This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales: Book review
Book title/ Author: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Publisher/ Year: October 10th 2013 Macmillan Children's
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Pages: 288
Source/ Format: Paperback Bought with my own money
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
*This review may contain spoilers!*
Synopsis
All her life, Elise Dembowski has been an outsider. Starting a new school, she dreams of fitting in at last - but when her best attempts at popularity fail, she almost gives up. Then she stumbles upon a secret warehouse party. There, at night, Elise can be a different person, making real friends, falling in love for the first time, and finding her true passion - DJ'ing. But when her real and secret lives collide, she has to make a decision once and for all: just who is the real Elise?
My review
I love books with powerful first sentences and this book certainly had one. It just grabbed me and straight away pulled me into the world of Elise Dembowski and her friends.
Elise had some pretty powerful opinions that shock you at first, but then immediately
afterwards she asks you if she's being extreme, and I really liked that. She knows that what she's saying may sound ridiculous, yet she can't help but say it. Reading from Elise's perspective was really enjoyable, and Leila Sales' writing style made it easy to connect with her.
She was a bit quick to judge people and could be considered over the top with her reactions, but I think that made her realistic. She came across as quite naive, but that stays true to the storyline of her not ever having proper friends or a social life. Not every protagonist you come across is going to be likeable and kind; sometimes they might be slightly irritating but that makes the story more believable - not everyone you meet day-to-day is going to be a nice person.
I completely fangirled over the music in this book - it's like they had a nose around my brain and picked out some of my favourite songs of all time. The music in this book really made it for me and there was only one bad thing about this book that made me drop my rating from a 5 to a 4.5. This was the fact that Char was kind of a jerk and led both Elise and Pippa on and I really wanted to like him, but I just couldn't.
There is no doubt about it that Elise had a lot of flaws, but I actually really enjoyed that part of her. She accepted that she had made mistakes but she didn't let anyone bring her down and she didn't take anything away from herself because she knew what she deserved to have.
This book was very nearly a 5-star read for me, and I would recommend it to anyone that appreciates good music and has a love for contemporary YA.
Izzy
Elise had some pretty powerful opinions that shock you at first, but then immediately
afterwards she asks you if she's being extreme, and I really liked that. She knows that what she's saying may sound ridiculous, yet she can't help but say it. Reading from Elise's perspective was really enjoyable, and Leila Sales' writing style made it easy to connect with her.
She was a bit quick to judge people and could be considered over the top with her reactions, but I think that made her realistic. She came across as quite naive, but that stays true to the storyline of her not ever having proper friends or a social life. Not every protagonist you come across is going to be likeable and kind; sometimes they might be slightly irritating but that makes the story more believable - not everyone you meet day-to-day is going to be a nice person.
I completely fangirled over the music in this book - it's like they had a nose around my brain and picked out some of my favourite songs of all time. The music in this book really made it for me and there was only one bad thing about this book that made me drop my rating from a 5 to a 4.5. This was the fact that Char was kind of a jerk and led both Elise and Pippa on and I really wanted to like him, but I just couldn't.
There is no doubt about it that Elise had a lot of flaws, but I actually really enjoyed that part of her. She accepted that she had made mistakes but she didn't let anyone bring her down and she didn't take anything away from herself because she knew what she deserved to have.
This book was very nearly a 5-star read for me, and I would recommend it to anyone that appreciates good music and has a love for contemporary YA.
Izzy
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