When Villains Rise

July 1, 2020
Villains rise and shine in this final entry in the Market of Monsters trilogy After the events of Only Ashes Remain (2019), Nita and Kovit have finally captured Fabricio, the boy who betrayed Nita and whose father runs the infamous T�cunan Law, the company that protects monsters from jail. Bringing the company down--along with those who run the corrupt International Non-Human Police--becomes Nita's mission, in addition to avenging her father's death. But time runs out when proof of Kovit's identity as a monstrous, torturing unnatural is made public. With both their lives in danger, power-hungry Nita will stop at nothing to save herself and Kovit. Throughout the series both Kovit and Nita have engaged in extreme, violent behavior that affirmed their monstrosity as well as their broken humanity while engaging with questions such as whether they were driven to it by their very nature, by the way society deals with those whom they consider to be monsters, or the way their own families and friends failed them. 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. Nita's father is Chilean and her mother is nonhuman while Kovit is Thai; both are coded as asexual. A dark, compelling ending to an uncomfortable, morally gray series. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2020
Grades 10-1 Schaeffer's finale to her compellingly dark Market of Monsters trilogy is everything fans could hope for: violent, philosophical, suspenseful, and satisfying. Nita and Kovit have captured Fabricio, the boy who sold Nita to the black market. Fabricio's father is the head of T�cunan Law, the influential firm that protects unnaturals from legal repercussions, and they intend to use Fabricio to infiltrate the company. With access to their secrets, Nita plans to expose the corrupt alliance among T�cunan Law, the black market, and the International Non-Human Police (INHUP), thereby crippling, if not destroying, her enemies. Nita's plans-within-plans, as usual, suffer complications, one of which is outing Kovit as a torturing zannie. Schaeffer has a lot of plot lines to settle in this volume, yet she keeps the story tight and doesn't sacrifice her characters' emotional growth. Nita and Kovit, both seemingly asexual, solidify their committed relationship while coming to terms with their identity as monsters and their uniquely villainous moral philosophy. While this is a fitting conclusion, more books in this world would be welcome.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)