Review Detail

I bought How to Save a Life on impulse, and I immediately regretted it. I hadn’t been a big fan of the other Zarr novel I read, Sweethearts, and I’m not in the habit of buying books from authors I don’t have a good track record with. And after spending the money, I put this away on my shelf and pretended I’d forgotten about it for a few weeks. And really, I only picked this up at the urging of people on Twitter. To make a long story short, I was a very reluctant reader.

How to Save a Life is narrated in first person from two very different girls’ perspectives. Upper middle-class Jill is angry and depressed after her dad’s death in a car accident. Really, she wasn’t particularly likable for most of the first two thirds—unlikable in a very Courtney Summers-esque style. Jill’s narration, for me, was reminiscent of Fall for Anything in many ways. On the other hand, there was Mandy, pregnant and on her own, trying to do the right thing and make a life for herself. When Jill’s mother gets it into her head that she’s going to adopt Mandy’s baby, the two girls’ lives intersect, and standoffish dislike becomes genuine friendship, maybe something more.

In my past experience with Sara Zarr, I was disappointed by the awkwardness of her characterization. I felt that Sweethearts devoted too much time on mastering a specific style of storytelling and forgot to develop the backbone of the novel. I didn’t find that to be a problem in How to Save a Life. Between the two girls and their private issues and public interaction, I forged a real emotional connection. The story was simple and unassuming, and Zarr’s prose didn’t try so hard to be edgy. As a result, it was easier for me to handle to book as a whole, even when I wanted to wring Jill’s neck for being so…herself.

I also appreciated the way Zarr dealt with real life issues in this book. Things like teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, grief, infidelity—those are big topics to tackle. But the author presented them in an understated way that was really down-to-earth and subtle. As a fan of realistic fiction, I’m more used to those issues being presented very loudly and showily, so this was a change for me. For instance, Mandy’s sexual abuse was mentioned once or twice, and though it was a part of her, it wasn’t a big part. For me there’s no right or wrong way to write realistic fiction, but Zarr’s approach wasn’t the typical method, I don’t think.

In terms of romance, there was a love triangle that I could have done without. Romance was hardly a huge topic in this book and I really appreciated that, but why the love triangle? I think it would have been okay to show Jill’s difficulties with her boyfriend Dylan without adding the external conflict of another love interest into the mix. Personal opinion, of course.

I will say that the conclusion to How to Save a Life was really, really obvious, and that perhaps it was lacking in emotional impact because I already knew what was going to happen. I think the intent was for the reader to get swept off in the wave of Mandy and Jill’s developing relationship, but my feet stayed firmly planted on the beach. However, there’s no denying that it was a strong, powerful conclusion that sent all the right messages and satisfied me immensely.

All in all, How to Save a Life is most definitely a book to pick up (especially for fans of Courtney Summers). I think that in this, her newest novel, Sara Zarr has gotten a better hold of her craft and has a firmer knowledge of how to construct a story. I found this book to be authentic and true, dealing with tough issues in a subtle way that made them seem all the more real.