Review: Our Dark Duet

Our Dark Duet
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Kate Harker is a girl who isn’t afraid of the dark. She’s a girl who hunts monsters. And she’s good at it. August Flynn is a monster who can never be human, no matter how much he once yearned for it. He’s a monster with a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.

Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own. 

When I read This Savage Song, I completely loved it and immediately devoured it, so I couldn't wait to get stuck in to its sequel! This was everything I was hoping for and more, and the ending completely gutted me. 

We start off Our Dark Duet with a quite frankly, chilling opening. When we rejoin Kate and August it's been six months since the end of This Savage Song and things are quite different for the both of them. We jump straight in with some action as we join Kate hunting and I loved seeing Kate in her element, hunting down monsters with her little team. I really feel like there was a CSI: Monster Edition kind of vibe, because you've got Kate in Prosperity, which supposedly has no monsters, hunting them down with her team. There's Teo, Bea, Liam and Riley and I was quite disappointed we didn't get to see more of them! They all seemed to work together really well! Anyway, they're working with Kate, it was kind of like Arrow with the Vigilante team at one point, and then at others it was a bit CSI with Kate investigating a murder and so on. I loved it. It felt like such a different vibe to me than the first book but was still recognisably the same world. 

August is now a leader of his own little group made up of Rez, Harris, Jackson and Ani. There's also a new Sunai in town, Soro and I'm still not sure if I actually liked him! August is obviously in Verity as they're all fighting against Sloane, Alice and his organised force of monsters. They've got people escaping from one side of the city in to their side and needing to be checked out and trained and so on. We get to meet a couple of the new recruits like Colin, although I couldn't remember if we'd met him in TSS or not. Again, Augusts scenes had a different vibe to Kate's and it was a nice contrast between the two. I had wanted to see more of the world of the book and Victoria really delivered! 

Kate's just as badass as ever, she's determined to fight and help and take out the monsters. But she has one struggle. A struggle that makes things very difficult for her.....friendship. Yep. Kate's got friends. I loved seeing her interact with her little group, and worry about them and she's not used to having friends so it was nice to see her with friends who cared about her and worried about her, and how she dealt with that and this new friendship thing that she'd never really experienced much before. Forever loving her sarcasm and witty one liners too! 

August has changed a little, he's become colder, more distant and perhaps a bit darker. He's got Leo in his head messing with him, affecting how he thinks and acts. He's trying to do what's right, trying to protect people but he's not the August we know and love from TSS. It was interesting to see this other side of August, and even more interesting to see how he changed again when Kate was back and challenging him. It was like she made him finally question himself and realise how he's acting. 

I read Our Dark Duet in two sittings because I was completely glued. There's more action, more monsters, more fighting, more gore, more darkness and more interesting looks at human nature and what really makes a monster. I love how that's woven in and makes you think. There's a new threat to face. We get to see more of the FTF and how it works, and the inner divisions between them all. The different plot threads all tie together brilliantly to make the overall plot, as do the three different POV's we get. Kate, August and Sloane are interesting narrators and they're all different from each other, so they have interesting and differing viewpoints on what's going on. Sloane is just plain creepy to be honest. The plot is filled with nuances and sly plans from Sloane, and it keeps you intrigued, keeps you invested. 

I have to say, the ending of this completely broke me. As we get to the end the pace is so snappy that I was forcing myself to calm down and read slowly instead of reading too fast and missing things. The ending...I had to sit there after I'd closed the book for a good few minutes. It was devastating for me. But the last sentence...there was just something about it. The entire book, much like the first, is very vivid. Verity and Prosperity rise up in front of you, the contrasts obvious. You can picture each one of the settings, and you get completely sucked in so that you feel like you're there, helped along by the atmosphere that permeates the book. 

When I read that last sentence in the book, I could picture it so vividly, like it was playing out on a cinema screen, and after that last sentence it fading to black and the credits rolling. If this is the final book...then it's brilliantly wrapped up and a very satisfying if not heartbreaking conclusion to the story. Having said that, while it's heartbreaking...the ending and how things end up are actually very fitting for the book if I'm honest. 

Buuuuttt I've heard that this is a duology and then that this is a series...I mean...I wouldn't say no to a third book you know? But at the same time...I feel like August and Kate's story is done. I would really like to see some more of the world of the book though, there's so much left to explore! 

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