Editors Reads Verdict
A genuinely original premise executed with confidence: the world-building is economical and imaginative, and Schwab refuses the expected romance trajectory, treating the August-Kate dynamic as something more interesting than attraction.
What We Loved
- The world-building conceit — violence literally creates monsters — is genuinely original and thematically rich
- Refusing the expected romance trajectory treats the August-Kate dynamic as something more interesting than attraction
- August's monster taxonomy is used thematically, not decoratively — each type reflects something about human violence
- The monster-as-trauma metaphor runs quietly and effectively beneath the entire narrative
Minor Drawbacks
- As the first of two books, the story ends at a setup point rather than a fully resolved conclusion
- The world outside Verity is largely undeveloped — the city is everything
- Kate's hardness in the early chapters makes her initially difficult to invest in
Key Takeaways
- → Violence that is externalized into monsters makes the cost of human cruelty literally visible
- → Performing an identity so thoroughly that you lose track of what is performance and what is self is its own kind of violence
- → Two people who both understand what it means to perform who they are can connect in a way others cannot reach
- → The desire to be human, when you are something else, is itself a deeply human desire
| Author | V.E. Schwab |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Greenwillow Books |
| Pages | 464 |
| Published | July 5, 2016 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Young Adult, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy |
This Savage Song Review
V.E. Schwab’s This Savage Song begins with one of the best world-building conceits in recent young adult fantasy: in the city of Verity, violence does not merely cause suffering — it creates monsters. Murders produce Malchai, elegant predators with red eyes and a taste for blood. Smaller cruelties generate Corsai, scratching swarms that lurk in darkness. And the rarest, most powerful monsters, the Sunai, are born from acts of mass violence — they look human, live among humans, and feed on the souls of sinners.
August Flynn is a Sunai who wants desperately to be the human he appears to be. He plays violin, follows rules with anxious exactness, and counts his heartbeats as proof that something inside him is alive. Kate Harker is the daughter of the man who controls South Verity by selling monster protection, and she has spent years making herself as hard and cold as her father’s reputation demands. When August is sent to surveil Kate at her school and their cover is blown, the two find themselves fleeing the city together under circumstances that quickly become lethal.
Schwab makes several choices that distinguish This Savage Song from its genre contemporaries. The most significant is refusing to develop the August-Kate relationship as a romance. Their connection is genuine but built on recognition rather than attraction — two people who understand each other’s performance of identity because they are both performing one. The world-building earns its complexity without exposition dumps, and the monster taxonomy is used thematically rather than decoratively.
Reading Order
This Savage Song is book one of two. Read it before Our Dark Duet.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "This Savage Song" about?
In Verity, violence creates monsters — literally. Kate Harker is the ruthless daughter of the man who runs half the city by selling monster protection. August Flynn is a Sunai, a monster who feeds on souls — and who desperately wants to be human. When they become unlikely allies, the line between predator and prey disappears.
What are the key takeaways from "This Savage Song"?
Violence that is externalized into monsters makes the cost of human cruelty literally visible Performing an identity so thoroughly that you lose track of what is performance and what is self is its own kind of violence Two people who both understand what it means to perform who they are can connect in a way others cannot reach The desire to be human, when you are something else, is itself a deeply human desire
Is "This Savage Song" worth reading?
A genuinely original premise executed with confidence: the world-building is economical and imaginative, and Schwab refuses the expected romance trajectory, treating the August-Kate dynamic as something more interesting than attraction.
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