‘The night Kate Harker decided to burn down the school chapel, she wasn’t angry or drunk. She was desperate. Burning down the church was really a last resort; she’d already broken a girl’s nose, smoked in the dormitories, cheated on her first exam, and verbally harassed three of the nuns. But no matter what she did, St Agnes Academy kept forgiving her. That was the problem with Catholic schools. They saw her as someone to be saved.’

Kate Harker and August Flynn are heirs to a divided city, a dark metropolis where violence breeds monsters. Kate wants to be as ruthless as her father, who keeps the monsters in check through an iron rule, while August wants nothing more than to be human, though his curse is to be what humans fear. With the truce that keeps the city at peace rapidly crumbling, an assassination attempt forces Kate and August into a tenuous alliance.

I first discovered fantasy powerhouse V.E. Schwab last year when I finally gave in to the hype and read A Darker Shade of Magic. Since then, I’ve been hooked on Schwab’s unique brand of fantasy. This Savage Song is the first in a new trilogy, one that is sure to gain Schwab a whole new legion of fans.

Schwab has a very distinctive writing style. Beautiful images and complicated metaphors abound, and she delights in placing her characters in violent confrontations with one another. Hers is a very urban style of fantasy; characters race through crumbling city streets and live in Orwellian buildings where their every move is watched. I can imagine many a teenager falling in love with this world and becoming engrossed with its world and characters.

In Kate and August, Schwab has created two real and relatable characters. The determinedly unromantic relationship between them is refreshing in YA fiction and the struggles they undergo, though firmly rooted in a fantasy world, will nevertheless resonate with many readers.

By now Schwab has become a master world-builder, knowing when to reveal more about her fantasy world and when to hold back to keep you intrigued. It is a little frustrating that she holds off on some details until the last third of the book, but it’s worth it when the curtain is finally drawn back. For such a short book (in fantasy terms, 400 pages is nothing) she does a remarkable job of bringing this world to life without any info-dumping whatsoever.

Being a YA book that deals with a dystopian city, there are times when the plot unfortunately slips into cliché. The ‘twist’ at the end was also about as obvious as they come, which was a shame because it could easily have been played with more subtlety.

The book has a satisfying ending, leaving you with just enough tantalising glimpses of what is to come to ensure that you’ll want to come back for the next instalment. I will be amongst those eagerly waiting for books two and three in the Monsters of Verity trilogy.

If you’ve never read anything by Schwab before, I would recommend first checking out A Darker Shade of Magic or Vicious. Then, once your appetite for her unique writing style has been awakened, return to Schwab for This Savage Song.

Many thanks to Titan for my review copy.