[Emmygirlie]

TITLE: This Song Will Save Your Life
AUTHOR: Leila Sales
GENRE: Fiction, Young Adult (YA)
PUBLISHED: 2013
RATING: ★★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Read

Description: Elise is a girl who is even more of a misfit than your typical outcast. Torn between her divorced mom and dad, she spends a significant amount of time wandering the darkened streets of her town. In her travels, she stumbles upon a roaming dance party in a warehouse - Start. That first night, she meets people who look past her awkwardness and accept her. This glimpse into another, better world begins her process of really embracing what makes her special instead of just fading into one of the crowd.

Review: I remember two things about growing up - feeling like no one liked me or understood me and the way it felt when I found that place where I belonged. The Place Where I Belonged was many different places - a library, a computer cluster, my own bedroom curled up and reading. One of the places I briefly belonged was a dive bar where you tasted clove cigarettes and old beer when you walked in. I wore all black and too much eyeliner and danced and sang along to bands I thought made me unique.

I think that's why I connected so strongly to this book - Elise is really withdrawn and tries so very hard to be one of the crowd, no one special. The first few chapters are heartbreaking and probably familiar to some of us - studying people, trying to fit in, above all, just wanting to be normal.

When Elise begins to learn how to DJ at Start, when she develops real relationships with the girls who drew her in, you learn about more than just girlie things or obscure bands. You've got a window into the DJ booth and you're suddenly sitting next to the cool girls across the room that have helped you pick out a thrift store dress which makes you hipper than everyone else.

The reason you'll keep reading is because Elise never falls into the cooler than thou mindset, never becomes that unlovable Cool Girl instead of simply an improved version of who she is. She learns about friends and boys and Leila Sales tells the story with a tenderness and truth that gives us all hope.

"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 through it all, you are still, always YOU: beautiful and bruised, known and unknowable. And isn’t that – just you – enough?"

I loved Elise’s two families, loved the salvation she found and cheered for (and cried at) the unique resolution. There may not be a happily ever after, depending on the way you view the ending, but rest assured that there IS a resolution, which has become a bit of a holy grail in the Young Adult section.

This book is suited for anyone who has ever wanted to be someone else, young or old. There is some mature content, some relationship content and a young lady who ends up breaking many rules. There's a girl power element that would be encouraging to teenagers, but also to anyone who cheers on someone who makes her own decisions, difficult or not.

I found this to be an intensely personal story. I miss dancing and begging the DJ to play songs I wanted to hear. This Song Will Save Your Life made me long to be back there and be even more a part of it than I was. I could almost hear Blur and Depeche Mode and The Smiths playing my soundtrack.

The fact that I remembered belonging again for a few hours along with everything else earns This Song will Save Your Life five stars and a highly recommend from me.