Georgia Kostopoulou

“This Savage Song” is a true page turner, a book I could not keep my hands out of. It is a dystopian fiction, a paranormal thriller filled with monsters and men and twists and turns. What if monsters were actually hidden in the shadows? What if every evil act, every act of violence could give birth to a monster? What if there were monsters that were as evil as the acts that created them? What if there were monsters that were killing the sinners?

“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.
Monsters, monsters, big and small,
They’re gonna come and eat you all!”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song

Kate Harker is a girl with a lot of anger. Or at least that’s what her teachers can see. She has been through a number of boarding schools, six schools in five years, on her attempt to go back to Verity. All she wants is to return home. All she wants is to prove to her father that she is his true daughter. And therefore, after failing so many times to do it, on her desperate last act, she burns the school chapel to the ground. This will do the trick she thinks, and she is true. Her father is Callum Harker, the ruthless ruler of North V-City, the man that keeps the monsters at bay. But only for those that pay the fee and believe themselves to be safe.

“There’s no such thing as safe in a city full of monsters.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song

August Flynn wants to be human. He wants to live a normal life. He has parents, a brother and a sister. But he is not human. He is a monster, one that can rip souls with his song. He is his father’s secret weapon. A sunai. But he doesn’t sing often, because that’s not what humans do. He wants to help his father control his half side of the city. There are the monsters that are attacking in both sides every night under the shadows and the dark, and there is Harker and his men that are trying to break the peace between the two sides of the city.

“I’d rather be able to see the truth than live a lie.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song

Kate and August are the only two that can see both sides of the divided city. They are the only two that understand so much more about what is happening and the only two that could possible do something about it. But how could they possibly decide what is the right approach? To be a hero or to be a villain when the line between those two is so blurry?

“You wanted to feel alive, right? It doesn’t matter if you’re monster or human. Living hurts.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song

I really liked the idea behind it. How our acts could affect our lives so much. The idea about violent acts creating real monsters that come back and haunt us. And I thoroughly enjoyed the execution as well. The monsters are very interesting. There are the Corsai, creepy creatures that seem to have no intelligence at all. Feral animals that kill to feed. And then there are the Malchai that feel so much like vampires. They are quick and smart and they feed to blood. And then there are Sunai who are something between sirens and Angels of death. I enjoyed each and every one of them for different reasons, but Sunai are my favorite. It could be because August Flynn is a Sunai though!

“People are users. It’s a universal truth. Use them, or they’ll use you.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song

The writing style was one that I was used to after reading the “Shades of Magic” trilogy. Schwab has a way to capture the reader between her stories, not allowing them an easy escape. The chapters were not long, and therefore were easy to read and no tiring at all. But somehow she managed to leave a cliffhanger at the end of each one of them and those question that were started to be answered but not entirely, making it impossible to out the book down for some other time or day. One thing is for sure, if you start reading it, you will not want to stop!

“Why did everyone have to ruin the quiet by asking questions? The truth was a disastrous thing.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song