“The epigraph for the book is a line from Vicious,” she says, “because I was really inspired by the concept from Vicious-the potential for humans to be monsters and vice versa. August has a different perspective on things, not least because he happens to be a monster (as are his two siblings), and it’s getting harder and harder for him to deny his real nature.Īttempting to suppress our true selves to gain approval is an age-old struggle, one that Schwab clearly delights in exploring, as Kate and August engage in verbal sparring, scary physical combat and mental and emotional gymnastics as the city threatens to fall into ruin around them. Now she’s been sent home, where she hopes to show her father she’s tough enough to earn his attention and love. Kate, an only child whose mother died when she was young, has gotten herself kicked out of six boarding schools in five years. In the meantime, the children of these two men-Kate Harker and August Flynn-have both reached an age where they want to be more like their fathers. That window’s certainly open now, and Schwab dove through it and into the dark, Gotham-esque world of Verity, a future metropolis divided by war and ruled by two very different men: Callum Harker, a ruthless crime boss, and Henry Flynn, a kind leader trying to maintain the city’s six-year truce even as Harker moves, with devious determination, to break it.Īnd there’s another problem plaguing the crime-ridden city: monsters born of violence and hungry for flesh, blood and souls. and it’s about things I’ve wanted to explore but haven’t had the window to do it.” It’s a merger of what I’ve been writing for several years as an adult author and a YA author. “All of my work has a speculative thread, and all of my work has me,” explains Schwab. Some of her works have comic-book roots, while others draw upon magic, science-fiction or fantasy tropes. Schwab, has 11 books and counting to her credit-adult, YA and middle grade novels rife with dark settings, sinister storylines and supernatural goings-on.

With an author fandom, I’ve been given more and more creative freedom to be as different and daring as I want, and my readers have been staying with me.” “If you have a book or series fandom, you get pressure to stay in your lane and do what works. “I’ve been really careful to develop an author fandom,” says Schwab during a call to her home in Nashville. Unexpected monsters haunt the latest young adult novel from Victoria Schwab, who considers This Savage Song “the strangest, darkest book I’ve ever written.” The freedom to explore this creepy new territory comes from her-and her publisher’s-trust in her readership. 'What about humans makes them so monstrous to each other and the world around them?”

This savage song by victoria schwab