Review: Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

Title: Our Dark Duet
Series: Monsters of Verity #2

Author: Victoria Schwab

Genre: Urban fantasy

Age group: Young adult

Pages: 510 (Hardcover)

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication date: June 13, 2017

**The below synopsis will contain spoilers if you have not yet read This Savage Song. The below review is spoiler free.**

Synopsis from Our Dark Duet's Goodreads page

THE WORLD IS BREAKING. AND SO ARE THEY.

KATE HARKER isn't afraid of monsters. She hunts them. And she's good at it.

AUGUST FLYNN once yearned to be human. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.

THE WAR HAS BEGUN.

THE MONSTERS ARE WINNING.

Kate will have to return to Verity. August will have to let her back in. And a new monster is waiting—one that feeds on chaos and brings out its victims' inner demons.

Which will be harder to conquer: the monsters they face, or the monsters within?

THOUGHTS

I have, at this point in my reading career, read three other Victoria Schwab books. None of them have disappointed me, and none of them have had less than a 4/5 star rating, and this book is no exception.

Every single one of the worlds that she creates are so different, so unique, and are so wonderfully crafted and created, that you can almost believe that you can just step into the book and become a part of the world you're reading about.

This book is the second, and conclusion, of the Monsters of Verity duology. The first book, This Savage Song, I read last summer and wrote a full review of, which can be found here.

This Savage Song created the world, introduced the characters, and created the conflict all wonderfully, but I found it was missing...something. Our Dark Duet, however, was everything that I wanted, everything that I hoped for, and everything I didn't even know I wanted all wrapped up in one.

Our Dark Duet picks up a few months after This Savage Song ends, and although a fair amount of the conflict from the first book was wrapped up at the end of This Savage Song, SO much more conflict was created within the first few chapters of this book.

The conflict was utterly unbelievable (in a GREAT way), the characters were so wonderfully dark and twisted while also being loving and sweet, that it makes you want nothing more than to have friends like August and Kate.

Every time I read one of Victoria Schwab's books, I am struck by how powerful of a writer she is, in more ways than one. She can create so many different worlds, so many complex characters, and just when I think I finally understand her writing style, she starts writing poetry in Our Dark Duet. And her poetry? DID NOT DISAPPOINT. It was dark and twisted and creepy, everything it was meant to be and more.

I absolutely flew through this book. I read it in two sittings, starting late at night until the early morning, and then as soon as I woke up the next day, I finished it. It was a quick read, even though it is 500+ pages.

The ending of this book utterly destroyed me. It was painful and my heart still aches even though I finished it 12+ hours ago. I know that Kate and August's story is complete, and it feels like it. Everything that needed to be wrapped up was wrapped up perfectly, and although the ending destroyed me, I couldn't imagine it ending any other way.

Thank you, for writing such an amazing book that touched me so strongly. I know I will never forget it.

Overall - ★★★★★

2 Year Review

Hi everyone!
So today officially marks two years on this blog for me. I started it with no idea what I was doing or where I was planning on going with it, and some days it still feels like I have no idea what I'm doing. However, even though I've had a hard time getting this all going, it's definitely been rewarding, and I just want to take a second to thank everyone who has supported me these past two years! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this going for years to come!

THE GOOD

Since I've started this blog, I've met so many wonderful people here and on my Instagram, mickeyreads247. I've met authors and booktubers, book bloggers and bookstagrammers alike. Every single person I have met on here has been absolutely wonderful and so kind, and I honestly couldn't have done it without every single one of you!
Mickey Reads has definitely opened me up to many more genres and many different books than I would normally read, and it has also showed me so many books that I never would have found, or even heard of, let alone read, if I hadn't started it up. I have no idea where I would be without it!
Starting Mickey Reads also showed me how much I was reading each month, and it made me really think about what I was going to, and what I wanted to, read each time I started a new book. I had to think "Is this something that I want to spend my time on, to write a review on, and to talk about with my readers?" It made me pick different books than I would have had I not started my blog, and I'm happy that it made me more careful and really think about what I was going to read.
Mickey Reads also made me become more organized, in a way. I had to keep track of everything I buy every month, and what I read and what I thought about each and every book I read. I had to stay organized so nothing got misplaced, and I had to write organized notes about every single thing I read, so that I could write a detailed review later on after I had read the book, which also helped my memory to remember what I had read.

THE BAD

After I first started my Instagram and my book blog up, I found that that was all I could focus on, and I was having so much fun with it and having such a great time taking pictures of my books, reading and writing about them. After awhile, it became about likes and followers, and about page views. It became all about the numbers, and I really hated that that was all I could see. So, I took an unexplained absence for a few months, and I tried to come back...to no avail. At that point, I found that Mickey Reads was all about the numbers, and I hated that because I started Mickey Reads to share my love of books with the world. Now, after taking some time off, I've realized that the numbers don't matter, and that I need to read, review, and take pictures of things that I like, and that I WANT to read, not to do things to please other people or for the likes. I'm hoping I can keep this mentality, and that my time off has allowed me to become more creative and to enjoy doing this more.
I also found that after awhile, I began to write reviews about books that I really didn't have much to say about. It became about the number of posts I could write each month, not about what I liked and wanted to read, and instead about following trends and writing things I wasn't overly proud of. Since then, I've written reviews and other things that I am extremely proud of, and I'm hoping that I can reach a wider audience because I'm writing for me, and I'm being 100% myself in everything I write and everything I put forwards on here and my Instagram. Saying that, however, means that there will be less content released going forwards, but it will be better content and content that I am 100% proud of to have my name on. In my opinion, quality over quantity!

FINAL THOUGHTS

The past two years have been amazing and I've loved every second of Mickey Reads and the amazing people and opportunities it has brought me. I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm happy to continue working on my little corner of the web and to make it something that I am extremely proud of! Here's to many more years of reading, and many more amazing books!