This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1)

by Victoria Schwab

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5★ Audiobook⎮This wasn’t my first Victoria Schwab book, but it was by far my favorite. She’s been a popular author for sometime now. I’ve always been a little disappointed that I haven’t seemed to like her previous works as much as everyone else. This Savage Song has officially made a Schwab fan out of me.

I connected with This Savage Song immediately and in ways that I never did with Vicious or A Darker Shade of Magic. Firstly, This Savage Song was nothing like Victoria Schwab’s other stories. There’s no traveling in time or between worlds. The plotline for This Savage Song was incredibly easy-to-follow. I also found it quite convenient for daytime listening.

As almost any audiobook listener knows, every title requires a different degree of listening effort. Some prove to be more difficult to follow while multitasking. As much as I love Fantasy, that genre typically demands more concentration. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to follow This Savage Song while completing other tasks. But Victoria Schwab’s writing was so smooth and seamless. I had no trouble whatsoever adjusting to the world in This Savage Song.

I was also surprised with how well I connected with her characters. Kate is my kind of girl. She’s tough, violent, ruthless, and independent, yet still vulnerable enough to be relatable. I thought she was the most well-written character in This Savage Song. Actually, all of the characters were pretty brilliant. They each had a very distinct personalities and backgrounds. Schwab’s concept of how the monsters came to be was both horrendous and beautiful, just like the monsters themselves.

Victoria Schwab’s world-building skills have always been her hallmark writing trait to me and This Savage Song further solidified that. The make up of this fictional world reminded me of that in Marie Lu’s Legend series. Kate and August also reminded me a little of the protagonists in Legend, but much more dynamic. The stand out difference between the two series was the presence of monsters in Monsters of Verity. It added a layer of Paranormal to the Urban Fantasy setting and it really pulled me in.

Schwab has a way of taking something that has been done before and adding her own personal twist. For example, how many times have you read about vampires? Sure, every vampire story is a little different. Each respective author picks and chooses which pieces of vampire lore to include. But there aren’t any vampires in This Savage Song, only certain monsters vaguely reminiscent of them. Schwab creates her own legends surrounding these creatures. She turns what you think you know upside down, just like she did in A Darker Shade of Magic. I’m telling you, it’s brilliant.

Narration review: I thought this was my first time hearing Therese Plummer narrate, but it actually isn’t. She also narrated Magonia, which I heard last year. From what I recall, I definitely think I enjoyed this performance more. Plummer’s narration skills absolutely wowed me. Her characterization was wonderful. The added emotion in her voice enhanced my attachment to the story. She captured the personalities of Kate and August easily. Even the way she voiced the minor characters further developed them in my mind.

If I like a narrator’s performance enough, the first thing I do after finishing a book is search for the narrator’s other works. That’s how I discovered the Magonia connection and that Therese Plummer has narrated quite a few YA titles on my TBR list. This will definitely factor into my decision on when to get to those books. It also caused me to add a few others to my list that I hadn’t previously given much consideration. ♣︎