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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #328

On The Blog Recently

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• Historical Fiction Book Recommendations
• March 2023 Book Releases

In My Reading Life

Last week, I reread This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab. This is still my least-favorite Schwab novel, but I had fun rereading it.

This Savage Song takes place in a world where violence breeds literal monsters. August Flynn is one of those monsters, but he doesn’t want to be. He hides his monstrous tendencies and tries to blend in with the humans. Kate Harker is a human who wants to be a monster. She thinks if she can be horrible enough, she’ll win the approval of her violent father. When the city’s monsters rise up and try to seize control, Kate and August are forced to flee. Can they get along well enough to survive?

Victoria Schwab’s writing style always pulls me into her books and makes them hard to put down. It’s descriptive, but it’s not dense. Once the action gets going, the plot moves at breakneck speed. I can get lost in Schwab’s worlds and read hundreds of pages without noticing that hours have passed. This Savage Song is a pretty big book, but I finished most of it in a day.

The best part of this story? No romance! Kate and August are just frenemies. That might change in the sequel, but it’s refreshing to read about a boy/girl friendship. Young adult literature needs more of those. Not every deadly situation has to lead to true love.

Just like with Schwab’s other books, the world-building in this one is murky. I never got a clear picture of the city’s layout or fully understood what monsters can/can’t do. For example, metal is supposed to keep monsters away, but they’re around metal all the time. It doesn’t seem to deter them. Violence is supposed to breed monsters, but does “violence” only mean killing? The characters are constantly slamming each other against walls, and that doesn’t create monsters (I don’t think?). I spent chunks of the book feeling mildly confused about the world.

Finally, the main characters are similar to the main characters in Schwab’s other novels. I probably shouldn’t complain because I like the characters, but I'm complaining. The girl is a violent badass; the boy is sweet and sensitive. I’ve seen this before.

Those are small complaints. I'm excited to read the sequel and finish this duology.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy recently:

1. Kit-Kat ice cream!
2. I'm glad I joined a book club. I don't love the book we're reading, but it's fun to hang out with bookish people for a few hours a week.
3. I found an MTV show called Help! I'm Stuck In A Secret Relationship! That show has been sucking up all my free time. It's a bit like Catfish. One of the partners in a relationship is keeping the other hidden from their friends and family. The hosts try to figure out why. I'm shocked at the variety of reasons why people keep their relationships a secret. It seems like a lot of work.
4. I wrote some fiction. I quit writing fiction in 2019, but I had a stress nightmare a few weeks ago and woke up thinking, That nightmare would make a nice children's story. So, I wrote it. Writing fiction is extremely stressful, but I did it!
5. I saw a fox and some prairie dogs outside of a dog groomer. They were staring at each other.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!