Audiobook Review – This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, Book 1) by Victoria Schwab, Narrated by Therese Plummer (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN-13 : 978-0358164081
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Chosen Ones series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America. He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice—catastrophic events known as Drains—leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives. Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.

After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal . . . for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?

Of the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD—and her huge attitude problem—but really, she’s hiding secrets from them . . . secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.

On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One’s defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One’s ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold—bigger than the world itself.

And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give.”

Series Info/Source: I borrowed this audiobook through Audible Plus. This is the first book in the Monsters of Verity duology.

Story (3/5): This was fine but definitely didn’t blow me away. The concept is interesting, people create real actual monsters with their evil acts and this has led (somewhat) to the collapse of society. However, I have a huge issue that the history and concept are never well explained and filled out. The whole “monsters being created” thing sounded really cool, except for then it wasn’t.

There are only three types of monsters and they are all very typical; you didn’t get much explanation for why there are only three types and why they formed as one of those three types. I expected a lot more creativity around this and a lot more variety. In the end it was more of just two factions in the city duking it out for control of the city’s people.

Characters (3/5): This is a very character driven novel but I never really liked the characters much. They don’t have a lot of depth and don’t really grow or change over the course of the story.

Setting (3/5): The city of Verity should be really awesome with its divided layout and monstrous inhabitants. However, the setting was never well built out and just seemed like any other city with maybe a few more creepy people/monsters around. You do hear a bit about cities outside of Verity but in general the setting and world-building here are pretty thin.

Writing Style (3/5): The book is decently written but in the end I found the whole thing fairly pedestrian. I didn’t absolutely hate it but I won’t be continuing with the series. The world-building is okay, the characters aren’t all that likable, and things weren’t very well built out. In general Scwab has been very hit or miss for me. I really love her Cassidy Blake series but thought “Vicious” was only so-so. I have not read her Shades of Magic series yet.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but not great. Unfortunately for this book I read it in between a lot of other really amazing novels. Everything about this felt a bit weak to me…the world, the characters, the story. I don’t plan on finishing up this duology.