Review: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Title: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release Date: September 17th, 2013

Genres: Contemporary, Drama

Medium: Hardcover, Received for Review (Thanks Bauer Teen!)

This novel was great. It started out slow, but once you really got into it, it became emotional, dramatic, and poignant. Perfect for any lover of contemporary, especially those who enjoy stories of normal teens exceeding expectations and overcoming bullying. It is very thoughtful and deeply written, creating a twisting plot. This novel features a girl who is constantly bullied and made into an outcast after she attempts suicide, but soon finds out she has a hidden talent as an underground DJ. Her love and passion for music creates a road to self-discovery and make herself into what she has always wished for: to be wanted. 

The characters in this story were defined and complicated. They each had great backstories and changes within themselves happening with each word. Dynamic and weaved into a web of emotional ties and acts of betrayal, these characters hooked you from the moment you met them. The reader is instantly grabbed by Elise's life and story. She starts out as a lonely friendless person, but soon becomes so much more. Her love interest has a history and her two best friends have complicated back stories, and all of these relations have an impact on her. Acts of betrayal, friendship, romance, and standing up for yourself all come together in this novel of a girl's firsts in life.

The writing was spot on. It matched the tone of the novel perfectly, and flowed with such ease, you found yourself flying through the pages. It caught you off guard and made it impossible to stop reading. Sales wrote such a complicated novel with dynamic characters into a simple and easy to read way, it's hard to believe how she did it. Aside from the slow beginning as you built up to the real story, it was flawless. The subject of outcast-loner-girl-turned-DJ is an interesting topic to explore, and was thoroughly done in this work of fiction. I have never read or even seen a novel focused around a DJ, so this was a great first for me as well. It's creative and fun, while serious at the same time. I definitely enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys John Green-esqe novels of dramatic contemporary. Amazing.