Name: This Song Will Save Your Life
Rating: 3.876543209876543 (81 reviews)
ISBN: 9780374351380

Leila Sales

Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a disc jockey.

This Song Will Save Your Life

Kritika Narula

A few glitches here and there notwithstanding, THIS BOOK WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.

A powerful coming-of-age story about an outsider who finds herself when she enters the underground music scene. Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski's strong suit. All throughout her life, she's been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing. Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, Leila Sales' This Song Will Save Your Life powerful young adult coming of age novel is an exuberant story about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together. “Heartbreaking, heartfelt, and eventually heart-lifting, this YA novel is one I won’t soon forget. If you’re a music junkie who also loves YA, read it alongside Len Vlahos’s The Scar Boys or Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park.” —Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop “Pulsates with hope for all the misfits.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Readers will be fascinated and touched by the first-person voice because of what is roiling beneath it. . . . Teens will connect with [Elise] viscerally.” —Booklist, starred review “Sales gets everything right.” —MTV.com A YALSA Best Book for Young Adults A BuzzFeed Best YA Book of the Year A CCBC Choice

Macy Johnson

Okay so it's possible I just really like books about music... but I did like this. Fun fact: I almost gave it away! Glad I didn't!

Likes:
-It was different and niche! DJing is a very cool topic to learn about; no one really writes about it.
-The characters were kind of just what they were; the author didn't try to make everyone likable all the time, and Elise was darkly witty and relatable in the way that she sets big goals for herself. 
-I appreciated that the parents weren't blamed for Elise's mistakes and that they reacted in a fairly reasonable way in the end, because parental overreactions very much bug me. It felt like a realistic portrayal of those relationships. 
-No one person was The Enemy. Everyone had flaws.
-Elise wasn't over sexualized, despite my expectations! Yay for that.
-Her dad and the bat though 😱 icon
-I LOVE BOOKS WITH PLAYLISTS SO FREAKING MUCH AND DID I MENTION THE MUSIC REFERENCES?

Dislikes:
-Steve.
-Because the part at the end with him?? So uncalled for!! And then everything was just fine?? 
-A bit angsty sometimes.
-Not necessarily a dislike because it's pretty positive and unproblematic, but it seemed weird to me that the club was so very tame? 
-The castle 😭😭😭 

Suicide trigger warning, for anyone seriously affected by that.

Victoria

"You think it’s so easy to change yourself. You think it’s so easy, but it’s not. True, things don’t stay the same forever: couches are replaced, boys leave, you discover a song, your body becomes forever scarred. And with each of these moments you change and change again, your true self spinning, shifting positions—but always at last it returns to you, like a dancer on the floor. Because throughout it all, you are still, always, you: beautiful and bruised, known and unknowable. And isn’t that—just you—enough?"

If you're looking for a cheesy teen romance, then this book isn't the one for you. This Song will Save Your Life is a coming-of-age tale about Elise and her journey to overcoming the struggles of an unpopular, uncool high school teen to finally figuring out who she is and who she wants to be. 

This was a pretty easy read and it was good for the most part but it just seemed a little too whiny for my liking.

The song references, though, were great and I'm pretty stoked about that. I mean, hello, The Cure was mentioned several times!

But at the end of the day, there are better books out there.

It is scary how much I can relate to the main character, but also calming to know that in some ways I am not alone. I compelling read with a simple plot and a hopeful ending.

“Sometimes people think they know you. They know a few facts about you, and they piece you together in a way that makes sense to them. And if you don't know yourself very well, you might even believe that they are right. But the truth is, that isn't you. That isn't you at all.”

I get it. I totally do. That's what really hit me as I read this book. Everyone feels left out and unwanted, judged and even hated. What I don't get is why she would want to kill herself over it. I mean, yes, she felt sad and depressed, and I accept that people want to end their lives when they feel that way, but I just feel like Elise's reason was very very very shallow and therefore, unacceptable. She wanted to commit suicide because her attempt at popularity did'nt work. She changed her style and read all the good magazines and stalked all the celebrities and listened to the Top 40, losing her personality in the process, and when she still was not popular, she therefore wanted to commit suicide and I just don't see the sense in that. But the thing is, I've never been in her shoes. 

Plus, a thousand other people are just like her out there. Probably a hundred others in the same school. Maybe not everyone has to be popular. Maybe she shouldn't judge popular people so quickly. I really think Leila Sales failed to deliver the message here. Everyone goes through this phase. Everyone get's shunned at high school. Doesn't mean you get to sneak out in the middle of the night to an underground club to feel good about yourself and solve all your problems.

And I don't mean to insult other people who felt the same way as her before, because seriously, in all innocence, I just don't get it. Popularity has never been such a HUGE issue in a third world country such as the Philippines. If you're lucky enough to get into school, then you just grab that opportunity and make the best of it, and that's your priority. I've been raised to feel that way and that's the reason why I don't get Elise's vibe. But Im willing to keep an open mind. 



I love how music was the central idea in the book, though. It gave her life meaning, something worth living for. And music really does that. That, at least, was a good concept of this book.

jess

A relatively light-hearted, if somewhat unrealistic story that's about music being uplifting. I don't know, maybe I'm just naive and they sometimes do let sixteen-year-olds into underground clubs. I really did love Elise's voice. It was unique and compelling.

Allison Garrett

I really enjoyed this book, not for it's plot or the well written characters because those were both ok. But more the story of how Elise goes through this change from depressed and how the music really does save her life. It made me think about things and people in a totally new way thanks to this book.

Jas Wang

Amy Grieve

It takes a book like this to take away self-doubt you may have about yourself. There are a lot of things that make me feel good and this book has now been added to the list because it wasn't about falling in love with the perfect boy or any other high school cliché that I normally read. This book was about accepting who and what you are no matter what others say. I recommend this book to anyone who needs a little confidence, even if was just from one shitty day because this book can make it much better.

Jennifer Merchant

Olivera Mitić

4.25/4.5

It's the book I needed in primary school to help me go through it.

Tw: suicide attempt

3.5, it's pretty unrealistic but still a cute story although I almost didnt give it a chance because the beginning pissed me off so bad. there is basically a suicide attempt, I'm not listing this as a spoiler because it's in the first 2 chapters and should have been in the description of the story. It's so abrupt and really messed me up, the rest of the story is so much better but man that is a huge shitty thing

Emily

People are who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them to be.

Every teenager can relate to at least one thing from this book. It follows the story of Elise as she tries to change and discover herself. It tackles the feeling of not fitting in, the feeling of escape, and the feeling of finding a secret part of your life that you can protect and keep from getting ruined. 

When you find a passion, or something that makes you happy, you must pursue it. Don't worry about what others have to say about being too precocious or enthusiastic; just embrace it. You won't be happy pretending to not like something you love. It's much easier to do what you love and put up with a few stares. 

In high school, it can be hard to think this way, and it is something that Elise must learn over the course of the book. She must learn that being who you are is essential. She must learn that, sometimes, when it seems like a person can be changed to fit who you want them to be, it is just as impossible for them to change as it would be for you to change. 

She must learn that

Sometimes people think they know you. They know a few facts about you, and they piece you together in a way that makes sense to them. And if you don't know yourself very well, you might even believe that they are right. But the truth is, that isn't you. That isn't you at all.

All of this takes a very long time to discover, and 

That's the problem with life. You never get enough time to stare at your ceiling and try to figure out what's going on.

This Song Will Save Your Life

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