There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.
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.

Alright, now we can talk about how every time I think I’m done with surprises from Victoria Schwab, I manage to find another book to blow my mind. I just love the way her mind works, always creating more and more captivating stories with questionable ideas that set my whole being in motion. When it comes to authors like her, sometimes I feel like a very persistent parrot – constantly repeating one and the same in the praise for their genius – but I can’t help myself, they deserve it.


This Savage Song is set in a dystopian urban fantasy world, more accurately, in a city named Verity. The city was divided in a civil war, creating two sides: the North, ruled by a powerful mob boss Callum Harker, who controls monsters and protects the ones who are willing to pay him; and the South, the territory of Henry Flynn and his wife, where they attempt to create some sort of a safe environment fighting Harker’s monsters. Twelve years ago, after the destruction of the Barren, a fragile treaty was signed, separating the city into two halves ruled by fear and panic – from the most vicious crime against men, the monsters emerged.



There are three kinds of them, the first two Corsai and Malachai, who feed on human blood and flesh, unable to step into the sunlight. They are Harker’s monsters – his pets, used to frighten people into submissiveness and keep the North in order. And then there are Sunai, the third order of the monsters, who feed on the life force of the sinners. Their hunger leads to catastrophe – if a Sunai doesn’t feed, it goes dark, destroying everything and taking countless lives in the path of their darkness. There are only three Sunai known in the V-City, all of them known as Henry Flynn’s children.

The events taking place in this book are told from the perspectives of two seventeen-year-olds who found themselves on the different sides of another civil war. August Flynn just wants to lead a normal life and go to school. Unfortunately, he is a soulless monster made to devour souls and cause terror in anyone he encounters. Contrasting Sunai violin softy stands Kate – a human girl, who desperately wants to become a monster to get her father's approval. It was really interesting to watch the terms between these two changes with the course of the book – how from resent and reprive they slowly built trust and found some common ground. Schwab really knows how to involve the most fucked up and yet likable characters and pit them against the world.


The beginning sets off with an intense and dynamic pace that follows until the shocking ending and a promise of more to come. I followed this book with such jumpy eagerness, always hungry for more and feeling like the ending came too soon. I was so intertwined in the net of chases and conspiring that I haven’t noticed how the characters began to slowly make their way into my heart. So there goes another Schwab book I will not be able to forget.