Book Review: Our Dark Duet

Title: Our Dark Duet
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 2)

Reread Count: 2

I am a pile of mush. I loved (almost) everything about this book. The story, the irony, the Lord of the Flies parallels... I loved the fact that the humans were just as bad as the monsters, that it was super clear that everyone was dealing with the consequences of the previous book (they didn't just magically pop up and be a-okay after what happened), and Ilsa became like this super computer-whiz so that was icing on the cake!

So because I could go on and on about how awesome this book is, I'm gonna break it down and make 2 small lists of likes and dislikes...

LIKES:
+ "Even monsters have weak hearts"
+ Soro's character, and their insight. Each Sunai sees the world through a different lens, and for me Soro' was one of the more objective ones. I really liked the no-nonsence approach that they took to their job and to their expectations, but I also loved their character development.
+ This book really addresses the problem of black-and-white judgement (i.e. there are no grey areas) because there will always be some times where what the punishment should be according to the rules isn't necessarily the right course of action
+ I loved the Wardens. Computer hackers for the win!
+ The irony of a monster who won't face his own monsters
+ Allegro, because he reflects which side August is on
+ The whole story just pulled me in and I couldn't stop reading!

DISLIKES:
- The fragment chapters were not my thing. My brain just can't handle fragments and short sentences and this was driving it nuts.
- August does a lot of flinching. Like the phrase "August flinched" and all of its variations showed up a lot...
- Wasn't a huge fan of the Kate/Wardens relationship, it seemed a little stereotypical?
- The Alice/Sloan relationship was just...weird
- As someone who is a long-distance runner, the fact that Kate took months off of running and then ran like 7 miles and THEN was tired and decided to stop running... I mean adrenaline does wonders but I'm not sure it can do that...
- Also did Kate never learn the whole stranger-danger thing?!
- And my big, overarching question: How does Ilsa reap?! I can't see her doing it like Leo but idk I was confused.

I love this book. I love this series. If you haven't already--read it!

See this review on Goodreads.

Book Review: This Savage Song

Title: This Savage Song
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 1)

Reread Count: 2

Hehehe I love Victoria Schwab and her books so much I can't even deal right now.

I am a very happy bookworm.

I am going to attempt to make an organized list of All the Reasons Why This Book Is Awesome:

• First off, monsters. Who are not like the boogyman monsters or those monsters that show up in every other YA fantasy novel, and not those awful things in The Twelve that made me scared of the dark for weeks, but almost like (going out on a limb here) physical representations of the monsters present within the human race? The bigger the act of violence, the more you lose (like when you create a Sunai, you give up your soul because the act was that bad). No idea if that is actually what Schwab meant for them to represent but that's what I thought about when I though monsters so... anyway I just really liked the depths of the monsters, and how, excluding the hive-mind Corsai, were super intelligent and knew exactly what they wanted and it was a nice change from the usual brainless and violent monster. Who most of the time happens to have no face do you know how creepy that is?
• I loved the dual storyline/narration. On one hand you have Kate, a human who is determined to make herself a monster so she can please her extremely violent and nasty father. It honestly made me sad to read some of her parts because the lengths that she goes to to try and impress her father are pretty extreme and I think that it's just sad that she has to prove to her father that she's "worthy" instead of being loved for who she is. And then you have August, a monster who desperately wants to be human. And he's trying to escape this stereotype that everyone has and that his nasty brother who I HATE is trying to enforce. Even with the whole "you always want to be what you can't" narrative yet the characters never stop trying...
• Ilsa deserves her own special bullet point. I just loved the air of mystery around her in the beginning and then the explanations that come at the end. She is, hands down, my favorite character, and she doesn't even appear that often. And the cat. The cat is awesome too.
• Plot twists and evil characters GALORE. I obviously knew what was going to happen already because I already read the book but I still loved the twists, most of them aren't predictable (there are one or two that are pretty obvious but idk if it was because I've read too many fantasy books or if its because I've read this book before or if they were just predictable in general but this was minority of the twists).
• The message behind this book. The monsters were only created because of the violent acts of humans, and honestly the humans in this book were also way worse than the monsters to be honest. Also, greed and money was a huge part of this book. Probably my favorite message though was that you can't control the lot you get in life, but you can choose how you react to it. I feel like these all apply to human nature and life/society in general so it was not only an entertaining read but an educational one as well.

Do I still like the Shades of Magic series better? Definitely, I feel like it is much more complex with a bit more development and more surprising plot twists. But hey, an enjoyable read is an enjoyable read!

See this review on Goodreads.