This Song Will Save Your Life is a touching, heart-wrenching story of a bullied young high-school student (Elise) who is trying to deal with a slew of problems, from the aftermath of her suicide attempt to being the school's social outcast. She manages to find acceptance in the most unexpected of places: an "underground" party warehouse which she discovers on one of her frequent night walks. While I liked this book well enough, I'm disappointed that I didn't like it more. I think the main reason that I had trouble loving this book as much as I would want to is that I found it hard to connect to the protagonist. This is not any fault of the writer, as the writing itself was accessible and very easy to read and comprehend. The problem was with me. I just didn't have enough shared experiences with the main character. School wasn't perfect for me, but I never faced the amount of social isolation that Elise has, which made it difficult to completely understand her. I feel like this book was written for those who have undergone similar experiences in school, and because those people are the book's target, Leila Sales doesn't try to explain the protagonist's emotions as much as someone who is going after a larger audience and strives to make them understand. She expects those reading her book to immediately relate to and empathize with the main character. 
 The second reason I found it hard to love this book as much as I wanted to: I expected more emphasis and explanation about the music in Elise's life. I personally love music. It's such an incredibly important part of my life; music can shape my day, alter my attitude, and affect me in so many different ways. So when I heard about this (and all the five star reviews it received) I expected a book filled with the protagonist's emotions about how a song has actually changed their life. I wanted paragraphs trying to capture that indescribable feeling you get where a song can shake you to your core. This is the kind of thing I can connect to, and not something I read about often, so I was really hoping to see my feelings transcribed in this novel. Instead, all I was rewarded with was vague dialogue and a surprising lack of detail. I feel like this novel could have benefited from the age-old piece of writing advice "show, don't tell." The main character simply stated that music made her feel good, without ever describing it, or at least, not to my level of satisfaction. (If you would like to read a novel that actually succeeds in doing this, I would highly suggest Love Letters to the Dead) 
 All of this may make it seem like I didn't like the book. However, I really did like it. I loved the fact that the main character, struggling as she is, manages to find her passion in life again and strives to slowly make her life better through something she loves. I think it's overall a very hopeful novel, and I really enjoyed reading it, especially as the main character slowly recovers and heals herself.(view spoiler)[To see her switch from someone lacking so severely in self-confidence to a person who whole-heartedly believes in themselves was inspiring, to say the least. (hide spoiler)] I wish I could rate this book higher, but sadly it just wasn't for me. However, I do believe this book will be perfect for people dealing with bullying or other high school troubles.