First published on: http://ringothecat.wordpress.com/2012... 
 At least bad and melodramatic writing is not something you can accuse Sara Zarr of in How to Save a Life. Quite the opposite, because even though the topics at hand - the loss of a father and teen pregnancy - have melodrama plastered all over themselves, there's nothing of the sort here. Instead, the writing is much like its main characters realistic, raw even. 
 The story is told in alternating voices. First, the voice of Jill, who lost her father a while ago and has to come to terms with his death and the fact that her mother decided to adopt a baby, her own way to cope with losing her husband and a sure way to give the love she still feels for him... That baby will be provided by Mandy, the other voice of the story. Mandy's is a completely different voice than Jill's. While Jill comes off as haughty and bitchy - even though she's more angry and sad than an actual outright bitch! - Mandy's voice is so heartbreakingly honest, naive even.. Mandy never knew her father and had an abusive stepfather, who was only the last one in a lost string of boyfriends her mother had. Both girls just don't understand each other's way of life and reasoning, but they both provide the necessary insight in each other for both the reader and themselves. 
 How to Save a Life is nothing sort of a touching and tender story that, yes, ends in the sweetest of ways. For some this ending may ultimately prove to be a bit too sugary, but all in all this is what you hope would happen for these characters.