Our Dark Duet (#2 Monsters Of Verity) by Victoria Schwab

Hey ForeverBookers, 

How are you all today? I hope you’re well! 

I’ve just finished “Our Dark Duet” by Victoria Schwab and I really enjoyed it. It’s book 2 in the “Monsters Of Verity” duology, so it’s the last book that follows these characters. I gave “This Savage Song” (“Monsters Of Verity” #1) 5 stars and was really surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. 

4 Stars for “Our Dark Duet”!

“Our Dark Duet” follows the same two characters primarily, as in “This Savage Song,” Kate Harker and August Flynn. Kate has moved to a new city, Prosperity, since the events of “This Savage Song.” Life is a lot simpler and she has a new group of friends there. What takes her back to Verity? You’ll have to read to find out! 

“Our Dark Duet” is written in four parts, which made it really easy to read. I read about a part a day. The parts are titled something to do with becoming a monster. I won’t say exactly why, just that it’s a journey for each character. 

The readathons I read “Our Dark Duet” were:

The Cardcaptor-a-thon - Watery - A book that has a character with questionable morals - Kate and August both have questionable morals at different points in the novel - #8.

Reading Rivalry - Author who uses an initial in their name - Although she’s known as Victoria Schwab with this duology, she’s also known as V.E Schwab so that’s why I’m using this this. 

Fiction Feud Society - Blue on the cover - there’s blue, black and white on the cover.

#RWMBingo2019 Villains on Facebook- 500+ pages - “Our Dark Duet” is 510 pages!

PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge - set at a college/university campus - “Our Dark Duet” is partly set in a dystopian version of one!

Spoilers Below

“If Verity’s sins were knives, quick and vicious, then Prosperity’s were poison. Slow, insidious, but just as deadly.”

This is a comparison that’s made at the beginning of “Our Dark Duet” of the two cities that Kate has lived in. Prosperity isn’t featured much at all in the book, though. Kate needed to have somewhere else to go after the events of “This Savage Song.” Prosperity is vaguely mentioned throughout but just in passing. It’s really only a plot device used in the beginning of the book. Kate goes on a journey of becoming something more than just a human in “Our Dark Duet.” I won’t write more because I don’t want to spoil it but will what she is help her win in the end? You’ll have to read to find out! 

When we meet August again, he’s grown up. He’s still the Sunai monster he was, but he now works as a leader of the FTF—those that want to bring an end to the war between the monsters and humans. I think August had the biggest growth in the duology. He started as a young boy that only wanted to be human in “This Savage Song,” but in “Our Dark Duet” he has a purpose, stopping people from becoming monsters. 

“August didn’t feel sick, or jittery. 

Just empty.

How much does a soul weigh? he wondered. 

Less than a body.”

He has to end a woman’s life because she killed her husband but the woman has a daughter that August meets. Can he do it? Has he grown that much. Do you agree with what he has to do? Could you do it? This made me question my morals too. That’s why this book is perfect for The Watery in The Cardcaptor-a-thon. You’ll need to read to find out what happens! 

Another main character is Soro. They are always referred to as “they” or “Soro.” They don’t use a pronoun. I think this is because Soro doesn’t identify as a gender. This was kind of annoying for me to read because I wanted to know just who Soro was, and I don’t feel we ever got that, but I can also see that others might appreciate it, especially if they are non gender specific. Soro plays an important part in “Our Dark Duet,” where they’re high up in the ranks of the FTF. Also because of Soro’s non gender specific personality I feel like we never got to know them as a character, so they’re ins and outs as we do for Kate and August and others. They were always on the outskirts but never a central personality. 

Henry, August’s father when he became a monster, is the absolute head of the FTF. He is ill in “Our Dark Duet” but is very much a side character. All we learn about him is that he’s ill in this book. Nothing else is added to his character. He’s not a main character anyway, though so that might be why. I would have maybe liked to have seen a few more characters have a central role in “Our Dark Duet.” The only characters that did I feel were Kate, August, Sloan and Alice, who are the two villains and I’ll talk about next. 

Sloan is the head of the evil force in “Our Dark Duet,” since Kate’s father, Callum Harker was killed in “This Savage Song.” He’s really evil and just wants to win the war, basically. When he gets his hands on perhaps the most evil force in the book what happens? You’ll have to read to find out. Alice is Sloan’s second in command, you could say. She’s based on what Kate’s mother once was, we learn. Kate is really shocked when she learns this. She’s never seen Alice before this point. 

  

“I’m the reason that monster is here.”

This is what Kate says to August, when she learns what Alice truly is. Kate killed her mother before the events of “This Savage Song” because she was once as evil and twisted as her father, who as I’ve already said was the head of the evil forces before he was killed and Sloan took over. She therefore blames herself for bringing Alice into the world. If she’d never killed her mother, then Alice wouldn’t exist. This is the first time Kate has ever seen Alice too. At the end of “Our Dark Duet” Alice and Kate battle it out. Who wins? You’ll have to read to find out. 

The settings left somewhat to be desired I think. The only settings focused on were the FTF training center and Sloan’s headquarters. “Our Dark Duet” is a fantasy/dystopian novel, but it really didn’t feel like a dystopian book. When I think of dystopian, I automatically think of books like “The Hunger Games” and “Scythe,” which is more utopian, I know but it’s still a sub-genre of dystopia. Anyway, I expected a lot more violence in “Our Dark Duet,” after the events of “This Savage Song,” and I don’t feel like we got that. What we did get is a fantasy novel, with monsters trying to survive against a monstrous threat, I thought. If this had been more dystopian, I feel more would have been made of the settings. The only thing that suggested it was a dystopian novel was the gates that separated Verity from the rest of the USA. 

“The guard looked at her like she was missing a vital piece. “The Verity border’s been closed for months.” 

“I thought it was open again.” 

He shook his head apologetically.”

This is what happens when Kate wants to get into Verity. We don’t have gates that separate parts of the country where I live. The closest I can think to this are the Toll gates in France and they’re not to keep people out as these gates in “Our Dark Duet” are. That’s why I thought these were quite a dystopian aspect because I haven’t come across them. But apart from that, the novel could have just been any other YA urban fantasy. I say urban fantasy because it wasn’t set in a different world.    

Lastly, I just want to say about the romance. There wasn’t much, as The Monsters Of Verity duology doesn’t focus on it but Kate and August do kiss and I think they become slightly more than friends but this is of course, open to interpretation. You’ll have to read “Our Dark Duet” to see what you think!  

“He didn’t decide to kiss her. One second her mouth was an inch from his, and the next, his lips were on hers, they were a tangle of limbs, and the next, Kate was on top of him, pressing him down into the sheets.”

This was nice to see because I’ve always suspected Kate and August had a somewhat more than amicable relationship. It doesn’t go too far so as to take the focus off the battle between good and evil but it doesn’t just ignore the connection either, as I kind of felt “This Savage Song” did. 

I don’t want to spoil the end of “Our Dark Duet” because it’s the end of the duology and I feel you need to read it yourself, rather than read it here in my review but it’s a very tense and somewhat sad ending. 

Overall then, I enjoyed “Our Dark Duet.” There were some parts that I wanted to see more details about, like I would have loved more character development and insights into some of the not so important characters as this would have made the story feel more rounded. Also it would have been nice to see more settings, as there were only two main ones. I did really like the focus on August and Kate’s feelings towards each other. Had this novel been made slightly longer or ended differently, I think more could have been made of this romance. I would have loved even more focus on it, as it would have made both of our main characters even more equal and the imbalance that they had could have been explored and righted. That’s why I’m giving “Our Dark Duet” 4 Stars! I really enjoyed it still but I thought there were just a couple of inaccuracies.  

I plan to read a very scary book for Halloween. It’s a long book so I don’t know if I’ll start it next or if I’ll try and squeeze another book in before hand...you’ll have to wait and see!

Thanks for reading...come back soon to see what I read next!