4.5 stars

Thank you Erika for pressuring me into reading this book over Twitter. XD

L I K E S
» no romance!!
» Kate is a very complex lead. She acts like an awful person when all she wants is her father's acceptance. Her character development is great.
» August is so sweet. He's a monster but he doesn't want to be one, he wants to be human. He also has good character development, and I loved his passion for music. It went beyond a method for taking souls.
» the world-building. Verity was a very interesting city, divided in half and uneasily peaceful. I've read divided cities before, but Victoria just had a way of making this one stand out that I can't describe. I also liked that each territory was a trait; Verity, Fortune, Prosperity...
» the uniqueness of everything. It was a dystopian with three very distinct kinds of monsters, Corsai, Malchai, and Sunai. I've never read anything like it before. I also appreciated that there was no clear morality. It wasn't a story of good defeating evil, or if anti-heroes. It was morally ambiguous, which made t even more interesting.
» pacing. Even with what felt like a slightly slower and more meandering plot, the pacing had me hooked. I couldn't stop reading, and that's how I finished the book today. I read nearly 300 pages this afternoon alone.

D I S L I K E S
» I'm not exactly sure what the plot itself was supposed to be. It was unclear throughout the entire story. I knew of temporary goals that characters had, accomplished and replaced as the book went on, but beyond that I don't know. What was the main, overall point of the story? Maybe I missed it, but whether it's me or not, that was my one issue with this.

O V E R A L L
I really enjoyed this book, and I wish I'd picked it up sooner! I was pleasantly surprised. And I'll definitely be reading the sequel, because THAT ENDING. Also, I'm curious. ;)