lapetitepritt posted: " Hello, bookworms!Happy Friday, I am so happy the weekend is finally close. I am extremely tired, because since Tuesday I have been watching Sanremo (an Italian music festival) every night, while also having lessons everyday and having to keep up with"
Hello, bookworms! Happy Friday, I am so happy the weekend is finally close. I am extremely tired, because since Tuesday I have been watching Sanremo (an Italian music festival) every night, while also having lessons everyday and having to keep up with assignments and life in general. I firmly believe that Sanremo vacations should exist, because I need sleep.
Anyways, today I am here to finally review This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab, one of my 22 books for 2022. I finished it in January, but I decided to wait and post the review in February, because I had already posted a lot last month.
As you may or may not know, Victoria Schwab wrote one of my favourite trilogies of all times (the Cassidy Blake trilogy), one of my most hated books of all times (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) and many other books I gave between 2 and 4 stars. You can say we have a love-hate relationship, so I didn't know what to expect from this book, which I had bought ages ago, before ever reading anything by this author. I believe it was the first of her books I ever bought, actually, now that I think of it.
About the book Title: This Savage Song Series: Monsters of Verity #1 Author: Victoria Schwab Publisher: Greenwillow Books Publication date: 5 June 2016 Pages: 464
Plot, as stated on Goodreads 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. 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.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review So, I quite enjoyed this book, even if I did not like the ending. It's not my new favourite thing in the world, but it was a nice reading experience. Honestly, seeing how everyone said this is the worst book by this author and seeing my previous experiences with her work, I was worried it was going to be a one-star read.
Something I want to say is that the two main characters are not the strongest ones she's ever written, especially Kate. In most cases, I find Victoria Schwab's characters to be the best thing about her books, and this is no exception. However, I think she has written better ones (Eli and Victor from Vicious, but also the oh so hated Lila, whom I personally love). Between Kate and August, I prefer the latter, but they did not leave a huge impression on me. Also, the side characters were a bit weak and the 'villains' were not very convincing. It may be due to the fact that everyone is a bit of a villain here, but I am not sure.
I quite enjoyed the plot and found it somewhat original, because it reminded me of a standard dystopian novel, but it was actually fantasy and there were monsters. I liked the world building and the way monsters are born, that's what made me give 3 instead of 2.5 stars. I don't know if I am interested enough to read the sequel, but as it is just a duology, I may give it a chance. I am worried the second book is gonna have a romance in it, though, so I am a bit skeptical, because in general I don't like the canon couples in Schwab's books. If you've read it, please let me know what I should expect, so I can decide whether to pick it up or not. For now I am 50/50, so who knows.
Style-wise, I think that the floweryness of Victoria Schwab's prose got worse with time, so this older work of hers was not as Tumblr-ish as, say, Addie LaRue or Gallant. Which is absurd, since Tumblr was at its peak around the time this book was published, but well, it is how it is. This Savage Song was still full of metaphores and images, but they were enjoyable and I loved how music was described and protrayed in this book. I don't know what happened in recent years — maybe she got too much praise for her writing style — but I do prefer her older works, the only exception being Cassidy, but that's a middle grade, so I think it's a different story.
As I have already mentioned, I was not a big fan of the last part of this book and I found it could have used a bit of edits here and there; for sure, 464 pages are too many pages for a book with a plot such as this one. I may be in the minority here, but I am a firm believer of the less is more motto. If the book had been edited in a different way, maybe I could have given 3.5 or even 4 stars. Being as it is, I think 3 is the right rating for me.
If you want to read this book but are scared because everyone says it's not worth it, don't listen to them. Try it out, because honestly I think that the ranking of Victoria's books is extremely personal; it is with every author, but her especially has a talent to make people fall in love or totally hate her books, so the rankings are all over the place.
That's gonna be all for today, I'll talk to you soon with a new review or a new article!
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