This Savage Song

Imagine a broken world where violent acts breed monsters. Some of those monsters have teeth and feed on flesh and bone; some are corpses that feed on blood; and some look like humans, act like humans, but feed on human souls to live. Schwab’s Monsters of Verity series is perfect for those who may prefer some monsters in their fall season.

This Savage Song is the beginning of the duology that follows Kate Harker, the daughter of a crime boss, and August Flynn, the son of a man trying to hold the city of Verity together. Kate is a human that wishes to be a monster, wanting nothing more than to be as ruthless as her father – a man who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans of the city pay for his protection. August is a monster who wishes he were human, someone as good-hearted as his father who can play a bigger role in protecting the innocent – but instead he’s a monster who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When August is tasked with keeping an eye on Kate after she’s kicked out of her sixth boarding school and sent back to Verity, Kate quickly catches on to August’s secret, and as their paths connect with an assassination attempt gone wrong, the two must flee for their lives. 

Schwab’s strengths often lie in beautiful slow burn character development and worldbuilding–and that’s abundantly clear here, but paired magnificently with an incredibly tense, harrowing plot. The mashup of fantasy, dystopian, horror, and paranormal make this a duology that would appeal to fans of any of the genres. 

For fans of Schwab’s other work, it’s been noted by the author that this entire world was created from one line from Vicious: “Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” And for those who may not have dipped into Schwab’s work just yet, this is a great start to dive into their vast expanse of novels.