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Summary
Summary
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 is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.
Author Notes
Leila Sales is the author of the novels Mostly Good Girls and Past Perfect. She grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Chicago. Much like the characters in This Song Will Save Your Life , Leila regularly stays up too late and listens to music too loud. When she's not writing, she spends her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, chocolate, and the meaning of life. But mostly chocolate. Leila lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York, and works in children's book publishing.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-A razor-sharp and honest view of a misfit trying to find her place in the world. For most of her life, Elise has tried to make friends, but nothing ever seemed to work and she always finds herself on the outside of everything. The summer before her sophomore year, she studies up on current trends and fashion in one last-ditch effort to be accepted. But when it goes horribly wrong, she attempts suicide but realizes that she isn't serious about it. When she has trouble sleeping, she goes on long walks, and one night she happens upon a hidden dance club. An avid music lover, Elise feels that she has finally found a place to fit in with the kids in the club and the DJ playing the music. But her road to acceptance and freedom isn't smooth, and through the bumps along the way she finally finds who she's meant to be. Elise is smart and funny and very relatable. Her love of music is a huge part of her story, and there are many references to bands and songs throughout, so some teens will take to this book and love it. Others might not be interested enough to follow Elise on her journey of self-acceptance.-Necia Blundy, formerly at Marlborough Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Elise has endured a lifetime of social isolation and bullying at school. Walking alone one night soon after a halfhearted suicide attempt, the 16-year-old inadvertently ends up at an underground nightclub. There, an aspiring musician befriends her, and she catches the eye of Char, a cute DJ who agrees to teach her to mix music. But as talented, driven Elise spends more nights sneaking out to learn how to DJ (and kiss Char), her double life spins out of control. Elise is a complex, well-drawn character, and it's easy to relate to her sense of feeling like an outsider ("There are so many rules that you don't know, and no matter how much you study, you can't learn them all"). Sales (Past Perfect) fills her third YA novel with honest insights about high school's cruel politics, tender conversations between Elise and her equally struggling parents, and visceral descriptions of life as a DJ: "It felt like invisible veins and arteries ran between me and every person in that room, communicating information between us instantly and noiselessly." Ages 12-up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
"You think it's so easy to change yourself. You think it's so easy, but it's not." Trust her; Elise Dembowski has tried. After a disastrous attempt to make friends her first day of sophomore year, Elise cuts herself with an X-Acto knife, a "practice" attempt at suicide. Seven months later, she's wandering alone late at night when she happens upon a weekly underground dance club called Start, a discovery that changes her life. While school hasn't improved much (someone is writing a blog about how Elise should have succeeded in killing herself), her nights at Start are filled with good friends, pulsing music, a sense of belonging -- and kissing the DJ in the DJ booth. Most importantly, Elise uncovers a talent for DJing herself, loving the power of "knowing that I alone had the ability to make people dance, the ability to make them happy." Elise's eventual triumph doesn't come easily, but she survives with a perceptive eye and a sharp sense of humor. (On being tired during the day: "School felt better when I felt out of it. It's like getting anesthetized before a surgical procedure.") Lively, authentic dialogue and a bevy of fully developed supporting characters complete this sardonic, frequently hilarious, insightful celebration of individuality. rachel l. smith (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Elise Dembowski is a chronic overachiever. Her project for sophomore year is to finally fit in. When this fails and Elise discovers that she is still the same as she's always been, she makes a desperate decision--a suicide attempt--that ostracizes her even further. After this incident, Elise takes to walking alone at night, which is how she stumbles across Start, an underground dance party. There, she meets a cast of characters who help her begin to see the light at the end of the crushingly dark and seemingly endless tunnel that is high school. Elise begins living a double life, returning each week to Start and learning to DJ. The alluring but elusive DJ Char takes her under his wing and helps her develop her talent. When a cyberbully dredges up Elise's past and begins attacking her via a fraudulent online journal, Elise's passion for DJ'ing becomes her refuge. Her secrets eventually become impossible to maintain, forcing her to come clean about who she is and who she wants to be. Elise is a remarkably self-aware character. Her journey toward acceptance--of others and of herself--is compelling. The supporting characters are equally well-developed, with the strengths and flaws of real people. Sales' narrative, rich with diverse music references, reverberates with resilience. Pulsates with hope for all the misfits. (Fiction. 14-18)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Elise Dembowski will not be unfamiliar to readers. The girl most likely to be picked on. A halfhearted suicide attempt. Broken family, no friends, no future. But then something happens. While wandering the streets one night, Elise comes across a warehouse party. The joint is jumping, and to Elise's amazement, some of the people there are interested in her. Vicky, a singer, takes Elise under her wing, and Char, the amazing DJ, takes her to bed. But Char does something for Elise that's more important than making her feel attractive: he tutors her in the art of DJing, and, it turns out, Elise is a natural. So much so that she soon outshines her mentor. What sets this apart from so many problem novels is how honestly and deeply Sales probes the life of a miserable 16-year-old, from her cringe-worthy attempt at learning how to be popular to the observational, rather than emotional, look at what it feels like to be with a guy. Readers will be fascinated and touched by the first-person voice because of what is roiling beneath it. Whether Elise is cynical, despairing, or even exhilarated, her hurt and confusion are the feelings that underlie everything, and teens will connect with her viscerally. That Elise finds something that awakens and restores her will also give readers hope.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"YOU THINK IT'S so easy to change yourself," 16-year-old Elise Dembowski begins, offering a world-weary but appealing frankness from the first sentence of Leila Sales's new young adult novel, "This Song Will Save Your Life." "You think it's so easy, but it's not." Elise has spent the summer before sophomore year trying to transform herself into someone who won't be mocked in the yearbook, have her iPod stolen by classmates, or be forced to sit alone on the bus. When she faces the apparent failure of her efforts only halfway through the first day of school, she quickly replaces that plan with another: She'll commit suicide. At home, accompanied by a playlist of songs she "wouldn't mind dying to," she cuts her wrist with her father's X-Acto knife and calls a classmate, who in turn calls for help. "I didn't really want to die," Elise explains in narration. "All I ever wanted was attention." Spurred in part by the frequency with which teenage suicides have been linked to bullying, young adult literature has evolved to tackle increasingly life-or-death issues. By comparison, the anti-bullying touchstone of my youth was Judy Blume's "Blubber," in which a classroom of fifth graders torments a girl who doesn't quite fit in. It's an important, harrowing book about crowd-think and cruelty, but published in 1974, it comes without talk of suicide, self-harm or the Internet as a medium for abuse. Nearly 40 years later, the way authors address bullying has changed, but children's books remain uniquely positioned to provide support, to generate conversations and to deliver powerful doses of empathy and hope through realistic portrayals. In "This Song Will Save Your Life," Elise is a mostly relatable misfit trapped by a feeling nearly everyone has experienced: "I don't belong here. I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how long I can stay before everyone else realizes that I am an impostor. I am a fraud." Seven months after she cuts her wrist, Elise has returned to a kind of normal, albeit one that includes sneaking out at night and walking for hours in the dark with her beloved iPod as a form of escape. "I listen to music as loud as I can, and I don't think about anything," she says. On one such meandering she stumbles upon an underground dance party named Start - aptly so, as it's a place where she can begin anew, away from the paralyzing paradigms of high school. She returns again and again, acquiring like-minded friends and a sortof boyfriend who teaches her to D.J. after her raw talent becomes apparent. Soon enough, she's D.J.-ing on her own, making "a hundred people dance I, Elise, using my own power, had made people happy." Yet her words at the beginning of the book come back, too. Change can feel downright impossible, particularly when she learns her whole school thinks she's started a blog about wanting to kill herself (she hasn't). There are times when Elise seems almost too likable for her outcast status, but "misfit" is in the eye of the beholder, and she may be her own harshest critic. Her struggle not just to alter what others see but also to find what she wants to see is a poignant reminder that the current presiding perspective is not everything; that there are other opinions and new opportunities for acceptance and joy; that people can and do change, no matter how hard it seems. "This Song Will Save Your Life" ends with a list of "recommended listening" from Sales, songs by Belle and Sebastian, Bruce Springsteen, Erasure, the Cure, the Smiths and others. Like "Blubber," many of these tracks - music the retro-inclined Elise herself might play - hail from an earlier time. The emotional resonance of Elise's journey, however, feels very much of the moment. JEN DOLL'S memoir, "Save the Date," will be published in May.