This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

 

Title: This Savage Song
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Hardcover, 427 Pages
Publication: July 5, 2016 by Greenwillow Books

Source: Personal Library

Buy|Amazon|B&N|

There’s no such thing as safe.

Kate Harker wants to be as ruthless as her father. After five years and six boarding schools, she’s finally going home to prove that she can be.

August Flynn wants to be human. But he isn’t. He’s a monster, one that can steal souls with a song. He’s one of the three most powerful monsters in a city overrun with them. His own father’s secret weapon.

Their city is divided. Their city is crumbling.

Kate and August are the only two who see both sides, the only two who could do something.

But how do you decide to be a hero or a villain when it’s hard to tell which is which?

I purchased This Savage Song the day it came out but then it sat unread on my shelf. Ironic, since I’m a big fan of Schwab and with a story about monsters, I normally would have been all over it. I finally read it, two-years later and I must say I’m unimpressed. I remembered This Savage Song getting incredible hype and glowing reviews but in my opinion this wasn’t Schwab’s best work. The concept of the novel is without-a-doubt unique but it lacked world building and developed characters.

I didn’t find the world building, or lack thereof, interesting. The quick lowdown on This Savage Song: There’s two dominant groups rivaling one another, Flynn (monster leader) and Harker (human leader). You had the usual oppressed versus the oppressor. And two teens caught in the middle, torn between fighting for what they thought was right versus what their families wanted and believed. Readers were told about this long endless war between the two factions but I never understood the why. It all seemed pointless. Or at least nothing I cared about. I honestly didn’t remember much about anything, the plot…and that in itself says it all.

Then there were the two main leads, who unfortunately were also lacking and unremarkable. When readers first met Kate she was in the process of burning down a church. Right off the bat, we’re shown this devil-may-care chick. I for one, am all about kick-ass lady characters…but Kate was just trying way, way too hard to get her dad’s attention. Exhibit A: Burning church. It was also tiresome to read about how much she wanted her dad’s approval and to be just like him. It became annoying and redundant. Kate would go around threatening people and making sure everyone knew who her dad is, that she was a Harker. It all got old fast. August, who happens to be one of the monsters in V-city is not really a monster at all. He takes no pleasure in feeding off people’s soul/emotions but it’s necessity. August also happened to be the complete opposite of Kate. He was quiet, observant, and non-confrontational. I don’t have much opinion on August. He was just a character pushing the story along. I neither liked or disliked him and in my opinion a pretty bland character.

If I can describe This Savage Song in one word, it would be underwhelming. I adore this author and I usually would auto-buy books from my favorite authors thinking I will love everything they write, but boy am I glad I didn’t buy the sequel. With that said, I won’t be finishing the duology. A lot of folks loved this book, and though it wasn’t for me, it may be for you. As always, check out a sample excerpt before purchase!

 

Come November by Katrin Van Dam

Title: Come November
Author: Katrin Van Dam
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Series:N/A
Hardcover, 373 Pages
Publication: October 30, 2018 by Scholastic Press

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

Buy|Amazon|B&N|

It’s not the end of the world, but for Rooney Harris it’s starting to feel that way. It’s the beginning of senior year and her mom just lost her job. Even worse, she isn’t planning to get another one. Instead, she’s spending every waking moment with a group called the Next World Society, whose members are convinced they’ll be leaving Earth behind on November 17. It sounds crazy to Rooney, but to her mother and younger brother it sounds like salvation. As her mom’s obsession threatens to tear their lives apart, Rooney is scrambling to hold it all together. But will saving her family mean sacrificing her dreams—or theirs?

Come November isn’t the type of book I normally pick up. But I’m so glad I did. Come November dealt with a topic rarely seen in Young Adult, cults. It highlighted the interworking of a cult and the aftermath of leaving a cult (voluntarily or otherwise). Sure, we’ve all seen stories in the news about it but I’ll be honest, I never thought much of what goes on behind the scenes; especially what happened to the followers after their leader is taken away or goes MIA. The novel is centered on seventeen-year-old Rooney, her younger brother and their mother. Rooney’s mother is entangled with the New World Society, a organization that believes the earth is dying but they can start over elsewhere. That on November 17^th, an alien race will rescue the believers/followers and take them to a different planet to start anew.

Without going into too much detail, the choices that Rooney’s mom took greatly impacted her and her brother’s life and everyone they knew or came into contact with. The book was separated into months, months leading up to “The Departure” and months “After Departure”. I loved seeing Rooney’s growth and transformation over the months, as she learned to take care of herself and her brother, jumping into the parent role after her mom checked out of reality. Despite the hardship Rooney faced at home, she never crumbled under all the obstacles thrown her way or bailed like her mother. Instead Rooney did everything in her power to scrape together any semblance of a normal teenage life like: getting a boyfriend, getting a job, attending school functions and applying to college.

The book is clearly split into two halves, cult life and life after cult. While it was great to see both perspective, I thought life after cult was far more interesting. It showed that no matter how bad things got, when you think it’s literally the end of the world…it eventually does get better. It may be a slow progress but as the saying goes, when you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up. And that exactly sums up the last half of the book as we see the characters’ resilience and perseverance to do better, make the best of their situation, and ultimately forgive and heal. Overall an enjoyable and fascinating read. I highly recommend it.