Rashika, The Book Owl

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Confession: I never read This Song Will Save Your Life, so I had no idea what to expect when I read this book. Let me tell you, the hype surrounded Leila Sales is not a lie. She is a fantastic writer and also a fantastic story teller.

For starters, this book features a main character who is a person of color. YAY! I adored the diverse set of characters but my favorte part about the characterization was that none of the characters were casted as the 'bad guy'.With the kind of situation Arden was in, it would be so easy to make someone the villain of her story so that she could be the hero but Sales never did that. People make mistakes, things happen, but that doesn’t always make people despicable. Even Arden, the main character, isn’t perfect. She makes mistakes and sometimes she doesn’t always see what is right there.

Arden feels under appreciated. She feels like she always supports her friends and boyfriend but no one wants to be there for her. She is tired and fed up of feeling this way and when she discovers a blog called Tonight the Streets are Ours, she feels like someone finally understands.

This book could probably be classified as a coming of age story because this book primarily deals with Arden’s growth. Arden’s development over the course of the book was a joy to read. She is a realistic, relatable character that you cannot help but cheer for.

Is this book perfect? No. Sometimes Arden did bother me (even though she was realistically portrayed) and there were some things that never added up, but I still managed to enjoy the book and  loved the way things wrapped up.

Fair warning though, don’t pay attention to the blurb. The blurb is basically a spoiler. Arden doesn’t go to New York until the second half of the book and while her time in New York is a major catalyst for various realizations about herself, a lot of this book focuses on Arden’s initial struggle and those aren’t explored in New York but rather resolved.  I would have liked if more of the book took place in New York, especially since that is what I went in expecting. I felt like there was all this built up to her trip to New York and not much happened there (in terms of actual physical events.)

At the end of the day though, this was a fantastic read and I think there is much to be learned from Arden’s struggle.  Her story was beautifully told and I absolutely adored getting to be a part of it for the 300 pages or so. This is a book I wouldn’t fail to recommend for someone looking for a thought provoking coming of age tale.

Note that I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review