This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

I picked up Leila Sales' This Song Will Save Your Life based on absolutely glowing reviews on Goodreads and on some the young adult book blogs I follow. Most of the reviews I saw praised this novel for its important message and emotional story. People didn't just like this book, they loved it. As a result, I went into reading it with very high hopes.

The first few chapters intrigued me, but as time went on and I got further and further into the story, I realized that this was destined to be one of those times where my opinion is different from the mainstream. I couldn't connect with this novel, and I'm having trouble understanding why so many people love it so much.

One of my biggest issues with it was the plot. It revolves around Elise Dembowski, a sixteen year old with a passion for music. At the beginning of the novel, she explains that she's always been considered "uncool" at her school and struggles to make friends. She is often the victim of bullying and cruel pranks. Determined to change her image, she spends the summer before her freshman year of high school trying to learn how to fit in. She studies up on celebrities and fashion trends and buys trendy new clothes. Unfortunately, her efforts don't yield the results she was looking for. Her first day of high school is no different than any other day. Disappointed and feeling doomed to a life of being ignored and insulted, Elise goes home and makes a halfhearted suicide attempt.

The story flashes forward at this point to her sophomore year. Elise is no longer suicidal, but still miserable with her life at school. She often sneaks out of her house spends all night walking alone through her city, listening to music and trying to clear her head. On one of these walks, she stumbles across an underground dance party at a club called Start. She meets two strangers outside that help her get in, even though she is underage. It is here that she discovers what will become her new passion, DJing.

Under the mentoring of Char, the club's nineteen-year-old resident DJ, Elise begins learning how to play music to the crowd. She has a natural talent for it, and before long, she is sneaking out of her house a few times a week to guest DJ during Char's shift. She also begins a sexual relationship with him, which she must keep hidden from her family and friends due to the age difference between them. After two months of this, the owner of Start offers Elise her own shift DJing on Friday nights. Overjoyed, she accepts.

However, while Elise is happy with her life at Start and with Char, she is still struggling socially in school. Someone has started up a fake blog pretending to be her and is saying all sorts of unkind and embarrassing things, which the other students at school delight in reading. She is also on thin ice with her father, whom she keeps ditching in order to sneak out to her DJ job. Maintaining her double life is becoming impossible, and she must figure out a way to continue nurturing her passion without getting in trouble.

While some elements of the plot were fine, so much of it was so unrealistic that it took me out of the story. The idea of a club owner offering a coveted DJ slot to an underage girl with only two months of experience is ridiculous, and probably illegal. This is all glossed over however, as if employing a sixteen year old in a nightclub without any parental permission or paperwork is normal and acceptable. Elise's relationship with Char is cringe-inducing and also probably illegal. When they meet, she is sixteen and he is a few months away from turning twenty. It made me uncomfortable to read about this young girl making out with a legal adult and spending nights at his house. Again, Sales barely acknowledges that this is a potential issue. It felt like the novel was set in an alternate universe where anything goes and nobody cares what happens.

On top of the story issues, I just couldn't connect with Elise's character. Generally speaking, coming of age stories about bullied teenagers have fairly sympathetic protagonists. Elise, however, is very difficult to like. Her attitude is terrible, she treats her family with complete disregard, and even looks down on the only girls at school who try to be friends with her as losers. She has a consistent belief that she is better than everyone around her, and the only reason she is bullied is because she is so special and talented that other people are jealous. She is actually just as guilty of self-centered stupidity as the bullies at school who give her a hard time. Her character was bizarre and I just couldn't bring myself to care too much about her situation.

On a more positive note, I did enjoy the different music mentioned throughout the story. After I finished reading, I looked on Spotify to see if anyone had created a playlist out of all the songs mentioned, and sure enough, someone had. The music is mostly older rock and some bluesy tunes. I had fun listening to it, because I hadn't heard of all the songs before.

I also thought that the book was competently written. I finished it quickly and was engaged enough to be curious about how it would end. Elise definitely had some sarcastic moments that were pretty funny too. It's just too bad that her negative character traits were so pervasive in the story.

So, in the end it turned out that This Song Will Save Your Life wasn't my cup of tea. I appear to be in the minority on that opinion, but that's okay. Different strokes for different folks and all that. At least this one was tame enough to stick in my classroom library.


Challenge Tally
TBR Challenge (previously owned): 54/60

Total Books Read in 2017: 68