Sunday, December 29, 2013

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales


RATING : 3.5 STARS

I've been seeing a lot people raving about This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales and that made me want to read it. I managed to snag a copy from my library although a lot of patrons placed a hold of this book. It's one of the perks of being a good friend of a librarian. I returned home with excitement to devour the story. Well, I felt the book was over-hyped for me and I was little let down after finishing the book, nevertheless Sales writing was good. Although I wasn't greatly impressed, some parts of the story punched me right in the feels and brought back memories of my past.

The story opens up with Elsie Dembowski starting her sophomore year of high school. Elsie has grown up as a different person from others. She spent the entire summer trying to change her herself-to learn all the latest bands, to get into latest fashion by trying on new clothes. It is a perfect coming-of-age novel. Elise was ignored by all in her school yet she manages to fit in a small group of friends. The one which I'm able to connect is that during my high school years I've been trying to teach myself something or other just to keep up with the people around me. Elise lives in messy family with divorced parents and she keeps shunting between her dad's and mom's place. With all these around her, she finds the real serenity in music. 

Elise stumbles upon an underground club and soon she learns to DJ. With her love for music, it has become her ideal spot. Elise meets Vicky, a carefree girl at the club and slowly their friendship grows stronger. I found the story to be little dragging until Vicky's introduction. Elise meets char, at the underground club and soon he teaches her to DJ and becomes more than a friend to her. As far as romance in this novel, is completely different from many other contemporaries.

This Song Will Save Your Life would be an emotional journey for a lot others, but to me I couldn't phrase it either as something special or run-of-the-mill contemporary, it's something in the midway of the two. If there's something I liked about this book, it definitely should be the secondary characters: Vicky and Pipa ( Vicky's friend) and their progress through the story, and then those bullies in school are utterly true.

I certainly had issues with This Song Will Save Your Life. It lacked the spark which I expect in every novel. Let me put it this way, a teen angst with the infusion of nuances in romance. Quite frankly, I felt that Elise's life was  a humdrum and reading her story, began to have somewhat soporific effect on me. Well, I still would recommend this book to Sales fans and contemporary books clique. 

6 comments:

  1. Hi, Ini! I came across your blog through goodreads, so I figured to stop by and say hello! I am now following you :)

    I actually have not heard about This Song Will Save Your Life. It sounds different, especially the love triangle you described in your review. But I do understand what you mean about the over hype. I've come across quite a few books where everyone is talking about it, but when I finally cave in to read it, it doesn't quite have the affect I thought it would.

    I might add this book to my summer reads list when I have more time to read for leisure.

    Thanks for the awesome review! Feel free to stop by my blog sometime!

    Best Wishes,
    Mia @ The Muses Circle

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  2. I've nominated you for The Liebster Award. Follow the link to see what to do next. http://lookingforelysianfields.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-liebster-award.html

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  3. I have been hearing about this book and seeing it here and there. I am not huge on books on music. A very nice review, though!

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  4. I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this book, too. What is different about the romance in this vs other contemporary stories? Enjoyed your review!

    Kasey @ thestorysanctuary.com

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  5. I'm not sure that this sounds like my kind of book, but I can relate to finding peace in music. Music can help us express the emotions we feel, even when we cannot put them into words ourselves.

    ~Sierra from Word Magic

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