Reviews with content warning for Torture - This Savage Song

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

41 reviews

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

My second time reading this, but I never read the sequel so I had to reread to remember anything.

Really interesting and unique concept for a YA fantasy (set in a future altered US) in the territory of Verity monsters are controlled by two sides of a divided V-City. We follow two povs one on each side - Kate Harker the daughter to one of the men in power, and August Flynn who is one of the rarest kinds of monsters (his found family are on the other side of power). Monsters form from various kinds of violent /bad things that happen (ex: murder at various levels) and there are three different types. Kate and Flynn meet at a private school in the best part of the city, and are then thrust together when murders happen for which someone tries to frame Flynn for.

This book is asking the question "what really makes a monster?" - is August really a monster just because everyone says he is? Both August and Kate are complex characters whom you can't help but root for. If you're looking for a dark/gritty book with questions about good vs evil - AND it reads fast! This is it!

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littletiramisu's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ctara2123's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story was a really interesting concept, plot, and characters but extremely difficult to follow. It lacked set up and as a kids/young adult book that’s pretty key. It doesn’t explain the three types of monsters until 100 pages into the story and even then the reader is left with an incomplete picture. The plot is relatively simple to follow but the world building is confusing. This dystopian setting would benefit from a map as well as a more fleshed out explanation of the monsters and what they do and how they live.

The plot follows two high schoolers on different sides of ‘the seam’. They live in a dystopian mega city called Verity that is plagued with monsters. The south is governed by a militaristic ruling family that utilizes monsters to defend while the north is ruled by a business man who utilizes the monsters and has people pay him to keep them ‘safe’. The monsters are Malachai: evil vampire-like creatures that like to kill, have really tough skin, and a bone breast plate, Corosai: evil hive mind creatures that are mostly shadow and can be destroyed with light to the face, and Sunai: a siren-like creature that reap evil human souls only but without them starves and goes off like a bomb before continuing. Our main characters August, a Sunai from the South side who is adopted into the military ruling family, and Kate, the daughter of the businessman ruler of the North side, meet in a precarious arranged situation and end up on an adventure together.

My main confusion was over August, the Sunai, who isn’t really explained. The reader slowly pieces his situation together which is meant to be mysterious but just ends up confusing. He has tally mark tattoos that mark how many days since he’s last gone off like bomb, and these magically appear and disappear. He needs to ‘eat’ evil human souls in an unspecified ‘often’ and if not he grows physically and mentally ill. He has this adoptive family situation that isn’t fully explained but his two ‘siblings’ are also adoptive Sunai, and no other known ones exist.

I really enjoyed the story but it is clearly one of VE Scwab’s earlier stories and has a lot of loose threads. It’s cool to see how she’s grown as an author. I recommend the book but I’d read a world building explanation first.

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