This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
Series: Monsters of Verity
On Sale Date: July 5, 2016
Young Adult Fiction \ Fantasy
Greenwillow Books, 464 pages
Source: Publisher
My Rating: 4 Stars

There’s no such thing as safe.

Kate Harker wants to be as ruthless as her father. After five years and six boarding schools, she’s finally going home to prove that she can be.

August Flynn wants to be human. But he isn’t. He’s a monster, one that can steal souls with a song. He’s one of the three most powerful monsters in a city overrun with them. His own father’s secret weapon.

Their city is divided.

Their city is crumbling.

Kate and August are the only two who see both sides, the only two who could do something.

But how do you decide to be a hero or a villain when it’s hard to tell which is which? 

"Plenty of humans are monstrous, and plenty of monsters know how to play at being human."
-V. A. Vale

There's a little bit of monster in each of us. This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab is the first book in her new young adult duology, Monsters of Verity, a dark urban fantasy which paints a soot-tinged picture of a city overrun with monsters and a hero and heroine who stand on opposing sides.

I discovered Victoria Schwab's writing with her adult series, A Darker Shade of Magic, which I ended up loving and knew I had to try more of her writing. 

What makes Ms. Schwab's books stand out for me is her ability to write gorgeous words and mix them with characters that often face moral dilemmas and consequences for their actions. I love seeing them struggle and rise - something that her writing brings to me. And, of course, her world building is always unique and fascinating. 

In This Savage Song, we see how the word monster can take shape in many forms, both human and non-human, physically and symbolic. 

In a city overrun with monsters, we have two opposing teens who end up needing each other in order to survive. With lines being drawn at night and boundaries that are not to be crossed. In Verity, monsters feed on violence and no one is completely safe. Told between alternating voices of August and Kate, This Savage Song swept me away.

When we first meet Kate Harker, she is in the process of burning down a school chapel. She will do whatever it takes to get her father's attention in order to be brought back to V-City (Verity), where he rules one-half of the city as a ruthless mobster; making humans pay for his protection. Kate is desperate to prove to her father that she is ready, and tough enough, to stand by his side. But, at what cost is she willing sacrifice herself to as she becomes more like the monsters that seem to spring up each night as violence terrorizes the streets of Verity.

August Flynn is the type of hero that tugs on our heartstrings. Dark, layered, and suffering he hides a guilt that leaves us wanting to comfort him. All he wants is to be human, fighting off the monster that resides in him. Etching a notch on his skin for every day he has not turned to darkness. Then he meets Kate and trouble finds both of them.

This Savage Song was a quick read filled with danger and all the touches we like in an Urban Fantasy, packed with enough action and suspense to make us happy. Schwab knows how to slowly build up tension and develop her characters. There's no romance, as of yet, but what Kate and August share is something just as enticing. The mythology behinds the monsters is fascinating, which I hope we learn more about in Our Dark Duet. An exciting start to a duology that is sure to please fans and create new ones to Ms. Schwab's writing.