This Song Will Save Your Life: A Novel Paperback – April 14, 2015

This Song Will Save Your Life is a story about sixteen-year-old Elise Dembowsky. Elise is the least popular person at her high school, in fact Elise has always been the least popular girl since fourth grade.So, after her freshman year she decides to reinvent herself, to do a makeover like in the movies, it’ll be easy right? Well, after a summer long self-makeover it only takes one day at school to convince her it didn’t work at all, everyone still avoids her like the plague. What can she do? She ends up roaming the streets at night after her family has gone to bed, and one night she stumbles onto a person who is actually friendly towards her. Her new friend helps her get into a late-night disco party in a warehouse even though she is under age. Can she reinvent herself in this new environment where no one knows her? Can she finally make a few friends and feel normal?This book is an excellent study in character development. Elise faces obstacles and struggles at every level. Her school, her home family life where her parents are divorced, her mom is remarried and she has two younger half siblings. Each of these struggles tell us more about Elise. She’s a hard worker, she doesn’t want to give up, even when faced with difficult situations and also she’s smart and not shy about trying to learn new things on her own. (Is that self-reliance?)From the first page the voice of Elise and her inner thoughts comes through with a strength and teen angst I have rarely seen in recent young adult literature. Her voice remains constant and unwavering full of angst and trepidation even when all seems to be lost. At times the voice of Elise turns to second person, addressing the reader directly as on the first page, “YOU THINK IT’S SO EASY TO CHANGE YOURSELF.” This voice in second person really grabs the reader.Time after time Elise is smacked with a new reality, a new rule she didn’t understand and she doesn’t give up. Family rules, social rules, rules of being a friend, will she ever find her way through the endless maze of rules? It’s like a roller coaster ride!Most of all it’s the author’s weaving of the struggles and fears Elise faces, her innocence, and her new understanding as she confronts each barrier that makes Elise an unforgettable character and this story a great book.This Song Will Save Your Life is a great study in character development and the vocalization of the inner teen voice of angst and uncertainty.

In high school, I was very similar to Elise. I was the weird, quiet girl in the back who read novels when she was supposed to be studying, and got in trouble for crocheting in class. I spent my lunches in the library most days. I didn't *want* to be alone, though.I desperately wanted to fit in, to be accepted, to belong. I dreamt of having a gaggle of girlfriends to gossip with over lunch and a boyfriend to cuddle and kiss and go on fun dates with. So from the first page of This Song Will Save Your Life, I felt like I was looking into a mirror to my past, and it definitely hurt.Unlike Elise, I did manage to keep one friend in high school, and I truly believe that we saved each other from a very dark fate. Elise doesn't even have that, however. Everyone picks on her, hates her, and basically treats her like s***. She basically spends the summer studying how to fit in--what kind of clothes to wear, what celebrities the cool girls talk about, how to do her hair and makeup "the right way". It backfires the first day back to school--she realizes that by trying to study up on what cool kids do, she's already turned herself into the awkward outsider once again. So after an awful lunch with the so-called "nice girls" who still exclude her and leave her to pick up all their trash, she decides to go home and kill herself.This first scene really resonated with me. A lot of the time, there isn't one big thing that makes someone want to die. It's all the little things, the ones that build and build on each other until that last straw--the one that breaks the camel's back, so to speak--finally pushes you over the edge. I truly felt for Elise. To me, she felt more like a real teen than alot of other novels I've read lately. I just wanted to reach in and give her a hug.I loved her transformation over the course of the book. Her love of music and DJing is what helps her open up and finally make some friends that love her for who she really is, not who she's pretending to be.There were a couple things that bugged me--I didn't like the way she treated her dad or her little sister-- but they still seemed like a true teen reaction to me. Also, I had a hard time believing a girl so young was able to get in to Start without once showing her ID. I also didn't care for Char much, but I think that was intentional. However, none of that took away from my enjoyment of the story and watching Elise finally embrace who she is.This Song Will Save Your Life is a powerful novel, and I think it could give hope to those out there like me, the ones who've always felt like they didn't quite belong.