Book Review: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This book was checked out from my local neighborhood library. I’ve never read any other stuff by this authors, though I know she’s all the shit in some circles.

The Goodreads Bit:

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.

What I had to Say about it:

This one gets a strong 3 stars or a wobbly 4 stars. 

Ok. So here we are in a dystopian world. I think that’s the right word for it, kinda. Post- apocalyptic, at least. About 6 years ago there was a war raging and two leaders called a truce, splitting their city in two. To the South is chaos and poverty. To the North is the veneer of safety that everyone knows is fake because rich people are willing to pay for. There are actual monsters that spring into being from violence and the big dogs are trying to control them. Of course, that can't last long, partly because if it did, we wouldn't have a story!

Obviously, if there are two families in opposition, there are two teenagers destined to meet and topple the whole thing, right? Of course. But what brings them together isn’t so much love, as much as a plot and the ability to reason and have compassion. Yay! So, I love the idea of this story and many of the elements that make up the story itself.

Ok. So we have the family feud thing. It’s not quite a Romeo and Juliet thing; though the teens connect with each other, there’s no time for romance in this story, yet. The plotting is a little bland. Also, it’s not a terribly difficult thing to predict who the bad guys are going to be. Well, bland and not too terribly difficult if you read as many of these things as I do, which most people don’t.

Thinking about the writing, I wasn’t swept away by it though there were moments of real beauty there.

Before my blog lost all it's pictures, I had some fanart right here. I can't find the specific pic again, but go check out the artists stuff anyway: Pauli on tumblr.

Back to my two cents: 
I enjoyed the characters (not Kate so much, really), the story telling, and the pacing of the book. The book starts with Kate, (an asshole of a stuck up, entitled character) and I thought I was going to give this book up, but I’m glad I stuck with it for a bit longer. She’s meant to be a fierce female, I think, but at the beginning she’s really just a bitch. I liked her a bit more by the end, as she gets a little more inner strength of her own. I liked August much more but he’s a bit broody to hang out with too much. He’s someone you’d have a crush on for a while and want to be with all the time because he's totally SENSITIVE but then you’d decide that he’s a bit too depressing so then you will just maybe nod in the hallway when you see him but stop taking his calls. LOL… doesn’t sounds like I liked him much, does it? But I really did.

I would read the next in the series, mostly for the world and the monsters.

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