As I browsed through all the titles of books that I read last year, I realized that there were a lot of them that I didn’t share here on the blog (yet). Some of these were books that I thought were fairly important and I always meant to feature.
THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales
There’s so much that spoke to me when I read This Song Will Save Your Life. For this I loved it very, very dearly. It reminded me why I crave stories and why I can care so much about fictional people. Elise was my girl. She reminded me that I’m not alone and never have been. All that bullying I went through in high school, searching for acceptance, wanting to be someone — these aren’t alien experience to many of us. Despite that, resultant feelings of loneliness can be very overwhelming. This Song Will Save Your Life tapped into that psyche and spun a raw and engaging tale.
CLEAN by Amy Reed
Clean is a book that thoroughly surprised me. Firstly, I thought this book would be about mental illness. Actually it’s about addiction. I should’ve realized that before I started reading but as usual, I hardly glanced at the synopsis. Secondly, I was impressed with how the characters were portrayed in terms of depth, development and voice. Best of all, I was amazed by the writing style. It was on the experimental side, which I hadn’t expected.
THIS SIDE OF SALVATION by Jeri Smith-Ready
This Side of Salvation had a lot going for it. Sports, school, religion and romance — all things that are important to a sixteen-year-old. David had a bright future ahead of him in baseball. He trained just as hard for it off-season as he did during his seasons. College scouts were on the look-out for him and his high school coach had taught David all he could.
EVERY DAY by David Levithan
If there is one thing I adored about Every Day, it’s the prose. The prose was so fluid, it bordered on poetic. It captured many of the ideas so beautifully, it was nothing short of thought-provoking.
