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    This Savage Song
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    This Savage Song
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    This Savage Song
    Ebook374 pages5 hours

    This Savage Song

    By V. E. Schwab

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Kate Harker and August Flynn's families rule opposite ends of Verity, a grisly metropolis where violent acts summon real monsters: bloodsucking Malchai; clawing Corsai; and soul-stealing Sunai. The truce that keeps the families at peace is crumbling, and August is sent to spy on Kate. But when Harker's men try to kill her and pin it on the Flynns, August and Kate find themselves running from both sides, in a city where monsters are real...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTitan Books
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781785652752
    Author

    V. E. Schwab

    V. E. Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, ranging from middle grade to teen to adult. Her books have garnered critical acclaim and been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Washington Post, and NPR; have been translated into more than a dozen languages; and been optioned for television and film. Schwab, an avid traveler, received her MFA from the University of Edinburgh, where her thesis was about the presence of monsters in medieval art. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

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    Reviews for This Savage Song

    4/5

    424 ratings32 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book considering it had monsters, no romance, lots of blood and gore, and very little storyline. However, I loved the two main characters, Kate Harker and August Finn. Both were flawed and vulnerable in their own way, and so very, very likeable. Kate was a feisty, tough piece of works - clever, cruel, vicious, calculated and savage. In fact, she was a human trying to be monstrous to impress her father. August, on the other hand, was a monster trapped inside a human body. He was a tortured soul, full of self-loathing for what he was capable of. His inner battle, and desperate need to protect the innocent, had me wanting to hug him. He was such a sweetheart.Then there were the monsters. The blood-drinking Malchai and the flesh-eating Corsai were evil and murderous, determined to kill as many humans as possible. However, the Sunai were totally differen; they only feasted on the souls of sinners. It was such an unique concept and the author's world-building had me drawn in almost from the start.As for the ending - wow! It was left wide-open for the next book and I can't wait to get my hands on it. This is the first book I've read by this author, but it certainly won't be the last.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars

      This Savage Song follows two characters, Kate, a human who wants to be more like her cold-hearted father and August, a monster who craves being human. They live in two different parts of the same city, Verity. The city itself has been under a truce since the mysterious Phenomenon and monsters have cropped up to destroy everything. However, the truce is close to breaking as more people are being attacked by monsters that the leaders of Verity can’t control. August is sent undercover to the North in order to get close to Kate in case the truce comes to an end. They are thrown together as one is almost killed and the other is framed and they must help each other to survive and learn who is trying so hard to break the truce and start a war.

      Both Kate and August are such complex characters and the author develops them so fully throughout the novel. August is such a gentle character when he can’t afford to be in the world that he lives in, but he holds onto what he values even when people try to force him to give them up. Kate wants to seem hard like her father, wants to make him proud of her. But she becomes strong in such a better way.

      Schwab, here, gives us such a fresh new take on future dystopian society. I loved how she mixed science fiction (dystopian) with fantasy (monsters). Not only has she furthered my love for science fiction in general, but she has also restored my faith in YA novels. If you love YA fantasy, or even if you don’t, this is definitely one you have to check out. I recommend this for anyone who wants something different, but still loves dystopian novels.
    • 5/5
      There is a five letter word to describe Kate. Actually probably a few. When I first starting reading the book I thought it was going to be difficult to like Kate Harker but it didn't take long to warm to her acerbic-almost mean personality. Her facade starts to crack and we get to learn about her along with August.I was on pins and needles. The story races along at breakneck speed with betrayal and death on every corner, alley and even underground. No where is safe. No one is safe. The tone of the book is very dark. The only light seems to emit from August Flynn who keeps looking for the good in everyone, including himself.
    • 4/5
      I didn’t know what the hype was all about until I saw the second book released just recently. Took out this book and in the first day I was half way through. It was addicting and it moved at a fast pace. It took me a little long to warm up to these characters and the setting. The setting is interesting, with the three different groups of monsters infesting the area. There was some sort of catastrophic event and the area was split into two. I rather like the way the world is being set up in this case. We have monsters. Not vampires, or werewolves, or some other mythical creatures we are familiar with. These are different and nothing that I have come across yet in the novels I have read in the past. I rather wish there was more history in regards to world building. Or at least, a bit more information but it doesn’t deter the reader from enjoying the novel. Kate and August are both great characters and opposites. Kate, who is a complete bad ass and August who is trying to fit in and be normal. I like them because first of all, they aren’t filled with besotted love like some YA novels have out there or worse yet, they fall in love and the world crashes around them. I’m glad this book doesn’t have any of that nonsense. They both use each other as a means to an end but they end up being unspoken friends despite their differences. What I like the most about these two is, they both exposed themselves to vulnerability to each other and learnt a lot from their respective groups. The plot itself is very interesting and readable. The action is good and not over the top dramatic. The twist near the end is predictable but what you didn’t see coming is the ending and you’re left with either being blown away or….well there’s no other is there? You’re just straight out blown away. Definitely recommended for YA readers. I’m off to get the second one. I enjoyed this book immensely.
    • 4/5
      This post-apocalytic duology takes place in a re-constituted America after a period of national unrest, a strained economy, and political anarchy. Twelve years before the start of the story, a fundamental change in nature caused violence to start taking actual shape. Specifically, monsters were created out of all the murders being committed. At first, there were only three types:Corsai came from violent, but nonlethal acts, and they fed on flesh and boneMalchai came from murders, and fed on bloodSunai came from mass killings, and fed on life-forces of sinners, the auras of their souls. As far as anyone knows, there are only three Sunai in existence, and they live with Henry Flynn, who is the head of the southern portion of V-City, capital of Verity. He is trying, along with his Sunai, to keep at bay the bad people and the monsters they create.The North is run by Callum Harker, an autocrat who extracts money from his people in return for protection. He also employs torture to instill fear and obedience, with the help of his favorite Malchai, Sloan. His 17-year-old daughter Kate knew her father was a bad man, but thought he was what the city needed: “Good and bad were weak words. Monsters didn’t care about intentions or ideals. The facts were simple. The South was chaos. The North was order. It was an order bought and paid for with blood and fear, but order all the same.”Even though Kate was contemptuous of Flynn for being a quixotic idealist, she comes to admire his “son,” the Sunai August, who is 16. (He was created four years earlier after a mass shooting at a middle school.) Kate and August improbably become friends when they end up at the same high school. Kate is drawn to August because he wasn’t fake like the other students, and because he clearly didn’t belong in a way she couldn’t identify; all she knew was that she didn’t belong either. Ironically, Kate wants to be more like a monster so her father will accept her, and August wants to be more human like his father, because he has a moral code. He spends most of his time afraid: “Afraid of what he was, afraid of what he wasn’t, afraid of unraveling, becoming something, else, becoming nothing.”And in fact, the Sunai can become something fearsome. Sunai “go dark” if they stop feeding on souls: “They lose the ability to tell the difference between good and bad, monster and human. They just kill. They kill everyone.” It happened to August twice before Kate met him. Now he has stopped eating because he doesn’t want to feel like a monster. But he also is afraid that eventually he will lose control from hunger and go dark. Kate understands when he confesses to her: “He was just someone who wanted to be something else, something he wasn’t. Kate understood the feeling.”They grow close, and August and Kate run off to the Waste, the dangerous no-man’s land outside of the city limits. They go to Kate’s old house, but they are tracked down. Kate kills someone who tries to break in, and even though she did it in self defense, she now has the telltale red-colored life-force of a sinner. August’s “sister,” the Sunai Ilsa, helps them escape. The two are captured by Sloan, who brags that he killed Ilsa. The third Sunai, Leo, tries to kill Sloan, and August, Kate, and Leo get away.But then August, weak and starving, goes dark, and all of their lives change.Evaluation: Schwab is a skillful weaver of tales, and knows how to incorporate magic into them without the magic seeming fatuous. In the case of both Kate and of August, you can see how their backgrounds helped define them, for good or for ill. The identity struggles of both Kate and August are so unusual, and so heartbreaking. At one point, sitting on the roof of the compound, they are looking up at the stars:"'I read somewhere,' said Kate, "'that people are made of stardust.'He dragged his eyes from the sky. 'Really?''Maybe that's what you're made of. Just like us.'" I look forward to the sequel.
    • 4/5
      A promising start to the series. Characters were not as vivid as her other books but I'm intrigued.
    • 4/5
      Having very much enjoyed Shades of Magic by Ms Schwab I bought this.I enjoyed this too although it is YA and quite short, lacking the detail that Shades had. It took me a few chapters to understand the set up of the world, the different monsters and who was fighting who. The two main characters are interesting in different ways and although certain "twists" are obvious I will be getting the 2nd book soon.
    • 4/5
      In a dystopian future, the USA has conglomerated into larger states and every act of violence between humans results in the birth of a monster. In the divided city of Verity, Kate Harker is desperate to prove to her father that she is just as ruthless as he is and a worthy heir to take over his territory where he rules the monsters and extorts money from all of the citizens in exchange for their safety. On the other side of town, August Flynn is a Sunai, the most rare type of monster. He's fully devoted to his adopted father's cause of fighting the monsters to protect the human population. As the truce between the two sides begins to wobble, August is tasked with infiltrating Kate's high school in case of need of leverage. When everything starts to fall apart, August and Kate will find the strangest ally may be each other.I picked this one up because I so loved Schwab's Shades of Magic trilogy. While this universe that she's created isn't quite as compelling, it remains fascinating. She creates flawed characters whom you can't help but root for as they face off against the brutal world in which they live. There's a beautiful idea at work in how monsters are created and August's struggle to figure out who he is is a fascinating character arc. With plenty of action moving the plot along and a serious twist at the end, I will definitely be picking up the sequel to this one.
    • 5/5
      Just finished devouring this book. I loved it. August is an amazing character. I can not wait until the sequel.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this supernatural duologyl. These novels were suggested to me by another librarian because she enjoyed the audio; I agree that the audio was well executed.A divided city, Verity, is home to enemies, monsters, the guilty, and the innocent. August Flynn is a secret; he is one son of the leader for one side of the city. No one in Verity really knows what he looks like although everyone is well aware of his brother Leo and sister Ilsa. They are Sunai--they take the souls of the guilty. Kate Harker is the daughter of the leader for the other side of the city, but she is kept far away, safe. She’s determined to earn her reputation at Harker’s daughter by finally manipulating her father to return. August is sent to spy on Kate now that rumor determines that she is attending school in Verity. He is able to sneak over the wall and meet people and be free from the compound. Whereas everyone fears Kate, August does not. Of course, he is almost indestructible, so he fears little. He desires to be human and cares for people; Kate just wants people to fear her. When an assassination attempt on Kate appears to blame August, they run to save their lives.These novels are dark--the society and creatures don’t make for a successful society. For fear of giving too much away, I won’t write anything else. I enjoyed the two novels quite a bit.
    • 5/5
      “The beautiful thing about books was that anyone could open them.” This book was not even nearly perfect (structurally).This book had quite a few typos (yes, I know it's petty, but I notice these things).BUT, this book kept me invested from cover to cover. I stayed up reading till 2 am one time, and that says a lot, as I very much love my precious sleep time!It made me feel sad for Kate.Adore August.And fall in love with Ilsa. But most importantly it gave me THE FEELS! And it's been a while since a book has done that. FEELS so strong that they got my heart pounding. And I loved it!“It was a cruel trick of the universe, thought August, that he only felt human after doing something monstrous.” August Flynn is a precious dandelion. August Flynn deserves all the love in the world. August Flynn is a monster. August Flynn is fictional...Kate is a character that I would have normally hated. But somehow Kate was a character that I loved.“She cracked a smile. "So what's your poison"He sighed dramatically, and let the truth tumble off his tongue. "Life.""Ah," she said ruefully. "That'll kill you.”I absolutely adored their chemistry and their conversations. AND I was so, so thankful that there was no romance. Ilsa is a precious little star in the universe of darkness that she alone inflicted. “Nobody gets to stay the same.” I had some questions at the end of the book, and I really hope that they will be addressed in the next one. “He wasn't made of flesh and bone, or starlight.He was made of darkness.” I checked out 'This Savage Song' from the library, but it is definitely something that I would love to add to my permanent collection. “Monsters, monsters, big and small,They're gonna come and eat you all.Corsai, Corsai, tooth and claw,Shadow and bone will eat you raw.Malchai, Malchai, sharp and sly,Smile and bite and drink you dry.Sunai, Sunai, eyes like coal,Sing you a song and steal your soul."
    • 5/5
      I knew ahead of time that it would mess with the line between good and evil, and knowing it made me real apprehensive about if it would work. But it didI love August so much. His internal struggles, his growth, his everything. And, surprisingly, I really like Kate too. I like tough Kate and I like sensitive Kate, and I like how much she grows over the story too.And, of course, I really like the world they're in. The only time I got pulled out of it was when they were in history class learning about Kentucky and stuff. I didn't need for it to be spelled out for me that their world is just our future. At first I tried to make the world fit into stereotypical urban fantasy slots: werewolves, vampires, etc. But it really doesn't work, and I'm very glad. Instead of retelling the old stereotypes, Schwab actually creates her own monsters, which is awesome.I am not, however, totally satisfied with the ending. I'm not sure what I wanted, and I don't hate the ending at all, but it just doesn't feel quite right. Maybe it was too tidy.But anyway, overall I really really loved it.
    • 5/5
      This book was like a thunderstorm. You could feel the growing tension- like the calm before the storm. Slow and steady. You feel the tension in the air down in your bones. You can smell the rain coming. You see the sky start to darken.... And then the skies open up and the storm begins.
    • 5/5
      WOW
      blown away by this one - I don't see how we are supposed to wait for book two. Seriously.
    • 5/5
      In a world where violence has created very real and very deadly monsters, Kate Harker is the daughter of V-City's ultimate crime lord, who runs the North and makes the citizens pay for his protection, while August lives in the South, where his father runs a task force to keep the monsters in check. Kate wants to emulate her father and be as ruthless, fearless and strong so he will finally accept her, while August wants nothing more than to be human and as kind as his father – the only problem is that August is one of the monsters. Now the already fragile truce between the two opposing sides is crumbling, and August and Kate are forced into an uneasy alliance to prevent the outbreak of an all-out war.If the synopsis reminds you of Romeo and Juliet, then this is no coincidence as the author draws her inspiration heavily from Shakespeare's play (without the romance); by reversing gender-stereotypical characteristics of each main protagonist, and by placing the action within an alternate universe, urban fantasy setting, she ensures that the plot and the characters remain fresh, and there are plenty of surprises in store. Kate and August are wonderful creations, and you can't help but root for them; inside that big-city tough teenager with attitude and the confidence that comes with being the daughter of Callum Harker is a little lost girl who craves the praise and recognition of her father, while August turns the definition of monster on its head and is the most human and humane of all the characters in the book. I was also reminded of Helena Coggan's The Catalyst, in that both authors explore the deeper psychology of and differentiate between those who willingly embrace evil and those who commit evil deeds because they have no other choice.The novel starts slowly, familiarising the reader with the protagonists and the strangeness of the set-up, and so when the tension increases and events begin to escalate, they are already hooked and the author has nothing else to do but reel them in. Almost the entire second half of the book is a real page turner, and I had to force myself to do some work before being inevitably drawn back. I loved the way V. E. Schwab uses music metaphors and allegories throughout the book, and in a way the entire work feels like a carefully composed symphony. The sequel can't come soon enough.
    • 4/5
      An alternate universe glimpse at a city teeming with monsters. Not my usual cup of tea, but Schwab's prose is lovely and drew me in. She's a must-buy writer for me now.
    • 2/5
      Actual rating 2.5 out of 5This Savage Song is one of those novels that left me feeling utterly frustrated. There are so many things about it that I can praise, yet for everything positive I can say there is an equally heavy negative.To begin with the good, the world building in this novel is immediately striking. V-City is dark and gritty, merging the feel of an apocalyptic dystopia with elements of a faerie tale. One side of the tale is a power struggle between two rival families who each seek to rule the city in their own way. The other is story of action and consequence, where human deeds give birth to frightening and unique monsters.Yet it just didn't go far enough. As stylish and unique as V-City was on the surface, details about the setting are fleeting. We never learn what caused the Phenomena or the politics as to why America redivided itself into seven territories. While some questions do gradually get their answers, the pace of the story is very slow. It's not boring but it does throw the reader in at the deep end and some things - such as what it means for a Sunai to "go dark" - aren't explained for almost 400 pages.The themes of the novel were a little tried and tested - basically revolving around the difference between being a monster and being human. There are plenty of other YA novels that hinge on this question and approach it in a more interesting way (I'm thinking of Ness's Chaos Walking Trilogy in particular). The twist of the story was a little too obvious for my liking, with the villains signposted rather early on. It also ended on a bit of an unexpected cliffhanger. While at least the story did wrap up, it then introduced a brand new mechanic that I can only assume will become the crux of the sequel.Yet my biggest issue with the story was the cast. Mainly, I was more interested in the secondary characters than the protagonists. I wanted to learn more about Flynn and Harker - how their feud began, why the truce had lasted out so long without a hitch, how each of them came into power. Due to the way the story is structured, we learn little about Flynn and don't discover Harker's motivation until close to the end of the tale.I'm not sure entirely what it was about the protagonists but I found it difficult to connect to either of them. While Kate had many interesting attributes - her combat skills, her problem with authority, her deafness - none of it was really played upon. Over the second half of the story, she grew increasingly bland and was largely just protected by August. August was a different animal. I disliked him solely because he was so whiny. I know that angsty characters appeal to some readers but they just don't do it for me. I quickly grew tired of hearing him complain that he was inhuman while rarely acting anything but.This is my first experience of Schwab's work but it didn't really speak to me. Perhaps I'll look at one of her other series in a future review. I expect this story will speak to some fans of urban fantasy but it definitely wasn't my favourite novel of this type.
    • 4/5
      I just finished reading this book, and all I can say is - WOW! I think I was holding my breath the entire time I was reading it. A monster who wants to be human; a human who wants to be a monster, each belonging to a feuding side where black and white is indistinguishable. It's at once beautiful and vicious, a true page turner. Looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
    • 4/5
      Monsters are rampant in Verity City. They are created every time a violent act is committed. The North Side of the city is run by Callum Harker, whose alliance with monsters can guarantee safety to those who can pay his price. The South Side of the city is run by the Flynn family whose militia fight the monsters. When Callum's daughter Katherine and the Flynn's adopted son August wind up in the same high school, the barriers between North and South begin to crack with dire consequences.
    • 4/5
      Told from the alternating perspectives of two young people, this vaguely dystopian young adult fantasy from Victoria Schwab follows the fortunes of the city of Verity, and of Kate Harker and August Flynn - one a human girl determined to be more like her monstrous father, the other a monster who longs to be human. Having done everything she can to get herself expelled from the string of boarding schools to which her father has sent her, Kate heads home to V City, hoping to convince Callum Harker that she is worthy of being his successor, worthy of ruling the north half of the city, which is kept in line by the monsters that Harker controls. August, for his part, longs to convince his adoptive parents that he is ready to join the Flynn family in their fight to rid the south city of violence, and to defend it from Callum Harker's monsters. Both Kate and Harker end up at Colton, an elite private school in the northern sector of V City, and form an uneasy bond with one another. When an assassination attempt is made against Kate, and August intervenes, the two teens find themselves on the run, trying to figure out just who is behind this effort to destabilize the city and plunge it, once again, into bitter conflict.Although I had a little trouble getting into This Savage Song at first, finding the pace a little slow and the world rather confusing, I eventually found my feet and ended up enjoying the story immensely. It's been some time since I read a young adult novel, so I'm glad that this foray provided such an engaging experience. I found Schwab's world a fascinating one, particularly her vision of how monsters are created in it. Arising from various violent acts, three kinds of monsters haunt V City. There are the Corsai, who are flesh eaters, rending and tearing their victims; there are the Malchai, who, vampire-like, drink their victims' blood and drain them dry; and finally there are the Sunai, who appear human but who can use music to capture a person's soul, extracting it from them and killing them in the process. August is a Sunai, the rarest of all the monsters, and Schwab develops his struggle with his nature and abilities in such a way that the reader is drawn in. Kate's perspective, her gradual awakening (reawakening?) to the reality of what her father and his Malchai henchman Sloan have done, is also very well done. I expected, based on my experience reading other young adult titles of this nature, that there would be some sort of Romeo-and-Juliet romance here between August and Kate, and was therefore quite impressed that the author resisted the impulse to go in that direction. Of course there's nothing to say she won't include some romance in the second volume about the monsters of Verity, but it was unnecessary for the story development here, and I was pleased that Schwab refrained.I finished the book wanting to know more - what happens next in V City? how fare Kate and August after the dramatic conclusion here? - and definitely plan to read the sequel. I do wish Schwab had offered more of an exploration of the Phenomenon - the event that sparked the eventual creation of monsters, and the quarantine of V City - and of the balkanization of the US, but perhaps that will happen in the second installment. Recommended to readers who enjoy young-adult fantasy and speculative fiction.
    • 4/5
      This is a story about monsters. It is a dark urban fantasy which takes place in a city divided in two and beset by monsters. One side is ruled by a crime lord who sells protection from the monsters. Kate Harker is his daughter. Her father has kept her away at a series of boarding schools but she wants to come home and make her father proud of her. The other side is ruled by Henry Flynn who has established a large crew to protect his part of the city. August Flynn is one of his adopted children and one of the monsters. I this city monsters come in three kinds - corsai, malchai, and sunai. Corsai hunt in packs in indiscriminately. Malchi are sly blood drinkers. Sunai are the rarest and use song to steal souls. August is a sunai whose instrument is the violin. He doesn't want to be a monster but consoles himself with the fact that he can only rip the souls from sinners. Kate and August meet at the most recent boarding school Kate is attending. August is in disguise to meet Kate. He also wants to preserve the very fragile truce between both sides of the city. Kate and August get to know each other and, as they do, Kate starts to question who the monster really is. When they go on the run after an unsuccessful assassination attempt at school, the two need to depend on each other and keep each other safe since both sides are hunting for them.I liked the world building in this story. I liked the idea that monsters were created because of all the violent acts. I liked that August was determined not to give in to his monster side. I liked Kate despite the fact that she felt she needed to be hard and cruel in order to be accepted by her father. I am eager to find out what happens next for Kate and August and look forward to the next book about them. Fans of urban fantasy will be the perfect audience for this engaging story.
    • 3/5
      I absolutely flew through this book; fast paced and kept me on my toes. It was, however, just filled with typical YA tropes and pretty flat characters that I just didn't care for. I didn't hate it and I didn't love it - it was okay.
    • 3/5
      Didn't really work for me. The worldbuilding was intriguing but ultimately not deep enough - it doesn't hold together when you think about it. And it's a pretty depressing world that she's created. Not really one I wanted to spend a lot of time with.
    • 3/5
      Well, that was quick.

      What started out confusing quickly became more and more clear. An easy read, not entirely unpredictable but a bunch of fun.

      And monsters, what's not to love?
    • 5/5
      Really interesting premise and superb world building. I want more information about August's final transformation and why he suddenly had so much control...

      I can't wait for the sequel.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book
      I really enjoyed reading about Kate and August while each one of them wanted to be something they're not and I liked following them through their journey to accept who they really are!
      I also loved the dynamic they developed throughout the book and how they overcome their differences and learned how to work together.

      One of the major things I loved about this book was the fact that August and Kate didn't end up falling for each other and damning the consequences for their "love" and all, but each of them was focused on saving them, it was more realistic than if they did fall for each other
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I love the Darker Shade of Magic series so I had very high hopes for this one. I think I was unfairly expecting an adult novel but obviously this is YA. I still very much enjoyed the story and the unique plot. I will definitely continue the series.

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    • 4/5
      This Savage Song is a YA fantasy novel that I had serious trouble putting down. Also relevant? There’s a male narrator and a female narrator but no romance whatsoever.Kate Harker and August Flynn are heirs to a city of monsters. Long before the start of our story, acts of human violence began to form creatures that were decidedly inhuman. Violent crime leads to Corsai, murder to Malchai, and mass murder to Sunai. These monsters began to destroy the city and the people living in it, and yet more destruction was caused by a war between two fractions of the populace. Kate’s father made a deal with the monsters, letting them hunt those who hadn’t paid for his protection. August’s father believed that the only right thing to do was continue to fight the monsters and protect human lives, regardless of whether or not they could pay. After much death, the two sides entered a truce, dividing the city between them. But now, that truce threatens to break, and Kate and August are right in the middle of it.Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that August is adopted. Because August isn’t actually human — he’s a Sunai who was found after a school shooting. He and the only two other Sunai were adopted and raised by Harry Flynn, and they are the greatest weapon for his side. August has spent his entire life living within the Flynn compound, but now he has a new mission: attend high school with his enemy’s daughter, Kate Flynn, while keeping everyone there from knowing he’s not human.Kate’s spent the past several years being shuffled from one boarding school to the next, repeatedly doing everything she can to get expelled in the hope that it will force her father to bring her back home. Now she’s finally succeeded, and she has her chance to prove that she’s a worthy air to the Flynn family name.I really do like the concept of violence breeding monsters, but I wasn’t so thrilled with the rest of the world building. I was having a lot of trouble figuring out if this was our world or not, until the book uses a high school history class as a vehicle to explain world building. Apparently after the Vietnam war, the United States split into ten mega territories, all centered around a single large city. This decision just didn’t make much sense to me and didn’t feel completely thought out or explored.I really liked both Kate and August as protagonists. I especially appreciate that Schwab didn’t include a romance between them. To be honest, whenever one narrator is male and the other is female, I tend to just assume they’ll end up together. Thank goodness This Savage Song didn’t go that route — I want more stories like this.I loved Kate so much. The entire reason I wanted to read the book was because I’d heard Schwab read a bit of the opening scene, where Kate burns down a church. Kate is a tough as nails female protagonist, but she’s not as heartless as she wants to be. I liked August a lot too, but probably not as much as Kate. I got the feeling that the Sunai had some fae mythology in them – August devours people’s souls through his music. However, I feel like August was being coded as asexual and neuroatypical as a way to emphasize that he was inhuman, and that made me really uncomfortable.This Savage Song‘s greatest asset is probably the pacing. When I say I couldn’t put this book down, I mean it. I had an exam in an hour, but I’m sitting there reading This Savage Song. It was so addicting!Long story short, This Savage Song was a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to read the sequel.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

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    • 5/5
      "It hurts," he whispered.
      "What does?" asked Kate.
      "Being. Not being. Giving in. Holding out. No matter what I do, it hurts."
      Kate tipped her head back against the tub. "That's life, August," she said. "You wanted to feel alive, right? It doesn't matter if you're monster or human. Living hurts."
      😦👌❤

      The Writing and Worldbuilding

      It's really no surprise I loved this, given that it's written by my Queen, Victoria Schwab. Reading the blurb, I wasn't totally sure how this book was going to play out, what kind of a world this was set it, but reading the book, I understood everything about it perfectly. It honestly reminded me of another favorite book of mine, Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion with its tough, hardcore heroine and not-really-human-but-trying male protagonist. But whereas Warm Bodies was a romance, this was a fantastic friendship, and that was awfully refreshing (though don't get me wrong—I ship Kate and August so hard, though I don't think he even has a sex drive, soo...)

      I loved how the book was split into parts of a composition—it really added to the symbolism and was just super unique.

      The world made me think of the Pied Piper with a paranormal apocalypse twist. It was so cool and unique and I absolutely loved everything about it.

      My only problem was that some of the characters felt like copies from her previous books, namely her adult ones under V.E. Schwab. Maybe she wanted similar characters for her Young Adult readers? Maybe she just isn't as versatile as I thought? They're not bad characters, and they definitely aren't unoriginal, but I've read them from her before, and I wanted to see all of her possibilities. (I'll go into specifics of which characters reminded me of who in spoiler tags in the character section below.)

      The Characters

      Kate Harker: I really liked Kate. She was so tough but also realistically vulnerable, and her wit and quick thinking were great. However, she reminded me too much of Lila Bard from the Shades of Magic series. Particularly the fact that, like Lila, she has one of a set of two sensory features out of operation due to some injury—her ear for Kate and her eye for Lila. This isn't a problem at all, but it was something I noticed.

      August Flynn: He was my absolute favorite. He's my smol cinnamon roll and I love him and his cat. I really loved his perspective and the slight difference in structure his thoughts brought, having that kind of ADHD feel. I really loved his struggle to feel human and to understand his place in the world. He was definitely the most unique character in this.

      Leo: He was interesting and I really liked his darker moments. While I understand what it brought to the symbolism of the story, I found him to be way too similar to Eli from Vicious, particularly relating to his religious idealism.

      Callum Harker: He was very interesting, and gave me The Walking Dead villain vibes (though I haven't actually ever watched TWD lol).

      Sloan: He was pretty creepy.

      Conclusion

      Overall, I found this to be a gripping and fast read that enthralled and enchanted me. I'm sad it's just a duology because this world is epic and I absolutely love it.

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    • 4/5
      4 1/2 stars

      Given my current disillusionment with YA literature, I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.

      I know that Victoria Schwab said that there was no romance in this book, and that was part of the reason I gave it a chance, but it seemed to me that Kate and August had potential for romance later in life. Don't get me wrong, I am tired of romance in YA books, but for some reason, the books that contain romance tend to be the ones that I think have the best relationships, and have the most potential for real romantic relationships later.

      Kate was strong, but not in the way that she portrayed herself. She acted tough, and she was strong in her own way, but she wasn't the kind of strong that she showed to the world. I found her frustrating. She was trying to be like her father, and if she had become like her father, then she would have polluted her own soul. Her type of character is one that I don't usually like, but she fit in with the world that the author had built.

      I liked August more than Kate. I liked his innocence and fear of himself. His hate of himself because he is a monster. It made him into a wonderfully, heartbreakingly tortured character. I loved his love of music, and his love and fear of his music. I liked that he was trying to protect Kate, even when she was mean to him. Even after she had killed, and he could have taken her. I didn't like the way the story ended for his character. I know that his excepting who he is was a very strong action, but I worry that he might become more like his brother, and the separation of his caution and dislike of killing (even if they were killers) from his need to kill to survive makes me nervous that he will lose some of his goodness.

      The world the story is set in is very interesting, but also very confusing. It was a very dark world, and I think that the plot would have benefitted from some humor or something to break up the dark, frightening and starkness of this place filled with monsters who are human, and monsters who exist because of the actions of humans. I loved the idea of music being the source of a power, and while I don't think of music as a killing power, people often say that it speaks to the soul, or that it feeds the soul, so I suppose it could fit that it brings the guilt, shame or sadness to the surface of their minds, and their souls to the edge of their bodies.

      I enjoyed this book a great deal, it was unique, and far better than most of the secular YA books I have read recently.