Our Dark Duet

Our Dark Duet, Victoria Schwab, 510 pages, audiobook length 10:32:00

After her father’s death and the fall of his regime, Kate has fled to Prosperity to hunt new kinds of monsters. August has been thrust into a leadership role in the Flynn Task Force and struggles to suppress his humanity as his brother’s voice whispers in his ear. Sloane, once thought dead, has survived and taken over half of Verity with the aid of Alice, a monster born of Kate’s act of violence. The war has come to a stalemate, until Kate stumbles across a brand-new monster that sows chaos wherever it goes.

As I read this book I kept repeating to myself: “Negative character development is still character development.” But no matter how much I reminded myself of that, there’s only so much bleakness I can handle, and this book really pushed the limits. I’m honestly having a hard time writing this review because I am so glad to finally be done. Kate spends most of the book fighting against a supernatural murderous rage that wells up inside her; August is a hollow shell, and the more he feeds, the hollower he becomes; Sloane of course is a blood-soaked nightmare; and I am so tired. Dear reader: call it quits after This Savage Song and pretend there’s a happy-ever-after in this world.