This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

First blog post of 2018! Also first Victoria Schwab book I've ever read! I have heard such high praise for this author and yeah, I completely understand why now. This Savage Song is often described as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast but it's far less derivative than that. It tells the story of a monster named August and a human named Kate and honestly, I wouldn't even class it as a romance what happens between them. Both characters are the offspring of the people in charge of two sides of the city. Kate's dad is like a mob boss who rules out of fear and makes people pay him for protection from monsters while August's 'dad' is a gentler human who controls the other half of the city. As a result, Kate spends all her time trying to prove herself to be as mean as her father, while August is desperate to not be a monster. They meet when August gets sent to her school to pretend to be a human as there is a fear that the truce between the monsters and the humans will break.

First off, this book is really well-written. The writing style is clear, it flows excellently and it is poetic without being over the top or pretentious. The characters are well-developed and the plot is well-paced-in short, I can see why people rave about this author. The world itself is also very compelling and is built up brilliantly. Schwab skillfully avoids doing a huge info dump and while you might be lost for the first few chapters (particularly August's ones), overall you get information precisely when you need it without it intruding on the story.

Her concept of monsters and the different mechanics of each one is another aspect I really liked. The three species of monster are all very unique and I love how they came to be. Something I am hoping for in the sequel is more development of the other species of monsters beyond Sunai, but this is really a very minor flaw.

Overall, this was an excellent book to kick 2018 off with and I am very much looking forward to reading the sequel. If you're looking for a city-based fantasy book that is grounded in reality, I definitely recommend giving this a try. I suspect this author might become one of my new favourites.

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