IA Reads

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab - book review by Nicole

In a world that contains monsters, Verity (V-city) is plagued by them. These monsters that all fear are created from crimes, specifically murders. The best way to describe them is through the “children’s” song sung throughout the city:

“Corsai, Corsai, tooth and claw,
Shadow and bone will eat you raw.
Malchai, Malchai, sharp and sly,
Smile and bite and drink you dry.
Sunai, Sunai, eyes like coal,
Sing you a song and steal your soul.” (Schwab 23)

After the monsters caused the division of V-City, the people of the North and South are expecting the truce to break. The North is ruled by Harker, a money centered man who gives protection from the monsters but only at a cost. In the South, Flynn commands the FTF and protects all within his sector. In short, the people from the North pay for their safety while the people from the South are expected to fight. In the North, Harker uses his personal control over the Malchai and Corsai in order to protect the citizens but that control is fleeting. Flynn’s control rests in his “Family”, himself and his wife running the FTF with the only three Sunai monsters in existence: Isla, Leo, and August. Even with the protection given from both sides, nowhere is truly safe.

August, the youngest monster of the Sunai, only wants to be human. Prevented from experiencing taste, pain, and his own music, August feels trapped in the demands of what it means to be a Sunai who steals the souls of sinners. As the truce starts to deteriorate, he has his chance to be human, or at least pretend to be, by infiltrating the Northern Colton Academy and getting close to Kate Harker, the only daughter of the leader of the North. Kate Harker is a human who wants to become monstrous. Stuck in private boarding schools for the past years of her life, Kate is finally brought back to V-city as her actions resulted in too much damage. Stuck in the Colton Academy, she meets August, or Freddie as his cover name, and immediately recognises that something is wrong. After only a few days they become closer but Kate only wants to deliver him to her father to prove her ruthlessness. One day after school, monsters who were thought to be controlled by Harker come to Colton Academy in order to attack the students and blame it on the Southern’s Sunai. Caught up in the fighting, Kate and August are forced to reveal their true intentions and work together to survive. In search for safety, they escape from V-city into the surrounding waste. Once they think that they had found sanctuary in Kate’s childhood home, Kate and August are discovered by Sloan, the pet monster of Harker.

In the climax, of the novel, August is forced to go dark, or reveal his monstrous Sunai form, against his will and defeats the surrounding monsters saving Kate. When Kate and August return to V-city and its chaos, they go straight to Harker’s penthouse. Finally facing her father with a changed perspective thanks to August, she is given the choice to kill him but reluctantly lets August reap his soul instead. With the death of Harker, no one in the North is safe; August forces Kate to flee and never return in order to ensure her safety. Once August returns to the South, he is determined to become the protector that they need, willing to throw away his dream of becoming more human.

 As a #1 New York Times Bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, and holds a 4.17 star rating on GoodReads, I’d have to say that I love this book as much as many other people throughout the reading community. Honestly, I could not put this book down. The plotline was amazing and not predictable like many dystopian sci-fi novels that I have read and the concepts explored had so many levels to think about. I honestly cannot express how good this book was in words. Even with my lengthy plot summary, I have covered so much yet so little information throughout this book.

 For an educator there are a few things to be aware of. As this book surrounds monsters and power, souls and death are common themes thought. Especially around the Corsai and Malchai, gorey murders are spread throughout the novel. Furthermore, underage smoking and other irresponsible acts such as setting a Church on fire take place as Kate actively tries to be cruel. Other than the themes of death and irresponsibility, the book is relatively clean. This book can easily be analyzed in a scholarly setting. The character development of Kate and August is the most obvious and easiest literary analysis that one could attempt but there is so much more. The role of minority characters and their development is another function used by Schwab to drive the plot. One could complete a climax analysis; there are multiple places that could be considered the climax throughout this book.

Finally, for a book club or class discussion one could consider the following questions/themes:

  • What does it mean to be a Human? Monster? 
  • How does our past influence our current state and others? 
  • Analyze the impact of choices (any throughout the novel) 
  • Stereotypes and how they impact others/the self 
  • To what extent does the situation you are born into impact your destiny? 
  •  Is destiny fixed? 
  • How does music impact life? 
  • How does one’s relationship with their family influence their beliefs? 


Again, these are only a few of the many ideas explored throughout This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab and one could easily find more.


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