This Savage Song by Victoria E. Schwab

This Savage Song
Victoria E. Schwab
5/5 stars

I'm struggling with how to describe This Savage Song.  It was so good, just so darn good--how can I convey just how good it was?

This dark, urban fantasy takes place sometime in the future, in a world where monsters now exist.  The location, Verity City, is split between two factions: one ruled by Harker and his tame monsters, and the other governed by Flynn and his task force.  The children of these two men, August Flynn and Kate Harker, become schoolmates, enemies and then allies as they try to prevent another war between the two factions.

Don't think this is some sort of Romeo and Juliet love story.  It's not.  There is no romance: just a lot of action, violence, strong emotion and darn fine story telling.

Schwab had me hooked from the beginning, and I became more and more involved as the story went along.  She drops the reader straight into this world, and the reader spends several pages picking up clues and arranging them to discover just what sort of world this is, where the monsters come from, and how our two protagonists fit.  It was fantastically well done, actively involving the reader right from the start.

The prose is as good as the plot, with some nicely turned phrases such as "The thoughts fell like dominoes inside his head, one knocking into the next into the next into the--"  I also found the character development to be impressive; the characters grew into complex personalities as the book progressed.

I know that this is a book I'll be raving about all year; I high recommend it.