ARC Review: This Song Will Save Your Life

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
5/5 stars
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR, 2013
274 pages
YA Contemporary
Scheduled to release September 17

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had seen a lot of rave reviews of this book before I picked it up for myself but I hadn't read them too closely, to preserve some surprises for myself and to hopefully avoid having it become overhyped for me. At the least I figured I'd enjoy it because I liked Sales' previous books, Mostly Good Girls and Past Perfect, in particular because of their portrayal of female friendships over romance. Well, way to go instincts. Though it took a few chapters, I ended up being completely captivated by this book and experiencing a very powerful emotional connection to it.

Main character Elise has never seemed to fit in-being too precocious, too consumed with topics her peers didn't care about, too something. While she studies the magazines and pop culture that are popular, her attempts to reach out and make friends are continually stymied. This one-hundred percent resonated with me. I was fortunately never bullied and I had a small circle of friends but I spent so much time in middle school, high school, and even college wondering if there had been some class about how to socialize that I missed somehow (the fact that I thought there would be a class to teach some skills may explain the problem somewhat.) I so bought into her isolation and pain, making this sometimes a difficult read when I over-identified but also a powerful one as I worked through some lingering feelings from that period.

Back to the story, which honestly won't seem like much as I summarize it. When Elise suffers another humiliating day at high school, she hits on the idea of killing herself. That is thwarted and her divorced parents watch over her as closely as they can to prevent a reoccurrence. But life has not improved for Elise who spends her nights wandering aimlessly before stumbling upon Start, the hottest warehouse party around and meets Vicky, Pippa, and Char; the latter introduces her to DJ-ing, exploiting her vast knowledge of music and filling Elise's life with something she unabashedly adores and excels at. He is also the love interest but true to Sales' style (as I've observed), he does not take over the entire book or Elise's world; he is more an object of physical attraction, a brief stopping point in her life as Elise goes on to bigger and better.

Far more intriguing is Vicky, a musician whose friendship and cheering on of Elise were excellent to read. Elise also does manage to make two friends at school who, yes, are genuine friends she realizes as the story progresses. Sally and Chava receive a lot of scorn from Elise at the start but they stick by her and I appreciated that they were good people at the core.

Overall: I just adored this book. Though I might quibble with Elise's high and mighty opinion about what constitutes good music (I suspect she'd turn her nose up in disgust at my playlists and I do resent music snobs), I am in mad love with this book and plan to push it on several other people in the hopes that they experience the magic I felt.

Other Opinions:
Good Books and Good Wine
I Swim For Oceans
Inspiring Insomnia
Paranormal Indulgence
Reading Teen
The Flyleaf Review-features playlists!

Past Perfect

Past Perfect by Leila Sales
Simon Pulse, 2011
303 pages
YA; Contemporary
4/5 stars

Source: Received an e-ARC through Simon & Schuster's GalleyGrab program.

I largely enjoyed Sales' debut novel Mostly Good Girls for its focus on female friendships, so important to me and others during our teen years and yet something that is often overshadowed by the romantic elements in YA novels. And again I thought that was an area of strength in this book as well as the history elements and analysis and the humor.

I mean this book was hilarious! In just the first two chapters, I laughed out loud so many times and the humor continued throughout. Admittedly not everything was hilarious as main character Chelsea makes fun of people who care about historical accuracy-they are not losers. They are heroes fighting a never-ending battle against oversimplification and misunderstandings of our history! Moving on though, the plot is that Chelsea is a re-enactor at a Colonial Times site across the street from a Civil War site. There is an ongoing battle against them waged by the teenagers who work at each site. Additionally Chelsea's ex-boyfriend who she kind of wishes was still her boyfriend is around.

Then there was the friendship with Chelsea boring her friend with incessant reminisces about her ex-boyfriend, hiding things from her, and generally sucking. Happily Fiona is the bigger person and forgives Chelsea for her sucking. They manage to have some good times, whether plotting against their rivals at the Civil War site, test-tasting ice cream, or just laughing together and being silly.

The big weakness for me was one aspect of Chelsea's character and then the budding romance. Chelsea was so into Ezra that she was willing to overlook his flaws (which he most definitely has) and moped almost all the time that they were broken up. She tried to keep getting his attention and this drove me crazy. I just wanted her to get over it. However the new romance didn't really thrill me either. I loved that the guy worked at the Civil War park (btw, Colonial Times > Civil War; yes they had Lincoln but founding America and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come out on top) but I didn't think much of him. So I guess the other parts were stronger for me than the romance.

Overall: A really funny look with some surprisingly deep thoughts on history and memory-on a macro and micro level.

Mostly Good Girls

Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales
Simon Pulse, 2010
347 pages
YA; Contemporary
4/5 stars

Source: Library

So I just looked up the publication info for this post but I'm really not surprised to see that it comes from Simon Pulse, an imprint that I associate with very funny conversational prose about contemporary high school experiences from a female point of view.  And I love that!

Violet and her best friend Katie are undergoing their junior year at their exclusive expensive private girls school.  Violet is shooting for the best year ever: in academics, in the literary journal she edits, in their friendship, and in boys, especially the dreamy Scott Walsh who both girls like.  But things keep throwing that off.  Katie gets a perfect score on the PSATs but doesn't tell Violet; Scott has a new girlfriend; the literary journal receives sub-par submissions.  But it's Katie's rapid distancing from Violet that has her most flustered.

I really liked that most of this book focused on the friendship instead of boys.  Yes, both girls like Scott but both girls also prioritize their friendship and this results in many fun passages.  Watching them grow apart as Katie acted in inexplicable ways to Violet was heartbreaking but I'm glad that they fought for their friendship and didn't end up estranged.

Besides the friendship, there is an examination of school politics where every girl is in competition with everyone else but needs to act friendly and as inoffensively as possible.  I ended up thinking about that quite a bit especially because I attended a women's college and some of the same issues are present.  How do women interact in such an environment? What kinds of expectations and friendships arise?  Some surprisingly depth for what I had anticipated would be just a quick fun read.