Mundie Moms

Friday, October 21, 2016

THIS SAVAGE SONG by Victoria Schwab / Book Review


By: Victoria Schwab
Publisher: Greenwillow
Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Release Date: July 5, 2016
Buy: Harper Collins | amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
Add it to Goodreads
Rating: 4.5 stars - I loved it a lot!

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.

I'm still shaking my head over this book. Victoria Schwab, what have you done!!!

What Victoria's done is created a world SO OUTRAGEOUSLY vivid and real that when you start reading it, you will find yourself thinking, waaaaaait, this all makes sense. No, seriously, you will.
In this world, horrific acts of violence create monsters. Three different types of monsters to be exact -- the Malchai, Corsai and Sunai. The first two are formed from murder and violence, but the last, the Sunai, are formed from mass tragedies. Just knowing this concept, I was hooked. Our world has become a violent place and the idea of repercussions to violence coming to life is a concept that made perfect sense inside this urban fantasy world.

The city of Verity is divided. On one side, there is Kate Harker's father, who reminded me of a mafia-style character. He offers protection, but uses monsters for control, and Kate wants nothing more than to win his approval and be as ruthless as him. On the other side of Verity, you have August, a monster who wants to be human. August and Kate's paths cross when he is sent on a mission by his father (who incidentally is in charge of the other half of Verity) to get closer to Kate. They are two people from very different worlds, and yet from the start you can see that they are destined for one another.

Before you think that this is a romance, it is so not that at all. It is a story of two people from different sides trying to survive a violent world. The catch is that one of them is trying for a power play over not just the other side, but also as a way to make her father notice her. I adored the way their characters developed throughout the story, and I'm looking forward to its conclusion in the sequel, Our Dark Duet.

Kate and August come from very different sides of the same world, but they are both survivors and they are determined to triumph. If you enjoy suspenseful and dark stories, with well written characters, pick up This Savage Song. Victoria stretches her writing style into new territory, and I fell right into it and found it impossible to put down until I reached that last page. Bravo to Victoria for tackling a different type of story (from her YA offerings like The Near Witch and Archived) and completely knocking it out of the ballpark.

3 comments:

  1. Oh my! Really well written review! So well written that I wanna go find this book right now and start reading! :) I like that it doesn't focus on romance! I'm come across enough dystopian and urban fantasy novels with way too much romance. It's time to read something that focuses on stuff other than romance! :) Gonna add the book to my TBR list on Goodreads!

    Uma@Books.Bags.Burgers.

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    1. Oh Uma! Thank you for reading and your sweet comments. They made my day. Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did.

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  2. Awesome review Sophie :D So glad you ended up loving this book. <3 YAY :D I loved it too. So much. It's awesome and evil and just so good :) Thank you for sharing. <3

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