Review Detail

"You wanted to feel alive, right? It doesn't matter if you're monster or human. Living hurts."

I wasn't expecting much diving into this story. Sure, we're talking about Victoria Schwab, the woman who gave birth to ADSoM, with its mouth-gaping magic system and charming characters (Gaahhh Kell ?) but I always try not to be too biased by my love for an author when it comes to a new book of theirs.

The story is about Verity city which is inhabitated by both humans and monsters. One half of the city is controlled by Flynn, the other one by Harker, a man who grants his citizen's protection at a pretty high monetary prize. Also, he owns a great chunk of the monster population. The two sides have been on the verge of war for quite a long time.
The monsters are of three kind: Malchai, Corsai and Sunai.

" Corsai fed on flesh and bone, Malchai on blood, and whose it was meant nothing to them. But the Sunai could feed only on sinners. That's what set them apart. "

(again, Victoria has done it again, after that beauty that Arnesian is, she chose the most beautiful words to name her monsters!)

Our main characters are August, a Sunai who lives with the Flynns, and Kate, Harker's daughter. I wasn't greatly impressed by these two: August is pretty boring actually, the monster who wants to feel human, who denies himself his monstruous nature because is incapable of accepting it. Sure, it is an interesting concept but I wanted to read about kickass monsters, not angsty ones. Kate is the rebel one, she has always lived great lenghts away from her father (both emotionally and physically) and wants to demonstrate him how she's a Harker too, how she can manage leadership over the monsters as well. Between the two I found her to be more well-rounded than August, probably because we got glimpses of her past that made us understand how the woman we see today came to be. Plus she has the best comebacks:

"What are you doing?"
"Praying" she said.
Rachel arched a brow, "For what?"
"Forgiveness," said Kate. "For what I'm about to do if you don't get out of my way."


The chemistry between the two worked pretty well but I would have preferred a little bit more of communication on both parts.

The major problem I had with this book though weren't the main characters. My problem with This Savage Song was the overall plot and side characters. Nothing really happened, there wasn't a slow building up to the major final twist. The two MCs were too oblivious to too many things and, us following their path, could only see one side of the story which didn't give me the whole picture of what was going on. The side characters only happeared sporadically. I wasn't given the means to sympathise with them and when in the end things went down I really didn't care.
The cliffhanger was pretty interesting, reminded me a little of ADSoM, but I didn't see it coming so I'm curious as to find out what happens next.

In the end I was not the greatest fan of this work but it still managed to instill in me that seed of curiosity that will encourage me to pick up the next instalment in this series!