Only Ashes Remain

Lots of people have hobbies, activities that give them some sense of comfort. Some hobbies are a little bit more niche than others, and some might even seem downright strange. But for Nita, her hobby—her obsession—is not only strange, it’s downright disturbing: Nita feels no more at ease than with a scalpel in her hand, a body laid out on her table, ready to dissect. To make matters worse, after she was kidnapped, after she burned down an entire black market full of Unnaturals and their tormenters, Nita finds herself being shipped off to Toronto, to her mother whom she both admires and fears. Upon arrival, she makes some rather disturbing discoveries about people she thought she knew, and she befriends Kovit, the zannie who feasts on other people’s pain, even though nobody else on earth would trust him. But Nita’s restless, and she ends up making some less-than-responsible choices that start a new manhunt of epic proportions.

Not Even Bones saw Nita kidnapped from her own home, sold to the black market, and held in a cage, being tortured by Kovit, a mutant human whose means of survival is feeding off the pain of others. Kovit, however, is the one person Nita truly understands because his motives are seemingly simple. So, when she arrives in Toronto, the first person she wants to see is Kovit who, she hopes, will help her embark on a spree of vengeance against all of those who want her dead. At the same time, someone has ratted out Kovit to the mob family he previously worked for, and now the two have nowhere to go until Kovit remembers that he knows a kelpie—a type of creature that drowns people and eats their rotting corpses—who just might give them a place to stay until they can sort everything out.

Even though it seems like there is a lot going on in this novel (and there is), Schaeffer’s writing has become sharper and more precise since her debut, giving Nita, Kovit, and the entire cast of characters much more nuanced motivations for all of their actions. Furthermore, the conversations around morality, what it means to be a human or a monster, and whether or not killing can ever be justified, ground what is a truly bizarre narrative in an element of realism. Fans of supernatural horror and mystery will be on board with Nita and Kovit’s relationship, their efforts to help one another in the midst of being horrified by each other’s actions. Only Ashes Remain is a truly alarming narrative, but it’s one with a deliciously compelling core that will not only startle readers but will get them to ask important questions about life and existence as well.

Only Ashes Remain is a tense a tense, thrilling, unsettling exploration of morality, revenge, pain, and desire set against the backdrop of a world that attempts to divide people into categories of human or monster. Readers will be, in turn, both enthralled and troubled by Nita’s and Kovik’s actions throughout this heart-pounding sequel to Schaeffer’s 2018 debut.