Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
“How much does a soul weigh? he wondered.
Less than a body.”
Okay, so it’s been a few days and I think I have had sufficient amount of time to adjust to life after reading this book. Just a fair warning that I do not even know how to begin reviewing this book, but I will do my best. Let me just start off stating that I listened to the audiobook on this because that was the first version I could get my hands on from the library. I listened to most of it at 1.75x or 2x speed because I could not get through it fast enough to find out what was happening. With that being said, the audiobook version was excellent and Therese Plummer is amazing.
ODD picks up 6 months later with Kate in Prosperity. She’s being her usual bad assness kicking butt, taking names, and slaughtering monsters. Unfortunately, she’s skirting her responsibility in her own city. August is still in Verity and is smothering out the small amount of humanity that he has learned to harbor within himself. Both are haunted by the demons of their past (quite literally) and it takes a new monster that feeds on chaos that brings them together where they both confront each other and said demons.
The World Building
Let’s face it, there really isn’t much word building aside from the monsters in these books. I mean, there really isn’t any need for it. We get it, it’s a city seized by monsters. So where Schwab spends most of her world building is within the cruelty of each monster race and the desperation of the people still residing in the city. It is a newly accepted culture of fight with the FTF or be fodder to the Corsai and Sunai.
The Characters
Let’s start with Kate, just because she is a little easier. The entire first half I was pretty mad at how she could sit in Prosperity trying to pretend she’s not selfishly in a safer city while her home essentially rots from the inside. In the meantime she is trying to make up for it by protecting some other city. Screw those guys. However, I was honestly a little disappointed not to see anymore of her friends from there after she left. Schwab spent a little time introducing them, but we didn’t really get much out of it.
August is just as sweet and tender as the first book. He may not believe it, but he is the more human than the humans. His ability to have empathy about the souls that he is reaping is just mind blowing since the other Sunai don’t seem to grasp it. He is no monster. He is a tiny little kitty, with hidden claws that come out in the form of his violin and bow that slash through the corsair. I just love how conscious he is of all his actions. The moment I most loved about August was when he realizes just how much power he has through his music on people.
To keep this review spoiler free, let’s just group all the other monsters together. They are creepy AF. I feel like we get a little more of a taste of the Corsai & Sunai, and their mentalities are so twisted. The flesh and torture that they obsess over just might be what helps us put August on such a high pedestal.
The Story
Guys, this book was flawless. Schwab has created a monster that we love, a damaged girl who is the one person who keeps him human, and a monster so scary I was thankful that I didn’t do the book at night time. This book made me appreciate the nightlight in my room. The way the story plays out really isn’t so much about the war that is going on between the humans and the monsters as much as the war each of our characters has with themselves and what they have to do. We are left wondering, are we who we are based on our actions, or do our souls way more than that?
Despite how beautiful the book ends it will leave you broken.
