Teodora 's Reviews > This Savage Song

Taking only 5 ⭐ out of Ilsa's so many and putting them here

Full review on my Blog: The Dacian She-Wolf 🐺

"Plenty of humans are monstrous and plenty of monsters know how to play at being human."

The synopsis of the book makes me feel like I am being held in a winery basement listening to a dark classical orchestra while in dystopian times and I am not complaining.

This Savage Song is the first book of Victoria Schwab’s duology, Monsters of Verity . Probably, I would’ve picked this book up by some point in life and read it, but if it wasn’t for the book club I am part of, probably it would’ve been much later in my life. I would’ve done a huge mistake.

The concept of the book came to me like a slap on my cheek – I wasn’t expecting any of that. Now I understand why there are so many humans obsessed with Schwab’s works. I get you, people. I get you. It’s okay. I am part of you now. Let us suffer the beauty of Schwab’s mind together.

The book is so messy and packed with action that I just have to admit that I still didn’t understand it properly, but that didn’t stop me from actually loving it, which is such a hypocrite thing to say, but after all, we don’t understand life either, but we're still living it to the fullest every day, even if we like it or not.

Now, agreeing that I didn’t understand the book, but I loved it to the fullest, which is a stupid concept but you’ll pardon me for that, let’s get to the part where I explain to you what I felt about it. What got to me.

The V-City is divided into two sides – the North City and the South City, separated by a truce line called the Seam, each part ruled by another family – in the North, there is Harker; in the South, there is Flynn.

I liked the way the two rulers were presented – Callum Harker as a true cult leader, cold and ruthless, insensitive, a Godfather in dystopia, and Henry Flynn as a leader of the people, trying to help, trying to prevent, being there to protect, not to attack; kind-hearted and somehow vulnerable.

The main characters of the book are the children of the two leaders – Kate Harker, a girl who suffered so much in order to find her own way and August Flynn, one of the only three Sunai monsters of the Flynn family.

There is a whole story about how Kate and August meet and blah. I am not going to talk about that; there’s everything you need to know about that in the book. Instead, I would like to dissect the characters of Kate and August just a bit. And their beautiful friendship.

"I don’t want to be a monster"
"You’re not," she said, the words automatic, but as she said it, Kate realised that she believed it, too.

I don’t know and don’t care, but I love Kate and somehow I relate to her badass self, not that I am any of that, but because I also tend to be a bit rude sometimes. What I love most about Kate is her determination to fight until the last breath and her bright mind, restless and ready any time to make connections. She’s a fierce girl, but craving for a soul to be around to, to accept her and tell her she’s enough. She can be confident, but she’s so broken that she only needs someone to reassure her of that. And that someone is August Flynn.



August Flynn is a weird boy. Maybe because he is not a boy, he’s a monster, but apart from his habit of feeding himself out of sinful souls, to me, he is very human. He’s a thinker. He’s a loner. He’s so weird that he is sweet. But he is strong and he is good and wants to do only good, but the fact that he is what he is, does not always come easy to him.

I can only see August as a sweet boy, sorry if I do not resonate with your opinions. There is something about him that makes me feel content and make me like him as if he were real. Maybe this is his burning desire to be something else, to be someone he’s not. But, after all, isn’t this a thing we all desire at some point? To be someone we’re not...yet?



Now, all I can say is that this is the first one of the Schwab’s works that I read and I truly and deeply declare myself a fan. She’s brilliant and her style is mesmerizing. And the idea of the book is something that is just selling it off!

I love music, everyone does. It has become a thing as necessary in one’s life as air and water. I, for instance, cannot function on a daily basis without listening to music. Because music feels like life itself.

I cannot help it and I make a very obvious line between this book and my life. Or life in general. Maybe it would come to you a bit cheesy but it’s damn true. And I’d be very curious to find out how many of you actually felt the same way as I did.

I used to make music in order to keep myself on track. I used to make music in order to ease the reality. I used to make music in order to fight my monsters...

...because let’s face it, we all have our own personalised monsters.

But of course, even monsters can pass as humans. It is only in the eyes of the beholder if you let them be or discard them as beings.

Ah, and also. In case you are wondering, stop wondering: Callum Harker won the prize for the lamest father in the galaxy. Spread the word.