This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Title: This Song Will Save Your Life
Author: Leila Sales
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary,Music
Published: October 10th 2013, Macmillan Children's Books
Pages: 288
Blurb: All her life, Elise Dembowski has been an outsider. Starting
a new school, she dreams of fitting in at last – but when her best attempts at
popularity fail, she almost gives up. Then she stumbles upon a secret warehouse
party. There, at night, Elise can be a different person, making real friends,
falling in love for the first time, and finding her true passion – DJ’ing.
But when her real
and secret lives collide, she has to make a decision once and for all: just who
is the real Elise?
An irresistible
novel about hope, heartbreak and the power of music to bring people together.
“Popularity
rewards the uninteresting.”
Elise
is a girl who gave her all to be everything and anything she wasn’t. She tried
her best to fit in but everybody just used her and she just couldn`t make any
friends. She believed she’d failed on something that she had spent months
preparing herself for and in the process she had slowly lost who she was and
given up things that made her who she is.
“Sometimes
you have to give up something you are to get to who you want to be.”
So
she gave up, not only on others but on herself and most importantly on life. The
night she decided that enough was enough; only one thing could save her, music!
Music
was the thing that kept her sane, she wasn`t going to give that up not even for
popularity. Music made her feel alive. It took her to the place where she could
be herself, but it was kept hidden because this side of her wasn’t good enough
for others.
“I believe
that a person's taste in music tells you a lot about them. In some cases, it
tells you everything you need to know.”
So
after Elise cuts herself she spends months under her parents’ surveillance but
at night she walks the streets in hope of finding the girl she used to be. One
night she finds two girls standing outside a warehouse. These two girls
befriend her when no one else would, her life literally changes.
“You can't
tell me my feelings are overwrought or absurd. You don't know. They are my
feelings.”
In
this nightclub Elise falls in love with DJing.
DJing
makes Elise become seen, she is finally doing something that she enjoys and
people are noticing her for it. She can get lost in the music without people
judging her.
“But I also
felt like an eggshell that had gotten a tiny crack. You can’t repair something
like that. All you can do is hope that it sticks together, hope that the crack
doesn't grow until all your insides come spilling right out.”
However
Elise also has to deal with people judging her based on an online journal that
someone has started revealing how Elise is supposedly feeling. She also has a
relationship with the current DJ who only likes people who need him/rely on
him. She makes choices that affect her family life and causes conflict with
both of her parents and her mother’s family.
“Don't be
special." That's what I would say to my younger self if I could pinpoint
the moment when I went astray. But there was no one moment. I was always
astray”
But in the end Elise’s story
is her realising that being yourself can get you further in life than being someone
else.
That when you are at your
lowest point in life there is always something that can bring you back to life.
“People are
who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them
to be.”
“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.”
Blurb: All her life, Elise Dembowski has been an outsider. Starting a new school, she dreams of fitting in at last – but when her best attempts at popularity fail, she almost gives up. Then she stumbles upon a secret warehouse party. There, at night, Elise can be a different person, making real friends, falling in love for the first time, and finding her true passion – DJ’ing.
But when her real
and secret lives collide, she has to make a decision once and for all: just who
is the real Elise?
An irresistible novel about hope, heartbreak and the power of music to bring people together.
An irresistible novel about hope, heartbreak and the power of music to bring people together.
“Popularity
rewards the uninteresting.”
Elise
is a girl who gave her all to be everything and anything she wasn’t. She tried
her best to fit in but everybody just used her and she just couldn`t make any
friends. She believed she’d failed on something that she had spent months
preparing herself for and in the process she had slowly lost who she was and
given up things that made her who she is.
“Sometimes
you have to give up something you are to get to who you want to be.”
So
she gave up, not only on others but on herself and most importantly on life. The
night she decided that enough was enough; only one thing could save her, music!
Music
was the thing that kept her sane, she wasn`t going to give that up not even for
popularity. Music made her feel alive. It took her to the place where she could
be herself, but it was kept hidden because this side of her wasn’t good enough
for others.
“I believe
that a person's taste in music tells you a lot about them. In some cases, it
tells you everything you need to know.”
So
after Elise cuts herself she spends months under her parents’ surveillance but
at night she walks the streets in hope of finding the girl she used to be. One
night she finds two girls standing outside a warehouse. These two girls
befriend her when no one else would, her life literally changes.
“You can't
tell me my feelings are overwrought or absurd. You don't know. They are my
feelings.”
In
this nightclub Elise falls in love with DJing.
DJing
makes Elise become seen, she is finally doing something that she enjoys and
people are noticing her for it. She can get lost in the music without people
judging her.
“But I also
felt like an eggshell that had gotten a tiny crack. You can’t repair something
like that. All you can do is hope that it sticks together, hope that the crack
doesn't grow until all your insides come spilling right out.”
However
Elise also has to deal with people judging her based on an online journal that
someone has started revealing how Elise is supposedly feeling. She also has a
relationship with the current DJ who only likes people who need him/rely on
him. She makes choices that affect her family life and causes conflict with
both of her parents and her mother’s family.
“Don't be
special." That's what I would say to my younger self if I could pinpoint
the moment when I went astray. But there was no one moment. I was always
astray”
But in the end Elise’s story
is her realising that being yourself can get you further in life than being someone
else.
That when you are at your
lowest point in life there is always something that can bring you back to life.
“People are
who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them
to be.”
“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.”
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