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(4.5 / 5)
Monsters of Verity #1
“Mind over body over bodies on the floor over tallies seared day by day by day into skin until cracked and broke and bled into the beat of gunfire and the melody of pain and the world was made of savage music…”
What a unique and fascinating premise. Imagine a world where the very worst of our sins birthed literal monsters. This is the world of This Savage Song. But it’s also not that simple. Not all monsters are created equal, and just because it is decidedly wicked acts that create them, they may not all be wicked by nature. And August is one such monster…
And then you have Kate, working all her life to live up to the brutal and ruthless reputation of her father. Trying to prove she deserves a place by his side, in the only “home” she has left. But though she puts on a hard and vicious front, does she really have what it takes to rule this savage world.
Schwabs worldbuilding is subtle. It happens slowly over time, instead of being thrust at you all at once. Instead it is inferred as we get to know the characters and see them interact with the world. Told from alternative points-of-view, we see a divided city from both sides of the wall, from both perspectives of a war. And then our characters, who should be divided, are thrown together by circumstance. And we learn to see what makes a human and what makes a monster, and how the lines blur.
And then you have passages like the above, which is so beautiful that I just can’t stop thinking about it. I’m not usually a fan of stream of consciousness, but in the context of the book this passage elicited such beautiful and powerful imagery that I can not stop thinking about it. And that is a powerful thing!
So read This Savage Song. It does not disappoint!