Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age group: Young adult
Pages: 464 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication date: July 5, 2016
Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city 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. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.
THOUGHTS:
I've read one of Victoria Schwab's books before, that being Vicious, and it is one of my all time favourite books ever. So, when I found out that she was releasing a book this year (and that it was a young adult novel) I was ECSTATIC. I love her writing, and I bought this book as soon as I was able to, with staggering expectations.
Firstly, her characters are always amazing. They have such depth and such amazing pasts and lives. August and Kate were no exception. They both had horrors in their past but neither of them let them control them so that they couldn't find themselves. They also interacted in the perfect way as well. One of the appealing things about this book is that there is NO ROMANCE. That's basically unheard of now, not only in young adult but also in books in general. There is always some form of romance, and there is absolutely none in this novel. I feel like that helped the characters to connect in a way that couldn't have been even remotely touched (with a 10 foot pole) if there was any form of attraction or romance between them. It also helps the reader to see friendship without any hindrance.
The idea behind this novel was also absolutely amazing. I find that so many young adult books have monsters that are similar or that just aren't enough monster or are too much monster (if that makes any sense...) and that you can't see them as how the author intended for you to see them. Some monsters are so human that you feel too much pity for them, and others are so far from human that you feel no pity towards them. The monsters in this novel were just enough human at times and just far enough from human at other times that the reader felt pain and pity towards them, but also anger and disgust at other times. The story also has so many important details, like trust issues, influence from parents, lying and searching for the truth, and becoming friends with someone you could never even see as human before. I loved how well everything flowed together and how all the characters were developed and functioned with each other and by themselves.
With that said, I found that there was something missing for me. It wasn't that there was no romance, but that it was told in a different way from how I'm used to Victoria Schwab's writing. She usually has a very flowing, very soft, heavy way of writing, and I found this book to have more of a lighter tone in places that I felt should have been heavy. I also feel like the ending was a bit abrupt, and although I know that there is going to be a second book and that it was supposed to end on a cliff hanger, but I feel like this one was so much more sudden and unexpected. After I had finished the book I felt like there should have been a bit more to it, and bit more of a finalizing end.
Overall though, I loved this book and the characters, plot and the connections between the characters was amazing.
Overall - ★★★★☆
No comments:
Post a Comment