed species (with a brown-skinned human father and a nonhuman mother), has to figure out how to escape and whether she has any morals to live by. The vivid setting, Mercado de la Muerte (one of several Death Markets worldwide) in a sweltering South American jungle populated by buyers, sellers, and sold, is matched by a zipping plot interspersed with deliciously horrifying and gory scenes of dismemberment and destruction. Equally intriguing is the constant musing on what makes a monster, how people respond to trauma and control, and how one's choices affirm or deny one's own humanity.A slasher flick spliced with Crime and Punishment, this engrossing debut novel asks complex philosophical questions in a pleasingly hard-to-stomach way. (Fantasy. 15-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Nita helps her mother sell supernatural beings' body parts on the black market. Then Nita, who can change her physiology at will, is kidnapped and will soon be auctioned off herself. She escapes with the help of Kovit, a charming but dangerous fellow "unnatural." Fast-paced, gritty, and gory, this fantasy series-opener features "monstrous" protagonists whose pain, humor, and impulses are utterly human. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* In Schaeffer's morally complex, edgy debut, supernatural beings are protected by the International Non-Human Police (INHUP), unless they're on the dangerous list, in which case killing is pre-emptive self-defense. Those unnaturals like zannies, who torture others to consume their pain are considered monsters that can't survive without killing. For Nita, whose parents sell unnatural body parts on the black market, this belief is important, because it means she's not a sociopath. She enjoys dissecting their bodies, but they're not people. Nita's clean, orderly world is shattered when her mother brings home a live, harmless unnatural for dismemberment. That's too messy for Nita, but when she helps him escape, she's captured herself. Nita is an unnatural, too, suddenly about to experience her victims' lives from the other side of the cage. This riveting thriller is not a reassuring read, but it is a provocative one for those who can handle violence when wielded with intentionality. Schaeffer's antiheroes (Nita and Kovit, her zannie-captor-turned-ally) show empathy and insight as they struggle to define the line between human and monster. It's a testament to Schaeffer's excellent writing that these themes never overtake the characters' stories. A killer ending will guarantee that readers return to see what's next in this planned trilogy.--Krista Hutley Copyright 2018 Booklist

School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 7 Up—Nita and her mom, who are both supernatural, live a life constantly on the road as Nita's mom kills other paranormal beings and Nita dissects them for her mom to sell the parts for money. Nita enjoys the dissection despite a few moral qualms about her mother's activities, but reassures herself that they only dissect dangerous beings. Then her mom brings home a live, seemingly harmless boy. Nita frees Fabricio and is in turn betrayed by her mother to a South American paranormal market where she will be sold bit by bit to the highest bidder, unless she can escape. While there she gets to know her guard, Kovit, and learns that her thoughts on other supernatural beings may be wrong. While trying to escape, she learns the truth about her betrayal and the book ends with Nita being driven by revenge, leading into the second book in the series. Almarie Guerra does an excellent job capturing the dark nature of the book and gives Nita a voice that shows her lack of social skills and her developing conscience. The gore factor is definitely high with the removal of body parts, creating scenes not for the squeamish.Those scenes along with the theme of moral questioning is similar to Barry Lyga's "I Hunt Killers" series. VERDICT Mature teens who enjoy morally gray characters and intense suspense will be drawn to the story.—Sarah Flood, Breckinridge County P.L., Hardinsburg, KY