“Nobody gets to stay the same.”
No one knows what happened in Verity to make monsters appear in the wake of violent acts. The only certainty is that two factions struggle to maintain order in a city where safety has become an illusion.
The Corsai who prey in shadows, and the Malchai with their eerie red eyes and pale skin, listen to Harker and spare those who can afford to pay for his protection. Kate Harker wants to mold herself in her father’s image. After years of training herself to emulate her father and hide her weaknesses (like her deaf ear and the nightmares that sometimes still haunt her), Kate finally feels ready to meet her father on his own terms. She is prepared to be as ruthless as he is and prove that she can one day take on his mantle leading Verity’s monsters.
Flynn, meanwhile, tries to bring together those who can’t afford Harker’s brand of safety and believe that working with monsters can only end one way. Flynn’s secret weapons against Harker are Verity’s Sunai–rare and powerful monsters born from the most horrific acts of violence who feed on sinners to keep themselves alive. If it wasn’t for their coal black eyes, you’d almost think the Sunai are human.
August Flynn desperately wants to be human like his adopted parents, the Flynns. He dreams of being able to play his violin without fear, without feeding. He starves himself, trying to push himself past hunger and beyond his own monstrous Sunai tendencies. He hopes that by helping protect the innocent he can become more human than monster. August jumps at the chance to help his father’s cause by spying on Kate and figuring out what Harker is up to as the city’s uneasy truce threatens to break.
Kate Harker and August Flynn are on opposite sides in a city on the verge of war. When everything in Verity begins to go wrong, they are also the only ones who can keep each other alive in This Savage Song (2016) by Victoria Schwab.
This Savage Song is the first book in Schwab’s new YA series, Monsters of Verity. The book alternates third person close POV between Kate and August throughout.
Schwab presents a world that is eerily plausible in This Savage Song. Some aspects of this world are more developed than others but the key pieces to the story are completely realized. Being the first book in a new series also leaves room for further development in future installments.
Verity is one of several supercities across what was once the United States–a country that disbanded after unrest over the Vietnam War. The supercities were born in the wake of this upheaval and order was restored. Until a few years before the start of the novel when violent crimes began to leave echoes in the form of monsters. Six years ago Harker and Flynn called a truce but with promises broken and more monsters being born, the balance of power may be tipping as the novel starts.
Kate and August are opposites in every sense of the word (although both are described as fair and pale, respectively). Kate is cold and calculating. She struggles to suppress any traits that might be conceived as weaknesses by others–especially her father. August, meanwhile, is desperate to be warm and, well, human. Anything to prove he isn’t entirely a monster and still has some humanity left to save. Throughout the story Kate and August serve as counterpoints and foils for each other with each representing, in various ways, something the other can never hope to achieve.
This Savage Song is a fast-paced urban fantasy that still manages to deliver subtle character studies of monstrous humans and humane monsters. A larger conspiracy unfolding throughout the story adds a bit of mystery to an already taut plot and lays groundwork for events to come in later books.
This Savage Song is a thoughtful and nuanced story about light and dark, about resisting change and accepting it, as well as the fragile nature of what makes us human … or not. In a world filled with monsters, it turns out that there are no easy answers about right and wrong. Highly recommended.
Possible Pairings: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow, Fire by Kristin Cashore, The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, The Graces by Laure Eve, The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid, Don’t You Trust Me? by Patrice Kindl, Winterspell by Claire Legrand, Only a Monster by Vanessa Len, Legend by Marie Lu, Fracture by Megan Miranda, For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski, Vicious by V. E. Schwab, And I Darken by Kiersten White, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
*An advance copy of this title was acquired from the publisher at ALAMW 2016 (thanks to Nicole!)*
Miss Print 
I thought these monsters were fascinating! I’m very curious about where she’ll go with the series.
Yes! I have yet to meet a Victoria Schwab book I didn’t like but this one *might* be my favorite.