Publication: March 7th 2017
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Pages: 336 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
A bittersweet end to a beautiful duology, once again Schwab packs action and emotion into a YA series that will be missed by many.
In Our Dark Duet we’re back following our favourite monster hunter Kate and favourite monster August and see just exactly how their lives have changed since Our Savage Song. Kate is still hunting monsters, but this time in Prosperity where she’s found an underground team of vigilantes who want to fight Prosperity’s monsters but don’t know how. But when Kate comes face to face with a monster she’s never seen before, a monster that infects her and is heading to Verity, Kate leaves the life and friends she’s made in Prosperity and heads back to where the real monsters live. Meanwhile, August is battling his own personal monsters. Telling himself that his old motivations of acting more human than monster were pointless, August focuses on being a monster and helping his father Henry Flynn with the growing war between the Compound and the monsters of Verity. Our heroes meet up ready to face the new monster already infecting Verity, and maybe even the ones inside themselves.
Our Dark Duet is a heartbreaking end to a beautiful series about monsters and humans and everything in-between. I loved getting to see Kate, August, and Ilsa again and meet a new character, Soro, who is genderless. I’ve never read a book from a genderless character before and I love that Soro’s identity isn’t made a big deal in the book. They’re a monster, and that’s all that matters. I also loved and hated Alice, Kate’s monster. She was so unbelievably dark and evil, everything Kate tried to be in Our Savage Song personified, and as much as I loved when she was on the page I kept hoping Kate would come in and chop off her head.
Our Dark Duet is a fairly slow-paced novel until the end when all hell breaks loose. It almost takes your breath away while reading as you try to place what was happening before, present, and after. So much happens in such few chapters that you almost have to re-read it to believe any of it happened.
Schwab has such a way with words and worlds and for this reason she’s quickly become one of my favourite authors. Her ability to craft unique and intricate worlds, complicated characters, and always pack a punch to the reader simply astounds me and I can’t wait for all the new books and ideas she’s sure to come up with in the years to come.
Six Blue Marbles Book Reviews 