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.
Review: Oh man, I'm so excited I got to read this book finally. I enjoyed reading Kate and August's perspectives. They were both done quite well considering one was supposed to be a monstrous human and the other was a humane monster. Kate's growth was my favorite. She tries to be a rough and tough human who can go toe to toe with ruthless monsters. That being said, she stumbles and second guesses herself and her motivations. August was interesting too. He tried so hard to fit in with humans but, in the end, he realized that was impossible and he needed to be true to himself. There were some interesting side characters as well. I liked how different Leo and Ilsa were to August. The monsters didn't feel like carbon copies of one another. I wish we were able to spend a bit more time with Henry, Emily, Harker, and Sloan. We got to know them a fair amount, but something seemed a little lacking. I also wish there was a little more to Kate and August. It's hard to explain, but I feel like their characters could have had a little bit more to them.
The story was surprisingly fast. It wasn't really filled with action or intrigue, but I still managed to fly through this story. The world felt fairly fleshed out considering the entire book took place in a single city. I will say, I didn't quite buy the backstories behind the monsters. Sunai, the kind of monster August is, are apparently incredibly rare and only made during events of extreme tragedy. There are only 3 in the world, August, Ilsa, and Leo. I won't say what specifically caused August, Ilsa, and Leo to exist, because I found them interesting myself. I just have a hard time believing that there were only 3 major tragedies of that scale in this world. Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing awful things of this nature regularly. It would be interesting if more Sunai start popping up in the second book, but we'll see.
This was an great, quick read. An awesome start to what I'm sure will be a wonderful series.
4 howls
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