ARC Review: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

 
Title: This Savage Song
Author: Victoria Schwab
Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: June 7th, 2016
Pages: 464
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

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.

This is my second novel written by Victoria Schwab (the first being A Darker Shade of Magic) and I must say that she does not disappoint! To be honest I was really worried about This Savage Song because I’m a newbie in Fantasy novels so I was really wary about the monsters. However, it turned out that I was worrying for nothing.

The thing about Victoria Schwab is that she writes in such a compelling way that even when I need to put down the book for a while, the events that took place in the world she created would always be playing in my mind. She has this ability to make things stick out. I think part of this also stems from how unique her books and her worlds always are. It’s as though they have their own genre.

In This Savage Song, the author created a world were monsters are born from the vicious deeds of people. There are three types of monsters - Corsai, Malchai and Sunnai, and August is the latter, who are born from the most extreme bad deeds. Kate, on the other hand, is a human who construes herself as a badass in order to gain her father’s approval. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not at all done in a petty manner.

I really enjoyed the companionship (if you can call it that) between Kate and August during the latter parts of the novel. I really liked how there was no romance between them, and how they were there for each other, but not at all in the cheesy kind of sense. These two characters are so complicated in that they are unlike any other character I’ve ever met before, and so their companionship is also something that is complicated. These two are just as unique as the plot, and I really don’t know how V.E. Schwab managed to do it so well.

Oh my gosh, that ending! I don’t know what this author is trying to do to me, but that ending is just ahbkshdfk! I can’t even find the right words! I really need the next book, like since I read the last word of this book. Ugh, waiting so long for the next book will hurt my brain and my heart.

Thank you, V.E. Schwab, for yet another amazing novel. You never cease to amaze me, and the feeling as well as the experience of reading this book is truly unique and unforgettable. You are one of the best authors of the fantasy genre, and I look forward to reading more of your work. Just please, don’t kill us with cliffhangers every time.

4.5 oh-my-freaking-goodness stars. 



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