Book Review: Our Dark Duet

Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

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Title: Our Dark Duet

Author: Victoria Schwab, V.E. Schwab

Year Published: 2017

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, YA, Science Fiction

Plot: ♥♥♥♥♥

Characters: ♥♥♥♥♥

World Building: ♥♥♥♥♥

Flow: ♥♥♥♥♥

Synopsis:

THE WORLD IS BREAKING. AND SO ARE THEY.

KATE HARKER isn't afraid of monsters. She hunts them. And she's good at it.

AUGUST FLYNN once yearned to be human. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.

THE WAR HAS BEGUN.

THE MONSTERS ARE WINNING.

Kate will have to return to Verity. August will have to let her back in. And a new monster is waiting—one that feeds on chaos and brings out its victims' inner demons.

Which will be harder to conquer: the monsters they face, or the monsters within?

Review*:

  Over all, I don't really know if I liked this second book more than the first. The characters really drove the story more than the plot did for me, which is okay however I didn't connect with any of the new characters added and still stand by only really finding interest in Kate.

  The biggest change from book one to book two was August. He went from this mild-mannered monster wanting to fit into a human world to an alpha trying to be the best leader for the FTF. We lose the dreamer that was August in Song and it almost very obviously seems as though August absorbing Leo's soul merged the characteristics of his older brother into his personality. The two merged together make a powerful character, but at the same time August didn't become more interesting or less 2-D.

  Kate carries some of the momentum that I liked from the first book into this one. She moved and is just as resourceful as we know her to be, but she gains friends in this new city. The relationships seem a bit weird to me, like they're a support group for a superhero a.k.a. Kate. In the end I'm glad she fought Alice, as obvious as this sounds they were two sides of the same coin. Alice still had the drive and nerve that Kate had but clearly she was more blood hungry. As much as she was my favorite character, I appreciate her death at the end of the book. I hate it when stories get too much of a happy ending and Kate's character only had so much more to contribute within this story line.

   As far as all of the supporting characters, despite this story being more character driven for me, they were kind of meh. The Warden's were alright. Henry slowly dying made sense and was a nice conclusion to his story. I'm glad to see Sloan die again just because he was the true villain of both books despite an argument of Collum being the villain of the first book.  Ilsa just become a clean up character to help when everyone else was in an extremely dire situation. I wish her character had grown more depth or we got to see more of her relationship to others. Soro just seemed to be a stand in as well. I think the only character I think I was most sad to see go was Rez, just because she seemed to have potential.
   As for the plots, I think the story arc was nice, especially since this was a duet. Leaving with FTF in a position to continue to try to clean the city was a happy ending despite everyone dying. I think Victoria did a good job with pacing for just a duology, I know trilogies are far more common but sometimes having a third book gives the author employment to just open a can of worms.

*There may be spoilers in this section of the review. If you do not wish to be spoiled, please stop reading.