This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Goodreads Summary

*NO SPOILERS*

This book is a tale of monsters and monstrous things. Or is it? While reading this book I wanted a little bit more of the monster side of the story. I know I am a sucker for a good villain, and this story didn’t really seem to have one despite it being a world full of monsters. Yes, there were a few characters that were bad throughout the story but none of them were the main bad guy. I also wished there was more world building and a background story as to how this world came to be. There were vague references to the making of this world but I wanted a more in-depth explanation. This story is known for having no romantic relations and I think that was a cool concept, but almost every other book out there has some form of romance in it. I think that this book let me down a little because I am so used to reading about relationships, I forgot this book didn’t have any that were romantic. I did notice that the two main characters formed a bond of friendship, that was very fragile, but seemed to work for them. These two teens were just trying to survive and needed each other to do it, and I think they had a pretty awesome journey. This book also had a strong sense of self-acceptance and pointed out that not all monstrous acts come from monsters. There is a bit of gray in the black, sometimes you just have to do what is necessary to survive. The creativity in this concept is outstanding and I wish the author had written it just a little bit better to satisfy all of my expectations of this book. I went into this book not knowing what would happen and didn’t try to guess what would come. I think it would have been hard though to try and predict the outcome. I didn’t get emotional while reading this story, it was just a nice read that I had no connection to. Obviously since this world is so different than ours I couldn’t relate to anything these teens went through. Although, I do think it is important that the author wrote about the pressures of being something you’re not, and how people expect things from you that are unfair. You can’t let other people decide your fate for you and these characters found that out the hard way. I probably read this book at the wrong time because during the summer my brain gets into the "only read contemporary and romance" mode. Maybe that is half the reason I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The cover on this book went extremely well with the book plot also (bonus points awarded). Overall, I enjoyed this story, but will have to think about picking up the next one (conclusion, it is a duology) due to the minor issues I found with this first one.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Kate and August were interesting characters and I loved how much they grew together throughout their journey. I never trusted Leo from the start and hated how he was so blinded by his “cleansing” motive. The city was doing just fine before he and Sloan had to ruin it. I also thought that Harker had genuinely loved his daughter and was trying to protect her, but I was wrong. I didn’t like the way August and Kate had parted at the end it felt like they were strangers, even after all they had been through. I also think that August’s monster form was really cool, but it was unlikely that he would have kept control. He was always so worried about going dark and made a big deal about it, that it is hard for me to believe he could control himself enough to kill his brother instead of the red soul he had in front of him. I also think that Ilsa should have died, she wasn’t a big character in the first place and wouldn’t have been strong enough in her monster form to come back from a slit to the throat like that. After knowing that the Sunai’s weakness is their vulnerability when they are in their monster form, it just isn’t plausible. I don’t have much to say because it felt like the author stretched out some scenes that didn’t need to be explained that much. I picked it up a time before, but couldn’t finish it. I picked it up again this time because I had motivation to post a review on this blog for you guys, but now I realize why I didn’t finish it the first time. But like I said in the no spoiler part of this review, maybe I just picked this one up at the wrong time.