How To Save A Life Review

TITLE How To Save A Life
AUTHOR Sara Zarr
PUBLICATION October 18th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
READ March 24 to 26, 2013
SOURCE Gifted from Giselle of Xpresso Reads

Jill MacSweeney just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends—everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted—to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy—or as difficult—as it seems.

How To Save a Life was a book that I picked up on a Saturday afternoon and after reading a single chapter I knew it was a book that I was going to love. Just the honesty in every word and the astounding development of the characters alone is so great but when you throw in the dynamic relationships and all the emotions throughout, you have a truly touching novel. Jill became someone that I saw myself in at every turn, I felt her anger and sadness and loss. Mandy became someone that I want to wrap my arms around and comfort because she touched me so much. There is no shortage of emotions in this novel and it’s one that will stick with readers for a long time to come.

The development that went into every character in How To Save a Life is no small feat. Each and every character came off the page and as I read I felt like I came to know these people. Jill, Robin and Mandy of course are the most developed and what is so great is that they are all completely different. I felt through their dialogue and their actions in every scene that they stood out from one another and watching them come together was something special. Not only did these three ladies stick out to me, but I also felt as if I came to know Dylan and Ravi just as well. Dylan was struggling in this rut that he and Jill had found themselves stuck in in their relationship. Since Jill’s father passed away they had this destructive pattern and they were just going back and forth, never truly moving forward, always taking two steps back. He was trying to break down the walls of Jill’s grief and get her to open up, but she was struggling opening up to him. In Ravi she found someone new, someone who didn’t know how she acted once her father passed away, someone who wasn’t constantly trying to get her to talk about her feelings. I guess this was a love triangle but it was in no way annoying or cliche. I saw both guys for who they were and came to care about each one.

While Jill is fighting through her own demons, Mandy is running away from hers. I felt so bad for this girl. She moves in with Robin & Jill very quickly in the novel but we are fed tidbits of her home life here and there and I could completely understand her need to flee. Her mom’s only concern was finding a man, she was one of these women who doesn’t know who she is without a man by her side, I found that incredibly sad. Her words of wisdom that she passed on to Mandy just feed this lifestyle and I wanted to shake Mandy and tell her that everything her mother told her was crap. She was so hungry for love and thought that the only place she could find that was in the arms of a man. Readers get to watch Mandy’s eyes open, get to watch her learn what it means to be a strong, independent woman and the shift is truly awe inspiring.

The characters and relationships in this novel have so many layers that get peeled back as the story goes on so it feels like you go on a journey with them. There is a huge part of me that feels like this novel could have just gone on forever relaying the story of these people’s lives and I just would have kept on reading. I find often that I check the page number to see where I stand in a novel and I can say that not once in this story did I find myself glancing at the bottom corner of the page. These are people that everyone should have the pleasure to meet so I definitely think that you should pick up this novel.