“People are who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them to be.”This book is truly outstanding. An easy read, with amazing character development. I love that the book shows how we often only know what someone is willing to show us, and that we can be seriously mistaken in the way that we perceive someone but also in the way that we perceive the world. Elise Dembowski, soon to be fifteen, tried to change her self, but fails and has a life worse than before. One night she discovers an underground dance club which changes her life and over one night, Elise the uncool high school sophomore becomes the hottest new DJ sensation. Elise final realizes what she has always wanted: acceptance, friendship, and love, but, she has some issues outside of the club that threaten her life as a DJ. This book displays the art of music by giving a message that there are ways for people to get a backdoor out of the room that is so suffocating. Elise has a miserable life, is bullied, and anti-social, but she forgets all of that the moment she finds her talent in music. The moment she steps through the door, she discovers the path she always wished to travel. Elise learns DJing so she could escape from her dreadful life. When Elise produces music, she flies free from her life and goes to heaven, where she has the best times of her life. The Djing turns into the back door out of her life. This book also displays that love is not what you expect. What do you think love is? You probably think something that will fill your heart, but love will also cut your heart to pieces. Elise finds love but when she gets something for free without even asking that the boy has asked for a long time, Elise realizes that love is the devil. She is rejected by something she thought was an open door for everyone. The boy just dumps her when she tells him saying, “‘We’re at different stages in our lives, and we’re looking for different things.’” Leila Sales’ writing reels you in faster than fish. Although she does not use extra detail, she gives you enough to picture the scene, but leaves some space for your imagination to kick in. She uses a lot of different sentence structures: short, to the point, or long, but detailed. There is a lot of dialogue that helps you develop Elise’s profile. It is as if you are the one on both sides of the conversation. You understand why Elise is thinking and saying something, but at the same time you know why the other person is doing or saying something. Leila has a few cases of symbolism. The music being the way Elise eludes her life, or the love representing the ups and downs of life. This novel compared to other romance and school life novels, This Song Will Save Your Life is a novel that focuses more on what do people do when they are anti-social and bullied and get a new life. Other novels usually just show that there are people like this in the world and then mostly focuses on the romance life or school life, but this novel is very different. This novel has more of a development in the side life aside from school or romance. Like hobbies that you do when you have time. I would recommend this novel to those who like reality school life novels with music involvement with a touch of romance.
Do You like book This Song Will Save Your Life (2013)?
Sweet YA novel, hard to believe someone as likeable as Elise would have no friends
—jas
Super fun read. Devoured it faster than Thanksgiving pie!
—beth
I Loved this book sooooooooooo much you should read it
—Hardik
