This Savage Song
Victoria Schwab
4/5
Kate Harker has spent the last five years destroying things and getting kicked out of school so that her father would bring her back to him and the city he runs. She finally gets brought back into the fold, but being the daughter of a basic mafia leader isn't exactly the easiest life. August Flynn is the adopted son of Kate's father's biggest rival, he goes undercover at her school to guarantee possible leverage. The two meet and are met with a subsequent series of betrayals. Everything is up in the air and they can really only rely on each other- if that.
The first half of the book was a little boring. Very reminiscent of those books we all read in middle school that were like edgy girl goes to boarding school and meets mysterious dude only to have everything fall apart. I liked the world-building though and the whole idea of human-like monsters born from chaos and bloodshed. VE Schwab is really so good at creating universes that are close enough to contemporary to feel comfortable but far enough away that you feel like you're on an adventure.
The dichotomy of August and Kate as characters also hit really hard. This isn't really much of a romance at this point though I could definitely see it shaping up to that. But the desperation of a human girl to be a monster and a monster to be a human that created this friendship? Chef's kiss, unmatched in its execution. There aren't like underlying motivations or anything either, it's the perfect coming of age in bizarre circumstances.
So yeah, it may take you a minute to get into it but I think it's definitely worth the read. It's not on Vicious or Darker Shade level but it's still a great Schwab read.
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