The Anatomy of Songs

by Megan White

Sundsvall is a city ruled by two Gods, and she is the first to hear them both.

Bestowed the Songs of both Life and Death, Kasira Severen spends her days as a Daughter of Silba, curing the Lowtown of their ailments. When the sun sets, however, she becomes the city’s most notorious assassin. Now, under her father’s command, she’s hunting her biggest target yet.

Veridian Erris is the Crown Prince of Livadha, and he fears his whisky-fuelled life is about to end. With the bodies of soldiers piling up on the northern borders and nobles turning up dead on the docks, he has no choice but to try and broker peace with the exiled Queen. As long as he survives the attempts on his life before they arrive.

With dark twisting conspiracies, treacherous ancestors and a hair-raising night watcher stalking the streets, the two fated enemies have far more to be wary of than each other.

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Romantasy, Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Young Adult, Fantasy Romance

438 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Daniella Borrillo · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style ruined it for me. Im pretty picky when it comes to writing style but it really ruined the potential of this book. Itll probably be fine for other readers but i couldnt get past the first few pages. It felt very jumpy and the world building at the start was really mysterious which made it hard to understand the context of the story

[Yamini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantasy world ruled by the Gods of Life and Death, the book has assassins, treachery, plots and scheme to overthrow the ruler, conspiracy and a feeble prince. Here's what I felt:

✅ The reference to Anatomy and Physiology in Practice book
✅ The character development of the protagonist (Kasira)
✅ World build-up and explanations (the power of songs)
✅ Loved the background sound and narrators
❎ The writing style- not so much

Special mention:
The narrator who played Veridian had such a deep voice that suited perfectly to the character.

Thank you @netgalley @bolindaaudio @meganwhiteauthor for the Audio ARC

Genre: #fantasy #adult
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️

[Riya Prasad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Took me almost a month to finish, went between being interested and not. Ended with not interested.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this was a DNF at page 118. I couldn’t overcome the sentence structure (so. Many. Commas!) and the lack of cohesion between chapters and key points/moments. The world building at the beginning was, I think, an attempt to be a bit mysterious and ephemeral with the musical/Song aspect but it needed a lot more polishing to level it up. I felt like I’d come into the story halfway through and that chunks were missing that would explain certain actions or conversation highlights.

Even though this wasn’t for me I do hope others give it a go and enjoy it.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to New Dawn Publishing for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A definite standout in this book is the prose - so lyrical! I like the way Megan White weaves through metaphors and uses the senses to invoke emotions and imagery in the mind of the reader.

The world building is great, I love the whole concept of the ‘songs’ of Silba and Death.

The characters are on the greyer side of morally grey, and unlikeable at times. I have a lot of questions and sometimes felt myself getting lost, but have faith all will become clear in the sequel.

This is a dark book, y’all. Check the finished copy for trigger warnings before reading.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

More on Chill and read

This was such an enjoyable read! It had it all! Life, death, a king, a prince, a healer, an assassin, a whole sect with a High Priest, a queen with her own agenda. If you are looking for a fantasy book with a young woman devoted to her people, to the ones she loves, blessed by two gods, with the powers to heal and to kill, then this is the book for you!

Kasira Severen is a special person, but only a very few people know what she is capable of. She is a blessed Daughter of Silba. She can hear the song of life, understands the parts of the body that need healing and helps them recover with the proper medicines and herbs. She is curing for the Lowtown of Sundsvall, the people that are left to their own fate, while the trained Daughters of Silba live and train in their tower on the Keep, treating the royal family and the nobles. When she is not trying to keep the Lowtown people alive and well, she is Sundsvall assassin. This however, is not widely knows as Sundsvall assassin works in the dark of night, and if you come across her path, then your time has come.

Veridian Erris is the Crown Prince of Livadha. His father is a relentless king. His sister is on a wheelchair and his mother is not well in her mind. With the soldiers up on the northern borders dropping dead like flies, and noblemen being found dead in the docks, he knows his name has been drawn as well. He needs to stay safe, to stay alive and find a way to make peace with the exiled but powerful Queen. The Queen has a large and strong army, but their own coffers are almost empty and they cannot fund a war and win it. He and his friends have been dealing with mostly whisky, but now he needs to find a way to save his kingdom. If he survives the attempts on his life, that is.

I really liked the fantasy background of the Songs of Life and Death, fueled by the respective Gods and how they people with the ability to hear those songs where treated. I liked the prophecy of the one child of both Gods that was there, but never out in the open, as if it had nothing to do with why everything was happening. I really enjoyed Kasira’s part with the anatomy parts on the beginning of each chapter, that were relevant to what was going to follow in the story. I also liked very much how she described every procedure she was doing, giving the impression that she knew very well what she was doing, like a modern time surgeon. How Silba’s song was calling her, guiding through the patient’s body. And on the very opposite, how the song of Death was calling for her to take life. It was marvelous!

Amazing worldbuilding, wonderful character development and a heartbreaking ending, this book was had me hooked! The narration of the audiobook was also captivating immersing the reader into the story!

Thank you to NetGalley & Bolinda Audio for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

[joanna coles · Rating 2 out of 5]

randomly became a love triangle for 3 seconds at page 370??

[Lin_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Anatomy of Songs - Megan White
⭐️ 4,5/5
🌶 2/5

The dark fantasy romance that will break and remake your mind, an amazing debut.

Kasira is a healer by day, assassin by night and walks the fine line of life and death every day. The gods sing through her and she is blessed and cursed and strong and weak and young and ancient. When the new job is taken and the prince’s live needs to be taken, the struggle begins of what is right and what is wrong and who do you really trust in this godforsaken world.

The writing style was super unique, lyrical and beautiful. I switched to the audiobook after a few chapters as I just wanted to listen to that prose. Megan created a dark unforgettable world int his book and I really like the concept and the gods being connected to this world through people gifted with the song.

This is a dark fantasy, and believe me, when I say dark, check your trigger warnings because I went it with me thinking "how bad can it be", well, I was shook in some parts of the book. Thankfully in a very nice and gross way.

The characters are written with their flaws and issues and I really liked reading about their growth in this book. Very real issues are brought to light in this book though this fantasy world and I really appreciated that and really loved that.

I definitely recommend for people that like a more darker shade of fantasy and love very descriptive battle scenes with guts flying around.

Thank you New Dawn publishing for sending me the ARC copy,

All opinions are my own.

[Witchetty Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best healer and renowned killer.
With life and death, she hears the songs of both.

If you like assassins, conspiracies, royalty and enemies you're like this book.

This was a good debut and I enjoyed the experience. I didn’t totally love the ending but overall was good.

It took me a bit to get into and wrap my heard around the *songs*, world and certain elements but I still enjoyed the book overall.

Be sure to check triggers if you need to as there is elements of SA.

3.75 Star

[Sammysreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"𝑴𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒆"

A debut dark fantasy series featuring assassins and royalty. This new release is full of morally grey characters and unique magic systems.

There are two Gods - Alydian, the God of darkness who sings to those who become assassins and Silba, the God who sings to those who become what's known as daughters - healers.

Not everyone hears the Gods songs, but there is a divide between those who do and which song it is. Then there is Kasira - the female main character who hears both songs. And so she becomes a feared Assassin and also a gifted daughter.

Kasira lives a simple enough life, taking contracts to assassinate targets and also healing others in need. Until she takes a contract against the prince and the lines get blurred 👀

It was such an interesting journey to witness Kasira go from taking contracts without much thought to rethinking the consequences of taking out the prince and the flow on affect it would have on her, her family and the kingdom as a whole.

This was an addictive story and I enjoyed the alternating points of view throughout. The idea of the Gods' song singing through some people as a gift was super unique for a magic system.

As this is a dark fantasy, please look up content/trigger warnings if needed.

I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes - congratulations Megan on your debut and a massive thank you to New Dawn Publishing for sending me a review copy

[Alisha Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

[Ella Clode]

DNF i didn’t like the writing and it was too confusing

[Lucy A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very long awaited read for me, and it did not disappoint. Dive into the world of Kas, a healer by day, assassin by night. Fast-paced with a sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance and unexpected traitors, fantasy lovers will adore this addition to the genre. A stunning debut.

[charlene ✿]

dnf page 160 (36%)

☞ trigger warnings: two instances of sexual assault - one involves a child (13 years old).

yeah it was interesting and somehow started dragging on, and on. When I put it down, I felt no urge to pick it up.
The elements of the story are cool - batman esq identity crisis as she's a healer during the day, and kills people for her shitty crime-lord dad at night, she can hear both the song of death and of healing (different gods domains), prophesied chosen one, contracted to kill the prince, falls in love with the guy instead, etc - like so many cool elements but it falls flat in most things. Throw in child SA and I am too uncomfortable to continue.

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[Zoe Gates · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is more like a 2.75 star book. I don’t know what was with this book but it was painful to get through and I did not enjoy it very much. I was really excited to read this because it sounded very interesting and unique however I was so confused throughout it, and I felt like the two main characters did not even actually like one another- there was no relationship building or many romantic moments that made me want to root for these characters. I was reading the reviews for this book and it felt like I was reading a different book, because everyone is liking it, whereas I actually was hating it and it took me like 3 weeks to read! Probably will not recommend this book to anyone- also thought this was a stand-alone but the ending makes it feel like it should be a series so I don’t know what is what anymore.

[Victoria Tripi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book but felt it lacked in its execution. Some parts were good, but overall I found the story hard to follow and it was jumpy between the chapters. I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters and found the love triangle and enemies to lovers aspects were just thrown in there for the sake of it and I didn’t find the characters actually had that kind of connection.

[Jasmine Styles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was PHENOMENAL. I was hooked right from the first chapter. A dark story of love with lyrical prose. Sign me up.
I loved the imagery used in this piece and it’s something that will stay with me for a long time.
What a beautiful debut novel.

I was sent this book to review as an ARC but all opinions are my own.

[TJ Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I’m not necessarily one for the classic enemies to lovers trope, I did quite enjoy this novel. That first chapter is an excellent example of how to insert world building alongside a damn fine action sequence. Read it for that and you’ll be hooked. Very satisfying conclusion too in my opinion!

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel! I was at an event in Northern Ireland with my sister, Daisy, a month or so ago and was lucky enough to hear Megan White speak about her debut novel. And lucky enough that they had a copy to sell! At the moment the publishing company only publishes in Australia. Hopefully Megan's next books will be available in Ireland, too.

[regan ★ !!]

sadly a DNF at 45%

[Oh dear · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE enemies to lovers. This is what warrior midwife wanted to be. I need the second book now.

[Loricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as an arc from New Dawn Publishers and thoroughly enjoyed it. A debut dark fantasy novel.

The Anatomy of Songs follows protagonists Kasira and Veridian through their trials of assassin and Prince. Not only is the magic system refreshing and mysterious (to the perfect extent; I don't feel upset about not completely understanding it), but the new take on the popular trope was absolutely astounding.
The prose itself was also beautiful, the tone of the author was captivating and easy to read, with all the metaphors and descriptions relating to songs and anatomy being little bonuses (that's when you know the author knows what she's doing).
Pretty sure chapters 43 and 44 will haunt me forever.

There were two problems I found with this debut dark fantasy, though it is very subjective. The biggest downfall was the fact that it's written in the first person. The protagonists are well written, and I enjoyed getting to know them personally, but the pov used meant I was robbed of knowing other characters. Every other character outside of Kasira and Veridian felt two-dimensional, and it made it very hard to care for them, sympathise for their woes, or feel angry if they were a villain (this excludes Ina and Cetus, they were very much 3D).
The other problem I had with the narrative was that it was all show and NO tell. On the surface, that sounds like something you should want, but (and I might be dumb) I found myself confused when certain descriptive facts or feelings were skipped. This also relates to a lot of trigger warning scenes being skipped (SA), which is totally fine, but I found it hard to care about a characters villainous acts when they were never written down for me to feel angry over.

Aside from those two factors, it's still an amazing book. In the end, I managed to piece things together and no longer hold confusion, but I would've loved not being confused at any point.

This could be read as a standalone, as it's beautifully concluded, however it could be made into a series, the possibility is definitely there.

In all, just read it. You'll love the fresh take on the popular book trope, the intricate and new magic system, and characters who will leave you teary eyed.

Will definitely be reading more books by this author.

[Ada · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 10%. I have a beautiful signed copy of the Fabled edition which makes this really sad, but I just can’t get past the writing style. Every single noun is preceded by an adjective which makes the writing feel overly flower-y. It’s also abrupt and jumps around a lot. I found the early world-building hard to follow and it resulted in me not being very interested given the lack of context. A prime example of this is that the Magic system of this world is Songs, presumably connecting the character to some ability given by either of two Gods. But what is the ability? How does the Song work? What does this imply within their society? The final nail in the coffin is that I don’t like the MMC, Veridian. He gives young, lanky, whiny vibes and is prejudiced.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

Did I like it? Yes
Will I continue with the series? Yes

I was very confused during this book. I couldn't understand what the power of songs were, what the motives of the characters were and at times where the plot was actually going. But in saying that I still enjoyed my reading experience. Once I was in the story I was IN IT!.

I felt anger, I felt sadness, and I felt anxiety.

Once halfway through you could feel a shift in the story telling. I was more engaged in the story and the characters. For a debut novel you can feel the writing mature as the story progressed.

But you shouldn't use "it gets better" as a reason to power through or pick up this book.

Originally I felt that this could be a good standalone knowing that there will be a sequel. But after sitting and thinking about the book I just read, I could think of various bits of missing information and the need for a sequel to clarify and expand upon all that remained unresolved.

[Ebony Blanco · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️ I enjoyed this book, definitely found myself getting a little confused at times but as I read more I began to understand the world better. Loved the crumbs of the enemies to lovers slow burn as well. It was more dark than I though it would be with descriptive fight scenes and medical procedures, however I liked how White also had the FMC speak about anatomy and physiology throughout the book.

[Raven Shae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who the hell puts trigger warnings at the BACK of a book, without saying at the start of the book “hey there’s a tw list at the back” especially with one of those things being rape.
Confusing book, still not entirely sure what the magic system even is. Odd jumps between paragraphs. Felt like a first draft that was still missing things.

[Breannan Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I breezed through this and loved that the magic flowed through songs. It was a beautiful journey through internal struggles, betrayals, intrigue and growth.

Also so refreshing to be diving into book 2 through curiosity of where Kasira and Veridian will go, rather than raging at a cliff hanger!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded down

[lord sithis · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf at page 30 lol. the writing is just….wrong.

[Abbi Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it

My only grind is she’s an infamous assassin, and no one knows who she is- but seems to tell her secret to everyone anyway