This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab Review

Title: This Savage Song
Author: Victoria Schwab
Age Group: Teen/Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Monsters of Verity, book one
Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

I borrowed this book from my local library and reviewed it.

Okay, so I'll be honest with you guys: I'm a little bit biased here. Victoria Schwab won my heart entirely last year with her smash hit, A Darker Shade of Magic, and its sequel this year, A Gathering of Shadows. And to call me a devotee is kind of an understatement, but... I can't help it. Schwab is one of my favorite fantasy authors, probably one of my go-tos, and This Savage Song only helped cement her place in my heart, as a reader and an author (if albeit an un-established one). God, where do I even begin with this book?

I loved it, honestly. Schwab's electric prose and her signature, atmospheric world-building, and the characters--it just all added up to a wholly original and exciting fantasy. This Savage Song paints a broken, dark and frightening world where monsters are literally formed from bad acts. There are three different types: ghostly, bloodthirsty Corsai, dark and sly Malachi with sharp teeth and terror, and finally, the Sunai, the special breed of monster who can steal your soul with a song (literally.)

Kate Harker and August Flynn are two people from completely different worlds: Kate is the daughter of Callum, the ruler of North City, the safe part of Verity. Tough and scary and full of fire and spunk, she fights to live up to her father's expectations. August is a monster who longs to be human, who dreams of more to his existence. The two are thrown together in a crazy, catastrophic turn of events, and are forced to trust each other, even as the city they both live in falls to pieces.

As I said previously, I really enjoyed this book. The premise was original and exciting. The pacing of the book is breakneck--you're thrown into Schwab's world, hanging on for dear life as you turn the pages, sucked into the story almost against your will. Almost. I loved the characters, pretty much all of them, but the stars of the novel, Kate and August, were really the ones who stole my heart. Dynamic and flawed and three-dimensional, they seemed to fly off of the pages of their story and straight into my soul. More please! There had better be a sequel, or I'll die! (Waiting for the last A Darker Shade of Magic has been hard enough!) The bottom line: Another original, groundbreaking hit for the fantastic Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song is one of my favorite books of 2016! More please! Next on deck: My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton!

Comments

Popular Posts