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This Song Will Save Your Life

by Leila Sales

Finding a place in the music

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Regular price $31.59 USD Sale price $18.95 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Finding a place in the music

Elise Dembowski has spent years feeling like an outsider, and a failed bid for popularity leaves her close to giving up. A warehouse party opens a different possibility: she meets people who welcome her and discovers DJing. Music becomes the point where the book’s strands of identity, friendship, and belonging meet, with the underground scene providing a new social world for Elise to explore. The story’s focus is not simply on fitting in, but on finding a form of expression and connection that feels like her own.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in coming-of-age fiction.
  • Readers who enjoy stories about outsider experiences, friendship, and finding a sense of belonging.
  • Music fans curious about a young protagonist discovering DJing and an underground music scene.

Themes

Identity and self-discoveryOutsider experiences and belongingFriendshipMusic as expression and connection

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A powerful coming-of-age story about an outsider who finds herself when she enters the underground music scene.

"Very much of the moment." --The New York Times
"If you're a music junkie who also loves YA, read it alongside Len Vlahos's The Scar Boys or Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park." --Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop
"Sales gets everything right." --MTV.com

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 powerful young adult coming of age novel is an exuberant story about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

Praise for This Song Will Save Your Life:

"The emotional resonance of Elise's journey . . . feels very much of the moment." --The New York Times

"Heartbreaking, heartfelt, and eventually heart-lifting, this YA novel is one I won't soon forget. If you're a music junkie who also loves YA, read it alongside Len Vlahos's The Scar Boys or Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park." --Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop

"Pulsates with hope for all the misfits." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Readers will be fascinated and touched by the first-person voice because of what is roiling beneath it. . . .
Teens will connect with [Elise] viscerally." --Booklist, starred review

"Sales gets everything right." --MTV.com

"A wild, witty, funny, thumping good read." --Adele Griffin, two-time National Book Award Finalist

"Edgy and irresistible. If this book were a song, I'd have it on repeat with the volume all the way up." --Sarah Mlynowski, author of Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)

"A perfect harmony of laugh-out-loud moments, heartbreak, and hope." --Eileen Cook, author of Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood

"A vibrant, powerful dance party of a novel." --Jess Rothenberg, author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me

"A remarkable story about the power of truth, friendship, and music--to transform us, to inspire us, to guide us back to who we are." --Rebecca Serle, author of When You Were Mine

"A sweet, funny story about finding yourself in a crowd, owning your talents, and rocking out on the dance floor of life." --Madeleine George, author of The Difference Between You and Me

A YALSA Best Book for Young Adults
A BuzzFeed Best YA Book of the Year
A CCBC Choice

Also by Leila Sales
Tonight the Streets Are Ours
If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say
Once Was a Time
Past Perfect
Mostly Good Girls

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