Off the Books discussion

This thread is for discussions about our January book, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab! Did you love it? Did you hate it?

Please remember: there may be spoilers here for those of you who haven't finished reading yet!

Y'all, I was so surprised with how much I LOVED this book! The only other Schwab book I've read (so far) was "Vicious" and I think I ended up giving it one star? So you can understand that I went into this book really, really skeptical and came out the other side completely head over heels with the post-Phenomenon world.

I like how Schwab was able to write two very different characters and make them sympathetic for completely different reasons. I empathized with Kate and her desperation to fulfill what (she thought) her father wanted, while August's "I'm a monster who wants to be human" crisis is, admittedly, my ultimate weakness in literature. I found the world to be so immersive...to the point where I was legit eyeing the shadows around me! lol The idea of three types of monsters being born from different types of violence was fascinating although, like any good "monster" novel, the humans always end up being the *real* monsters.

Also, a HUGE shout out to Schwab for not trying to force some cliched Romeo and Juliet romance on us. Although I think that possibility is definitely there for future installments, the lack of romance and the slow building of trust was refreshing and, I felt, much more in character/believable than a hurried romantic subplot.

If I had to pick one big fault of the book, it would be that a lot of the "big" reveals were ridiculously easy to see coming such as: (view spoiler)[ Harker's involvement in his wife's death, Sloan's survival, and the betrayal by Leo. (hide spoiler)]

O M G Kinsey!

I was the complete opposite - I absolutely adored Vicious but felt like This Savage Song was lacking in... something.

I'm not sure if it was pacing or character development or what, but I found reading this book interesting at points but for the most part I couldn't really care less what happened in it.

I loved the whole concept of the novel and I will probably pick up the next books in the series when they are released, but this book just did not do it for me.

Maybe a re-read in the future will have me enjoying the book more, or at least knowing what exactly it is that I think is lacking, but for now, for me, this book was a bit of a disappointment.