This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
pages : 451
released: June 2016
publisher: Greenwillow Books (Harper Collins)
cover love: ♥

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. (from Goodreads)

Review:

A few months ago my bf picked This Savage Song as my next read.

It had an interesting premise: a city where there were 3 types of monsters, created from acts of violence. Corsai, Malchai and Sunai. The first two groups were the most dangerous, they would feed on their victims flesh and blood. Sunais however, use singing (or music) to feed on their victim’s souls and from what I gathered they could only kill a person who has sinned. They are also the only monsters that have the advantage of looking human.

August Flynn is a Sunai that is finally leaving his compound and going undercover to pose as a high school student to gather information for his family about Kate Harker. Kate is the daughter of Callum Harker, who is back from boarding school (after setting it on fire) and hell bent on impressing her father and proving she is worthy of having his name.

There’s a long standing truce between their families: the Harkers (from North City) and the Flynns (from South City) that is in danger of collapsing which would result in another war between the sectors.

So how did I feel about this book?
about a quarter in, I felt like I was begging for an info dump. Just 2 or 3 exclusive paragraphs  (or even a small chapter) explaining the background of the Harkers, Flynns and the monsters. One clear, cut and dry explanation. the information was thrown around the story (sometimes from August’s pov, sometimes Kate’s) and it would’ve just been nice to have all the info upfront in the beginning instead of strewn around throughout the story).

Half way through the book, I stopped to assess…

And realized nothing was really happening…
like August was in school…Kate was in school…they talked sometimes…
the main characters had no depth, Kate was all about being tough and scary but that’s where her personality ends. same with August, he wants be human so bad and he likes to play his violin and that’s where his personality ends. there was never any real meaningful bond or experience between August and Kate. again, their convos were very bland, I don’t see why they were friends, except to advance the plot. they were just very very boring characters.

In the second half of the book I guess you could say a lot happens…but it still just left so much to desired. a lot of the second half felt sooooo convenient. and not well thought out. toward the end of the book there was a huge chunk of chapters where August is just in so much pain and hunger, to the point where you go from almost caring to just bored. like it was just draggeddddd out, unnecessarily. the authors writing style did not help either, I felt like the same words were being used to describe almost everything. And if you came looking for romance, there is none. 0. not even a hint.

This Savage Song was a huge disappointment for me. There is a sequel, but I’ll be skipping it.

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