Sunday 22 May 2016

Book Review; This Savage Song - V.E Schwab (Spoiler Free)

14th May to 20th May
Paperback

I was sent this by the publisher (Titan Books) to review, the novel will be released 7th June. All the opinions are honest and my own.

I am very new to V.E Schwab's writing, reading my first book by her in December last year, but I have fallen hard for her writing style. The 3 books I've read by her so far (Vicious, ADSoM and now this one) speak to everything I love as a reader!

If you have read any of the books I listed above by her before and loved them you will not be disappointed by this first in a new series. If you haven't read anything by her before and you're thinking of picking this one up don't hesitate. V.E Schwab is the queen of world building, writing brilliant protagonists and keeping the pacing of her novels fast. Because I loved this book so much and my mind is still well and truly blown from finishing it I might not be able to write my thoughts down very clearly so here's a very short list of just some of the things I adored about this book before I dive into some of things I loved the most.
- Brilliantly written and well developed protagonists
- Fast paced plot
- Warring families
- Corrupt side characters
- No Romance (YAY!)
- Fantastic world building
- Brilliant Ending (not too much of a cliff hanger but enough to make me want the next book now!)
- Consistently interesting and thought provoking throughout

There are so many refreshing things about this novel. For one thing there is no romance! I love this so much I feel like all YA books have romance thrown in to show how desirable or special the protagonists are but I think this is unnecessary. Also when the characters are in situations where they are trying to work out how to survive I feel like it's unrealistic that they are lovingly gazing at their companion and gushing over their perfection. I also love that both protagonists are flawed in their own ways, they are both very much anti-heroes and I love to read characters like Kate and August. They are both very different and really well fleshed out, they develop really well throughout the book and the way they bounce off each other conversationally is so much fun to read. The side characters are really well written too and they really add to the story and the concepts instead of just being there for the sake of filling space. I like that all the characters don't follow the usual YA trope of just accepting things without explanation, they are all very much suspicious and to some degree cautious as well as calculating and logical.

The book is very much character driven and I love that but the plot is by no means lacking because of this. The thing I love most about the plot is that the world and other information is dropped in casually throughout instead of massive paragraphs of info dumping. Sometimes this can be a negative for me for example when information is only mentioned when it becomes relevant to situations and I'm left thinking "Oh well that's convenient" but this perfectly drops all the information you need in before you need to know it and without you even realising it would be necessary. The pacing is consistent and fast throughout and I was constantly wanting to pick it up and it drove me a little crazy when I was at work and couldn't just curl up with it.

I think it's pretty obvious that overall I loved this book! I'm aware this review is full of rambling and a little incoherent but the book blew me away so much I couldn't quite get my thoughts out in a structured way. I will most likely do another review nearer the release date when I have had chance to calm down a little :)

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