This Song Will Save Your Life was originally titled My Suicide Playlist and I like the old title better. I can see why they went with This Song Will Save Your Life, as it's much more uplifting and the character doesn't spend a lot of the book contemplating suicide. (She does spend a little bit of time at the very beginning of the story, but there's a significant time jump after that.) Plus, just look at that book cover--it's perfection with the four-letter words and L O V E highlighted. But in terms of titles, My Suicide Playlist is fantastic. Oh well. 
 So Elise Dembowski is sick of being the weird girl at school with no friends. She tries to make herself "cool" over the course of a summer and I had this flashback to the days when as a teenage girl on family trips to the library, I'd sneak off to a corner and read Seventeen magazine to figure out what I should reasonably know about being a teenage girl. That alone, however, is not enough to make one "cool," which Elise and Teenage Gretchen discovered. Elise finds her own path in the world of underground nightclub DJing. Teenage Gretchen did not, although I did turn out being pretty awesome, but I do still wish that I were a DJ. True story. I think I'd be really good at it. 
 I've always admired Leila Sales' ability to write YA contemporary lit where the main focus is not on the romance. There's kissing, for sure, but the boys are not soul mate material. My biggest issue was that most of the drama in the book came from a lack of Elise telling her parental units about the fairly major stuff happening in her life. It's not inaccurate, but I do find that it's a weak source of conflict in YA books. This Song Will Save Your Life is going to make an excellent teen movie someday. Can I call dibs on writing the screenplay? 
 Major props for including a recommended listening list at the end of the book. All books about music should do this. Also, I owe Leila BIG TIME for finally getting me to check out LCD Soundsystem.