This Savage Song Book Review (Monsters of Verity Book One)

Everyone has their own monsters, but in This Savage Song, by V. E. Schwab, about a girl trying to become her tyrannical father and a monster trying to escape his identity, they’re real.

The 3rd person rotating point of view highlights the characters and world beautifully. It shows the North and South sides of the city, the haves and the have nots, the people in denial and the people in fear, Harker and Flynn, and human and monster. At the same time, giving a glimpse into both the protagonists’ heads shows how alike Kate and August are: they both want to become something they’re not; they’re both two people just trying to make it; they both want to live rather than survive.

And the plot--so well done! It shifts and transcends like smoke, yet none of the scenes feels out of place. The bombshells hit like grenades on the reader; each burns no matter how many they’ve felt before. The twist at the end with going dark hit me the hardest.

The entire story personifies the frog and the scorpion while turning it on its head. August can’t change the fact that he’s a monster. Kate can’t change the fact that she’s both her mother and father’s daughter. They can’t change what they are, but they can change who they are, and that makes all the difference.

I also have to give big props to Schwab for writing a duology. Most fantasy writers stick to trilogies anymore, but if the story is finished, then it’s finished. Staying true to your characters and your story like that is hard to do but the making of an intelligent artist.

Recommended for anyone plagued by shadows.

--Grace Nask