La Sasha Savage està enamorada. Fantàstic! En Jack, el noi dels seus somnis, és guapo, encantador... i vegetarià. De fet, això no serià cap problema si no fos que la família de la Sasha és una mica massa «carnívora». I és que els Savage no són el que semblen. El pare exerceix una autoritat de ferro i els experiments de la mare a la cuina són cada dia més... «Arriscats», seria la paraula? Quan un detectiu excessivament curiós rep l’encàrrec de furgar en la seva vida, la sòlida unitat familiar comença a esquerdar-se i afeblir-se, com la sinistra preferència pels éssers humans a l’hora del sopar...
Matt Whyman is an award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer. He has co-written bestselling books with some of the world’s leading figures in sport, high performance and popular culture including Gareth Southgate, Matthew Syed, Billy Connolly and Sir David Attenborough as well as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
Черт меня дернул взяться за этот роман. Виню во всем свою любовь к черному юмору, но в этой истории нет совсем-совсем-совсем ничего даже мало-мальски забавного. Обложка намекала на семейку Адамс, Эльвиру повелительницу тьмы, Магазинчик ужасов и прочее. И загоревшись, я даже особо не вчитывалась в аннотацию. Зря. А речь в романе идет не о ком-нибудь, а о семейке каннибалов. Таких себе очень культурных людоедов, кто бы мог подумать, русского происхождения. Самый старший член семьи, дедуля, офицер советской армии, во время блокады Ленинграда выживал как мог, тогда и пристрастился к человечинке. Потом он перебрался в Англию, и они с женой подсадили на ту же диету сына. Тот нашел жену себе под стать и т.д. и т.п. Я чего-то не понимаю в этой жизни, потому что смеяться мне не хотелось. Даже дочитать не смогла. И особо рассказывать об этом не хочется, потому что, по-моему, с некоторыми темами следует быть крайне осторожными, иначе черная комедия легко превращается в обыкновенную безвкусную чернуху. Впрочем, возможно, я сгущаю краски, все-таки никакой особой жести в истории нет, но сама суть вызвала лишь отторжение.
Ingredients 1 1 Sociopathic Brother a. Preferably into deadly pranks and acts of snark 2 1 Private Detective a. If possible: fat, desperate and in over his head 3 1 Boyfriend a. Make sure he is vegan and overly preachy 4 1 Grandfather a. From the Cold War with a love of human flesh 5 2 Sisters. a. One Rebellious teenager with a crush and budding yearn to eat like a rabbit b. One toddler who loves ribs 6 2 Parents a. One Perfect homemaker addicted to shopping b. One swarthy business man really into food
Mix together and create a wonderfully creative, darkly humorous tale about a family who has roots to the cannibalism some were forced to turn to during the siege of Leningrad and about six times a year they enjoy a good “feast.” A.K.A They turn some poor sucker into a banquet of human flesh (it tastes like pork!) and revel in how much more superior they are than other humans.
Let it stew for at least 24 hours and come to the realization you are rooting for the family to succeed, not get caught by the snooping private eye and hopefully digest the annoying vegan boy enticing their daughter away from her life as a carnivore.
Serve freshly after reading and be appalled at how the book borders on gross and making you hungry at the same time with the author’s delicious writing style.
Should serve: As many as you like, in fact shove this into the hands of strangers and beg them to read it.
What a fun ride! Young girls and boy alike will love this story about family and differences in people and their eating habits in a fun, yet suspenseful way. I could read this book again and again! Thanks Goodreads for the opportunity to win this books!
"I'll be back in a minute", he said, and selected his favourite carving knife. "There's something I need to grab for supper."
I have a morbid fascination with stories like these, stories about normal people being creepy bastards in the intimacy of their own home. Sue me! The Savages is about this pretty average family, a working father, a stay-at-home mother, a newborn child, a grandpa and two other kids. Their lives revolve around everyday issues: debts, work, lovelife. Really, if we didn't consider that they're cannibals, the Savages would be quite boring people. Although they don't like being considered cannibals, "cannibals boil people alive in cauldrons", they like to be considered evolved eaters. Political correctness gone wild!! *throws fist in the air*
"I would struggle without human flesh just once in a while, especially tongue. Pan-seared with just a twist of Szechuan pepper."
The Savages was probably one of the first books I ever added on this site but I've gotten my way around to it just lately when it was very cheap on Amazon, and I think that this was the right time to read it anyway. The majority of the story follows Sasha Savage, a teenager who has met this boy who's introduced her to a new lifestyle: vegetarianism. I'm a vegetarian myself and I really enjoyed reading about someone else reaching a turning point in their life in which they start questioning their own diet and decide to act on it. The thing is that if turning vegetarian for me was only met with raised eyebrows and silly jokes during family reunions, for Sasha things were not so easy. I'd like you to remember that Sasha comes from a family of cannibevolved eaters, a family that sees meat as fine dining and feeding on human flesh as an acquired taste, surviving solely on "rabbit food" is just shameful and pretentious.
"Things that once felt important can become left behind. If giving up meat makes you truly happy then so be it. Just so long as you don't give up on family."
I found the story pretty engaging, never knowing who was going to be the chosen victim kept me on the edge till the very end but since the Savages only eat human meat during special occasions there were not many instances of cannibevolved eaters on a hunt, or situations in which the fact that these people were feeding on humans was rendered explicit which is actually what I was expecting from this story. Hence the 3 stars. Will surely pick the second book in this duology though!
The Savages are cannibals. There, I said it. It’s best that you know now so you can prepare yourself. The family we’re dealing with just ain’t normal.
Sixteen-year-old Sasha Savage is worried about introducing her first boyfriend, Jack, to the family. You see, he’s the unspeakable: a vegetarian! And what’s worse, he is making Sasha want to flirt with vegetarianism too. Angelica, Sasha’s mother, is trying to be supportive, but she is cautious to keep Sasha’s unfathomable dietary path a secret for a little while longer as Titus and Ivan, Sasha’s father and younger brother, will not be so understanding. And then there’s little Katya, not yet old enough to have tried undervalued delicacy that is seasoned and pan-fried human flesh, and their grandfather, Oleg, who started it all during the war…
Angelica deals with her family’s uncomfortable stance on morality by taking frequent trips to designer boutiques. To pay off her overwhelming credit card bill, she needs to rent out the family’s home for filming. But regrettably for the Savages, a young model, Lulabell, dies in the house, causing private detective Vernon to delve deeper into the family’s lives, and he starts to wonder: Why do they talk about food so much?
You would expect The Savages to be revoltingly humourous, perhaps like those Horrible Histories you read back in school, but it’s actually so much darker than I thought it would be – and even uncomfortable at times! Yet I found myself empathising with Sasha and wondering whether I should perhaps give vegetarianism a try myself, while still being intrigued by Ivan’s seriously sick sense of humour, but then I had to stop myself and think: Hey, no! You cannot like this people! They’re sadistic, wrong, immoral! They eat people! But it’s so freaking difficult. I found myself negatively judging Vernon even though in a normal story, I’d be rooting for him. The Savages are at the heart of the story and I could not possibly tear myself away from them.
Matt Whyman’s The Savages is brilliantly executed and truly unique. It’s dark humour at its best and I cannot imagine I’ll ever come across a book like it again. I devoured it. Is it wrong that it made me hungry? It’s wrong, isn’t it?
Thank you Hot Key Books for providing this book for review!
This book stands out from everything else published recently. It’s not girly, or gritty, or paranormal. The cover says everything it needs to say: this is a horror comedy. It has a League of Gentlemen meets Addams Family feel. It begins with a 3rd person omniscient narrator that I immediately read like Jim Dale doing the voiceovers on Pushing Daisies. The plot tackles a vegetarian entering into the world of cannibals, which sounds silly and dark, like Delicatessen. Brilliant start, as these are all things I already love.
About halfway through this book, I put it down and never picked it up again. There was a bit of real gore and horror, but I never actually found it funny. From the other reviews it looks like the humor picks up when the detective gets more involved in the story, but I couldn’t make it that far.
I don’t know that this family’s history of cannibalism really needed to be explained. It takes many pages of hinting before it’s outright revealed, even though it’s announced on the flap of the book. If someone has picked up this book, they have already bought into the idea of reading about cannibals, so does it really matter why? Explaining they’re cannibals because they’re Russian, and they started eating other people during the lean years of a war, and it became a tradition… Can you see why that’s kind of problematic? You probably grew up on Russian Bond villains, but aren’t we past that? Cannibalism during WWII was real, and terrifying. So if you want to turn it into a joke, maybe not so close to the source material? Why not make a random English family cannibals?
Because even as we become more accepting of some people, another group becomes free game for ostracism. It’s easy to accept they’re cannibals if it’s part of their evil, backwards, foreign culture. In the name of humor Eastern Europeans are often the scapegoats of xenophobia, especially in the UK. Hey Matt Whyman, I’m here to tell you that’s just not on. It might seem like a small detail in this book, but what started as a niggling concern made me grit my teeth harder and harder as it went on, until I realized I didn’t need to do that to myself, and walked away.
I finished reading this book last week and at that time I was actually in a reading slump –like literally, I was poly-reading books from different genres, and most of them I read halfway. I had this unsettling feeling embedded in the root of my heart that I need some stories that really ‘wake’ me up. Stories that come out uncomfortable and aren’t really sitting right with my reading preferences. So here it is, THE BOOK, that successfully got me out of my reading slump.
The Savages by Matt Whyman is a juvenile read that follows a family, The Savage, whose tradition is to feast on human flesh yet still carrying on their daily life as usual. This book could have passed as a dark thriller one if not for the author himself sprinkles it with dark humour. For readers who have been familiarised with cannibalism, this read might be like too easy and too plain for you to enjoy the cannibalistic parts but for those readers who haven’t, it’s a little bit disgusting as there are some vivid descriptions about how to cook human flesh in a ‘decent’ way. Either way, this book might not sound right up everyone’s alley.
Pros:
- It’s problematic if you start rooting a family who practises cannibalism in the house because yes, I’ve come to start liking them and I can’t wait to read the second book. - Conflict. The conflict starts when Sasha Savage, the daughter of The Savage suddenly becomes interested in being a vegetarian when her vegan boyfriend starts coaxing her into taking a month of meat-free without the knowledge of her strict-to-the-tradition father, Titus Savage. - Family. They are being supportive of each other. I love the chemistry amongst themselves. The psychopathic brother, Ivan? Holy crap, his character is what I love the most throughout the story. The Baby too! Come back here and comment down below what’s her first word when you’ve finally read the book. -The Private Investigator. His character can be cliche as he can, the one who finds a possible link between the murder case of a renowned model with The Savage family. I think his part I laughed the most and be thinking of ‘how stupid this man can get’🤣 -The plot twist in the end though—I began questioning myself that it’s really problematic to root for this family.
Cons:
- The story is narrated from the third point of view, and the story is more likely full of narration instead of conventional dialogues. I disliked the first half of the book but ended up liking the last half of the book. - The history of cannibalism in this story stems from Titus’ father, who’s the Russian Officer during the Siege whereby they devoured each other to stay alive. Since it’s a true history, I find it a little bit distorting to be fictionalised in a dark humour. But since it’s fictional and made up for pure entertainment, I’ll just turn a blind eye on it.
I recommend this book for those who want to read disgusting yet entrancing books.
So this was a pretty good book about afamily with a creepy secret- they're cannibals. This isn't a spoiler, by the way: even though the word cannibal isn't actually used until about halfway through the book, it's pretty obvious what the Savage's 'feasts' consist of.
I liked the dark humour the author uses to lift what would otherwise be quite a horrific storyline. The humour probably isn't to everyone's taste (no pun intended), but I liked it.
The characters seem very ... ordinary, considering their horrible culinary tastes. Sasha was really well-adjusted, considering grisly murders took place in her house on a regular basis, and I liked that she rebelled against her family by becoming vegetarian. I wasn't really surprised her brother was a sociopath, though.
I guess if I had to criticise, I'd say that not much really happens. the main plot revolves around the fact that a private investigator is poking around Mr Savage's business dealings and that Sasha is dating a vegetarian. You just know that someone is goingtoend up in the cooking pot at the end and while I liked the twist at the end, there wasn't enough plot in the rest of the book to really excite me.
3.5/5 (rounded up for having a character named Vernon 🖤 what can I say I'm easy)
“No other meal came close to stirring such a deep-seated craving in him. Like his parents, the boy found that every mouthful left him feeling blissfully alive. By the time Oleg decided to reveal the main ingredient, there was no going back for his son.”
The Savages was an odd book about a memorable family of human-flesh-eaters (but don’t call them the “c” word).
The Savages are a posh family who occasionally feast on a human. This is an important family tradition that started when Grandpa Oleg was under siege during war and needed to eat human flesh to survive. The Savages carry on this tradition and spread it to the next generations, as they believe it’s the bond that holds their family together. And human meat is super good apparently.
The driving forces behind the story are Sasha Savage, the teenage daughter, becoming a vegetarian (the horror!), and the family is under surveillance by a P.I. (at least he’s not a vegetarian). The book is darkly humorous at times and entertaining; however, it did drag for me some and I would have appreciated a bit more action.
I’ll probably pick up #2 in the duology, as the Savages are a hard family to forget and I’m curious to see what they get up to in America.
What a gutsy concept. I wanted to read this book, I wanted to read this book so badly because there wasn't a word in the synopsis that failed to intrigue me. I wanted to read this book, but I was terrified to. Cannibalism has always been an area of fascination, and deep disturbance, for me. And rightly so. In our reality, the unspeakable act of eating a fellow human is a cause for outrage, and frankly, downright confusion. Why would you want to do such a thing? Enter
The Savages
, where Matt Whyman gives us a few reasons...
I want to touch on the underlying topic that so many readers were privy too whilst reading
The Savages
, it was the the idea of vegetarians/vegans vs. meat eaters-the constant need to justify your decision to not consume meat, or the flip side, your pleasure in doing so.
The Savages
was an extreme portrayal of this issue, one that, in my opinion, was executed with outstanding wit, and metaphors, not the mention a KICK ASS set of characters. Firstly though, would you look at the cover of this book!? How do you not completely dissolve into memories of rushing home to watch the The Addams Family tv series? ...though, that might just be me. I'll admit, when I found out the subject matter of
The Savages
, I expected brutality, and violence, and gore, but there was none to be found in this book. Matt Whyman managed to create a normal, suburban family, living and operating normal, healthy lives. Well, normal is relative.
The Savage family have a secret that dates back one generation, from a time when Grandpa had little to nothing to survive on. It's a secret that has now become a family tradition-one that is indulged in only on special occasions. Yes, ladies and gents: the preparation, and consuming, of human flesh. Though not just ANY, and everyone is a main course. There were homages paid to tribal rituals that seriously blew me away. The author was tasteful, an decidedly controlled about this touchy subject. Of course, the main story line revolves around their oldest daughter, Sasha, making the scandalous decision to go vegan, which was the source of ENDLESS hilarity, and snarky sarcasm. The entire cast of characters were impulsively endearing, and lovable-though, the son, Ivan, definitely proved to be the most disturbing of the bunch...you'll see why if you check this book out.
Matt Whyman managed to turn the topic of cannibalism into something to be explored, instead of shunned-which is shocking enough, in it's own right. But he also, expertly, held it on a tight enough leash in the background, to make way for so much more important life issues: family bonding, acceptance, individuality. I was floored, and insanely impressed with this novel. I cannot, cannot wait to continue on with the series.
Recommended for fans of: Matt Haig's
The Radleys
, Christopher Moore, The Addams Family, Comedic Fiction, Contemporary, Dark Fiction, Humour.
So this book hooked me from the subtitle “They’d love to have you for dinner…”! I saw this in the bookstore and immediately put it in my cart. It was also on sale so that helped make my decision for me.
I read this as a prompt for the magical readathon since it was to read a book by an English author and I am glad I picked up this book. It was such a cool premise with a family of “meat” eaters, one of the children wanting to try being vegetarian and how the family reacts to this.
I found the characters were all well developed. I especially liked Ivan (the middle child) because he was a mischievous prankster with just the right amount of sinister.
The way that the family’s heritage was explained and the reasoning behind why they are the way that they are was really fun to discover. I would say that this is definitely a young adult book as I believe it may be a little too much for younger readers in some of the scenes.
Overall, it was a pretty good book that had a lot of underlying humor and punny wit.
A hilarious and bloody quick read. You'll have some fun with this one. The Savages aren't your typical family and you might just find yourself succumbing to their ways...
I loved the ending and the characters are likeable in their own ways. They're all written to be accurate representations of their ages; Sasha the girl excited about a hot boyfriend in school, Ivan the immature troublemaker, Oleg the kind elderly that listens to you, Titus the warm and protective leader, and Angelica the calm voice of reason and open-mindedness. Sounds like your average family but they're tighter knit than one. Not good for children but I'm sure anybody above 14 or 15 can enjoy this.
The Savages are a normal family with their normal daily routines, living in a normal house in a normal neighborhood. The only thing that isn't normal is their diet. The focus on this aspect of their lives is refreshing, you rarely see that in a story. And it played a very important part in the plot. I cringed at some parts, but that's what a thriller novel does. It had very ridiculous situations (in a funny way), that's the dark humor playing its part. And overall a really good story. I had this on my currently reading shelf for months, and I finished it in two days because exciting things happened in the second half of the story, and I couldn't put it down.
Een mooie cover en een verhaal over kannibalen. Ik was meteen verkocht en dit voor maar 3 euro gekocht op het boekenfestijn in Gent. Heb het tweede deel ook al besteld. Tof en uniek verhaal.
This was an extremely easy read, and something I didn't know I needed in my life. The concept is one I wouldn't have ever come up with and I would love to hear more about the Savages and their story. The author, Matt Whyman, is excellent with imagery and I love his characterizations of all the different family members. Would highly recommend for someone wanting a quick afternoon juvenile fiction read, with a slightly dark concept!
Okay, so I finally was able to finish this book....and well, it was a bit of a slog. I'll try to cover everything as fairly as I can.
To preface I should say that I am a vegetarian myself, so I might have some bias here. I'm also pretty interested in weird true crime/murder stories, cannibalism is a pretty interesting topic to read about in general.
I didn't find much interesting while reading this book, unfortunately. It took me awhile to get through it.
To start off, there wasn't much substance. The plot is pretty straightforward and follows all the expected beats. There weren't a whole lot of surprises, not much to chew on afterwards, either.
The writing itself isn't bad at all. There's a lot of puns, which I love, so that's a plus...but my biggest issue with this book are the characters. I didn't like any of them, really, save maybe the main character (sometimes) and her mother (sometimes). I didn't understand their motives, I didn't understand why they did what they did or how they justified it to themselves. Characters would kind of just do stuff just because, without much to back up their convictions.
The way the book frames vegetarians is a little annoying, because it seems to be under the assumption that vegetarians are all pompous holier-than-thou folks who all secretly want to eat meat and only choose not to because they want to appear morally superior. (I mean..I'm sure some people might be like that, but most of us are just normal people who don't have any agendas tied to our dietary preferences...) This wouldn't be that bad if it was played to a believable degree, but the fact the militant vegan character who shows up 3/4ths through the book actually stops and partakes in consuming a person at the drop of a hat is really unbelievable. Perhaps if the author had spent more time with this character to develop her logic I wouldn't have been scratching my head so much.
The reason why the family chooses to eat people in the first place is stupid and doesn't hold much weight. It's even stupider that they don't even gloss over the fact that what they are doing is murder. At no point in time does any character even address that they are killing a person because they want to, not out of survival necessity where the tradition originated. It wouldn't have been as distracting had the author maybe took a little more absurdist approach to the text, but the way its presented in the text just comes across as lazy.
Overall I'd skip this one. Fun concept, but the execution left a bland taste in my mouth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Originally Reviewed At:Mother/Gamer/Writer Rating: 5 out of 5 Controllers Review Source: Blog Tour Reviewer: Me
The Savages is uniquely fun and morbidly hilarious novel about a family with several hidden secrets. Whether they are keeping secrets from the outside world or each other, this family is one you don’t want to miss! The characters are zany complex people who light up the page no matter which point of view you’re reading. Often witty and sometimes insane, I guarantee you’ll fall in love with each member of this outlandish and crazy cast.
With its grotesque humor, The Savages is probably one of my All-time favorite books! I fell in love with its charismatic flavor as soon as I read the first page. Did I know what to expect? Heck no! Did I have any expectations? Not really. Did I LOVE LOVE LOVE this books? YES YES YES! I could not put the savages down and often times found myself laughing out loud (sometimes too loudly) while I was reading. Anytime a novel can bring a smile to your face on every page you know it’s a masterpiece.
The father is up to no good and the mother has major issues. Their son, Ivan, is a psychopath, literally. While their daughter Sasha just wants to be normal – whatever that is – and maybe just maybe live a life without consuming humans for food. Oh grandfather, how I adore you with your tainted wisdom. And Mr. Detective guy, you’ve got your work cut out for you. The Savages are a strange bunch, full of charm and class and other disturbing attributes, really disturbing. The moment you think you have one of them figured out, you better believe you’ve got it wrong. And despite the fact that human flesh is a delicacy you can’t help but relate to each of them in some way.
If you read nothing else, crave something out of the ordinary that might just make you question your own eating habits, then you MUST pick up a copy of The Savages! Gah! I can’t even describe how much a person, any person, needs to read this book. The characters will keep you entertained and Matt Whyman’s flawless writing will keep you glued to the pages. It’s a story about family, acceptance and finding your own way. You really shouldn’t like these people. But trust me, it’s inevitable. Cannibals or not, The Savages will win your heart! It’s a clever little book. *wink wink*
THE SAVAGES by Matt Whyman is not your average YA novel. It’s a story about a family who – surprise! – just so happens to be a handful of cannibals. If you enjoy reading off-the-wall comedies with the sort of dark humor that makes your skin crawl, then this is the read for you.
THE SAVAGES shines most when it’s not taking itself too seriously. There are moments of true brilliance here, especially in the way the author depicts the individual characterizations of the Savage family. While the central plot focuses on the daughter, Sasha, and her overbearing vegan boyfriend, it’s the scenes in which we delve inside the minds of the men of the house that truly shine. A more focused psycholo-analysis of the two characters, Ivan and Vladimir, would have propelled THE SAVAGES solidly into the “horror” genre, but what we read of them just barely scratches the surface...
It was a toss up between 3 or 4 stars and you can see what won. An EXTREMELY hard read despite the simplicity of the storyline and the main characters. It took me a while to warm up to the story jumping between a variety of different characters points of view, and even then I wasn't really hot on the idea. But the main reason for the 3 is the fact the story danced around the main story point using words like 'exotic taste' and 'special meat' until finally, a hundred or so pages later, just saying it was human meat. That really got on my nerves. Otherwise, I really liked the main concept of a family united by cannibalism (or just evolved eaters) and the characters where well constructed (Ivan in particular).
Amb uns personatges curiosos i a la vegada entranyables, una història interessant i unes trames que tot i que a vegades van a batzegades aconsegueixen cumplir el seu propòsit, Els Savage es un llibre que podria haver sigut alguna cosa més, peró que està bé tal com està. Amb humor negre i diàlegs punxats, no és una masterpiece, però sí recomano la seva lectura.
It was okay but I guess it could have been better. Call me conservative but the teenager making carpaccio out of another human's loin isn't my idea of a wholesome meal. Having said that, I am curious what happens next. (2.5/5)
I found this because it was face out at the library. A family of Russian decent canibals living in England is interesting. I enjoyed the dark humor. It all felt a little Addams family to me.