!!! Spoiler and content warnings for this entire review. Plot details are discussed/revealed, and there is talk of sexual assault/rape, racial slurs, and violence.

There are 3 main things I really want to say about this book, the first bulletpoint being a general critique and the following two specific problems with the content.

*First and most simply: the plot of "The Savage Kind" ultimately becomes so thoroughly and utterly convoluted that you will either want a corkboard with red string to pin together all the ridiculous layers, or, like me, you'll just gape at the wild selections that Copenhaver decides to whip out and toss into this novel like a contrived-plot-point stew, wondering how on earth it all keeps getting messier. The thought of writing down all the ridiculousness that happens makes my head spin, but essentially every single characters gets woven together in the most outlandish ways, and Copenhaver tries to stuff EVERYTHING into the plot. By everything I mean that he tries to either include or offer a commentary on everything including but not limited to:

a convoluted adoption plot; cheating spouses; filicide; spies; communism; the FBI including J. Edgar Hoover at a Halloween party; unknown parentage; multiple murders in the same family in the space of a couple months; blackmail; the political landscape of 1950s America; poison (lots); a convenient hidden diary that Has All The Answers; a dead mother; teenage girls exploring their queer and racial identities; a traumatic backstory of a girl being locked in a cellar filled with cats that gave her permanent scars all over her body (that last one still is unclear to me).

Listen, I was sucked in by the first third of this book. The prologue alone is beautiful and had me so hooked I knew I was going to binge the book in a matter of days. The first bit is honestly wonderful, and I was convinced I was reading a new favorite book. But around page 120 things start to spiral and never get back on track. What starts as a dark academia-style murder mystery turns into a hodgepodge of disconnected ideas and unbelievable coincidences. Ultimately there is so little room left for suspension of disbelief.

*Second: there is an extremely disturbing scene where Philippa reflects on a rape she witnessed. This event has weighed on her for most of the book, believing the woman being raped was a beloved teacher and friend of hers. She then learns it was someone else, but then has a "realization" that is described as such:

"Suddenly, I understood. I didn't try to stop Halo because I didn't WANT to stop him. I wanted Miss Martins to be reaching out, to be groping for me, to need me. I wanted her to be wounded by him, to hate him, and to turn to me."

Personally, I found this not only to be highly offensive but also so SO concerning. Philippa is a young woman who is in the process of exploring and coming to terms with her queerness. Throughout the book, she and Judy are both learning what it means to be WLW, and what this means for them both as individuals as well as to each other. To have this ongoing exploration of being a queer woman so tightly woven to this traumatic scene where Phillipa wishes this continued sexual assault on another woman in order to drive her closer to her feels like a gross, manipulative, and voyeuristic portrayal of the WLW experience. It couples queerness with violence in a way that is absolutely heartbreaking to read.

*Third and final concerning point: the use of the n-word. I understand that this is historical fiction and during the era this book takes place (1940s Washington, DC) that word was more broadly used; however, when reading this I kept thinking of an article I read by Delta McKenzie where she writes, "Historical fiction can be accurate without using words that dredge up years of trauma and suffering. Historical Fiction can be accurate without the shock and drama that will come from an author supposedly pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable." McKenzie then addresses authors using these slurs and asks,"Is your historical accuracy worth my degradation?" (link to article: https://aninjusticemag.com/racism-and-the-use-of-the-n-word-in-historical-fictio...

It feels especially troublesome encountering this word when it's written in 2022 by a White author. The other part of this is that one of the characters discovers that she is half-Black (and is even referred to by a different slur) and this whole discovery is written, as best as I can tell, for shock value purposes only. It's saved until near the end of the book, revealed in a shady meeting, and used as a threat of blackmail.

Copenhaver then takes this a step further and writes several various chunks where he has this character contemplate on what this means for her, how she feels her identity has changed, etc. Again, it seems VERY uncomfortable and unnecessary to have a White author to write the experience of a teenager who is coming to terms with the Black half of her identity. Coupled with the shock value aspect, I truly don't believe it adds anything to the narrative, and it takes the space away from actual biracial authors writing with authentic experiences on the matter (here's an article from ElectricLit with 8 books exploring biracial identity https://electricliterature.com/8-books-that-explore-what-it-means-to-be-biracial... ).

All in all, just massively and completely disappointed in this book. There is no way I would recommend it to anyone else. "The Savage Kind" leaves a foul taste in its wake, and I wish it didn't exist. ( )

It is 1948 and seventeen-year-old Philippa Watson has just moved to Washington, D.C. where her father, a Navy J.A.G., has been reassigned. New to her school, she is warned to stay away from Judy Peabody by a prissy bible toting student. It is rumored that Judy drops bricks on cats. Oddly enough, this draws Philippa closer to Judy, rather than keeping her distance.
It turns out that they have much in common: Philippa misses her mother who died almost a decade earlier and Judy has been adopted by the Peabodys to literally replace their daughter, Jackie, who was murdered a half dozen years before. Additionally, they both adore their English teacher, Ms. Martins.

When Philippa goes to Ms. Martins’ house to return a book loaned to her, she walks in on a half-naked man having sex with Ms. Martins. She has no idea, though, what it was: consensual, rape? The next day, she and Judy observe Ms. Martins arguing with class bully, Cleve Closs, the cause of the argument, unknown. When Closs’ dead body is found by local picnickers soon after and Ms. Martins disappears in the wind, the girls take it upon themselves to investigate. Closs’ murder purportedly has similarities to Jackie Peabody’s murder, thus dredging up old wounds.

To say they are in way over their heads is an understatement. Yet, they seem to make progress while at the same time causing grief, pain and danger to many left in their wake.
The book is told in 1963 by one of the girls (which one is kept secret) by reprinting the girls’ diary entries from the time.

The Savage Kind has been getting great reviews and has already been declared a classic. While paying homage to the pulp mysteries of its era, it is more literary than the average mystery. One reviewer said “The Savage Kind makes the case for the crime novel as being high art, despite its pulpy origins…It also touches on African American rights as well as queer ones and, being set in the late 1940s in a politicized environment, talks about the start of the Cold War as well. Just about everything fires on all cylinders in this novel.” Another reviewer said, “If you’re looking for brains amongst the brawn of crime fiction, this is the book for you.”

The Savage Kind is perfect for fans of Thomas Cook’s The Chatham School Affair, a book that I should reread and report on. Both evoke the feeling that you are reading the book through a fog. It is also for fans of Megan Abbott whose fiction is also told through the eyes of adolescent girls. ( )