From Goodreads:

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

After having read A Darker Shade of Magic and not enjoying it all that much, I was hesitant to try another Schwab book. I was pleasantly surprised by This Savage Song though. Urban fantasy is up there amongst my favourite genres, so I was hopeful that this could be better for me, but when you’ve read a ton of urban fantasy, you begin to wonder if you’ll ever read something truly different. This Savage Song managed to be different. The world that was built and the creatures that Schwab created were intriguing and engaged me as I wanted to find out more.

THE PLOT

The plot is where I really struggled with ADSOM, but This Savage Song was so much better. I was intrigued from the first page, and the intrigue never really died down. At first, I wanted to know more about Kate, and what she was hoping to achieve, then I wanted to know more about the monsters, then about the Sunai, and well, you get the picture. I was hooked and constantly wanted to know what was coming next. The ending was also satisfying, but not so satisfying that I don’t want to read on. There’s still hooks there, but most of it was tied up quite neatly, and I like novels like that. Novels that feel like they are their own book, even if they are part of a series, and not just a snippet of what they should’ve been.

THE CHARACTERS

Kate

Kate was your badass heroine. She knew what she wanted, and was willing to go to pretty extreme lengths to get it, and I could admire that about her. Her character was well built-up, with her past clearly having an impact on who she grew up to be. She annoyed me a little bit at times, but then that was just who she was as a character, and it worked. Her relationship with August was believable and I enjoyed seeing it progress, knowing something she didn’t know and then reading along as she found out.

August

August was the sweetest monster. Who knew the humans would be more psycho than the monsters? I guess that’s why this book is great; because it flips it. The terrible creatures aren’t all that bad, or at least some of them aren’t, and the humans can be downright evil. August, despite what he was, was realistic with his personality and reactions. The struggle he felt with what he was and what he could do, and how he ultimately dealt with that is something I really enjoyed reading. On that same subject though, I found myself willing him to be stronger and to get on with it. He came across as mopey at times.

There were plenty of characters in this, with August’s family, Kate’s father and some other monsters, but the two main characters are the ones that were truly memorable. The support characters weren’t that exciting or attention-drawing.

THE WORLD

The world is made up of monsters and humans, living in a less-than-peaceful stalemate, that’s supposed to be a truce. For the monsters, you’ve got the Corsai, Malchai and Sunai. Each of the monsters has different, uh, abilities? Perhaps abilities is the wrong word. Each one of them has a certain thing that makes them monstrous. In the book, the characters are known to sing a pretty catchy song that tells them apart. Music is key in this, as you would’ve guessed from the title and the cover, but the way it’s more subtly dropped in is great. Like you’ll have characters singing that song, or the word choice of a particular sentence will be a nod to something related to music.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed This Savage Song, and I’m glad I did. I was beginning to worry I wouldn’t like Schwab at all, and I’d miss out on understanding what others were talking about because I’d given up on reading her work. I’m glad that’s not the case! There’s a second book in this series, and I’ve added it to my TBR to be read at some point. I’m not sure if there are any more books planned after that one, so if it’s one more book and it’s all tied up, I might get to it reasonably quick. It should be fun!

Would I read it again? I might do if it’s a long time until I pick up the next one, but it won’t be one of those I pick-up just because I want to read a book I know I enjoy.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? Yes, at some point. I’m not in too big a rush though.

Would I recommend it? An enjoyable dystopian/urban fantasy YA, so yeah!

Is it going on my favourites shelf? Not good enough for the favourites shelf!

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Created Apr 16, 2019 at 3:03pm • Submit your own review...