This Song Will Save Your Life

Narrator Rebecca Lowman embraces the curious combination of earnestness that is the essence of Elise Dembowski. Despite a summer of studying lipsticks and fashion, Elise enters her freshman year of high school knowing "there are so many rules" that she can't possibly change herself to satisfy everyone. Listening to her iPod constantly doesn't protect her from the cruelty of her classmates, so she tries suicide to stop the pain. At this point, Lowman's voice is flat and toneless. Seven months later, however, Elise walks into the night "to escape feeling trapped in her life" and, in a surprising turn, winds up at a warehouse party. Amid impassioned dancing and the security of music she's loved her whole life, Lowman portrays Elise's amazement at discovering DJing, friendship, first love, and finding her true self. S.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

July 22, 2013
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.