where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters."
It seems like V E Schwab is taking over the YA world. I have read quite a few of her books now, with out especially going out of my way to find them. I would say that out of all of her books, this is probably my favourite so far.
This book was a solid read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to someone as a holiday read. The writing was good, I’ve never had a problem with her writing. It has always felt punchy, shading to lyrical. The worldbuilding was handled well too. The concept that an act of violence could actually spawn real monsters was just fascinating to me, and I thought it could open up some really interesting moral discussions and parallels. It was intricate and woven into the text, neither info dumping nor overly confusing. Which is rare in worlds this elaborate and extensive. Overall, this was creative and pretty well done.
While I loved Schwab's "A Darker Shade of Magic's" world building, I found the characters flat and emotionally disconnected. In this book, I felt more connected to the characters. However while this is true the actual characters occasionally irritated me despite the more connected feeling that I had for them.
Kate Flynn, while obviously meant to be strong willed and bad ass, occasionally just came across as a bitch. There is a difference between a strong, fierce female character, and one who is a rebellious jerk just for the sake of being one. I disliked her from the first page, as she ruthlessly set fire to part of a school run by nuns for the grand, noble reason of "I don't want to be here." However that being said, she did grow on me, as you start to see her more vulnerable and broken side.
August was the one that frustrated me the most. He's one of those emo, martyred, tortured souls that seems so lost in his own self hatred and guilt complex that he actually endangers those he cares about. It got really irritating. The current tope of the love interest being a guilt ridden monster only for it to come out they don't really do anything monstrous but are actually a sort of avenging angel with an punk make-over...yeah not overly emotionally moving.
It sounds great to have a female lead yearning to be a proper villain to appease parental pressures. It sounds excellent to have a male lead who is vulnerable and searching for his humanity. But somewhere in the process of breathing life into these characters, Schwab missed the mark.
Even with Schwab's amazing talent for weaving words together I cannot in all good conscience tell you that this book will blow you away.
Schwab's writing style is undeniably interesting and fluid in a way that only a master of writing can achieve.
However, the story, the characterization, and unfortunately even the world building will leave you feeling like something crucial is missing. Which is disappointing with such a promising and potentially deeply philosophical premise which is never fully actualized.
Age Rating 15+. A few quite brutal murder scenes.
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