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From the very start of my blog, I professed that contemporary fiction would never work for me. Like, ever. But I was wrong, and through the course of four years of blogging, I've realized that I've actually come to love the genre. There are a lot of books within that genre that still irk me, but that's because I've finally seen the potential that this genre has, which makes the entire contemporary realm worthwhile now. This isn't actually a topic that's been used before, but it's one that's important to me...so, here goes.

Raw Blue epitomizes issue-based books. Powerful, gritty and real, its emotion and heart spills over onto the pages. Twenty Boy Summer might imply something sweet and frivolous, but dealing with loss, pain and grief, it teaches you about growing up and moving on. The Raft seems like a simple survival story, but is actually so much more - tackling inner demons, finding your strength and empowerment. 

Something Real has no hype, and it has a cover that doesn't do it any favours. This book, however, is a powerhouse of emotion, and I found it one of the most poignant reads in over a year. Leaving Paradise captures grief and anger in a nutshell, offering us the ability to heal through our characters. This Song Will Save Your Life gives us hope, shows us that it's okay to be different and transcends social norms.

Dark Song is dark, gritty and incredibly real, offering us a powerhouse novel about abusive relationships, growing into your own person and learning to overcome adversity. Catching Jordan represents the contemporary fiction I thought I'd hate - but done well. Giving us sweet romance, as well as well-defined characters that breathe and feel, this made me smile. Wintergirls is a hard-hitting take on life with eating disorders. Written halting and sparse, it transcends those stereotypes we all think. Some Girls Are is the first book I read on bullying, giving us characters that we don't really like, but we've all met at some time or another - teaching us to grow and move on.

Today, I am so excited to feature one of my favourite books thus far in 2013. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales turned out to be a hugely profound, powerful read that really resonated with me and many of my favourite bloggers. Leila took time out of her busy schedule to answer some of my questions, and if you read on, there's even a giveaway. 

Watch the Trailer for This Song Will Save Your Life

Leila Sales: Website -- Twitter -- Facebook

Fierce Reads Book Tour

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, This Song Will Save Your Life is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

1. The beauty of This Song Will Save Your Life Is that so many people can relate to the story in so many ways. How did you manage to perfectly bottle that time of one's life and spin it in a way that it can resonate for so many people?

Wow. I’m honored that you thought the book accomplished that! I’m not really sure how to answer this question, though. I just set out to tell the story of one girl in a way that felt true, and I hoped that there would be readers out there who would understand her.

2. Did This Song WIll Save Your Life draw from your own high school experience in any way and, if so, how?

Sure. My friends and I started going out to a nightclub that really was called Start! in Boston when we were seniors. Some of Elise’s experiences at Start are inspired by my own. And I did experience bullying, though more in middle school than in my small, all-girls high school. I went to a big, impersonal middle school, where I think it was easier for kids to get away with reprehensible treatment of others. 

3. In This Song Will Save Your Life life, which is highly character-driven, music was almost a character in and of itself. What does music mean to you, and how did that impact your use of it through the story?

I think music is one of the purest expressions of emotion there is. Feelings are complicated, and hard to explain to other people; sometimes you just want to play them the song that exemplifies how you feel and say to them, “See? This. This is what I mean.” They probably won’t even hear that song in the same way that you do, but it seems like the closest we can come to letting someone else into our inner lives.

4. The characters within the novel are all characters we've all known at some point in our lives. Were they inspired by people you know, or are they just extremely realistic and genuine characters?

I borrow character traits from people I know, but I don’t borrow whole people. I’m most likely to borrow physical descriptions of people, like Vicky’s outfits and Char’s tattoo. But if you look at someone like Char, he’s an amalgam of many people I’ve known in my life, some of them well, some of them whom I just saw once in passing, and additionally he includes characteristics that I made up just for him.

5. In the vast realm of contemporary fiction, what do you think will make This Song Will Save Your Life stand out the most, and why?

Well, I hope it will stand out! I think there are a few things about this book that are unusual in the current YA market. A girl who becomes a DJ and a nightclub setting, of course, are not things you see all that often. I also think the romance doesn’t follow a typical YA romance track. And, while there are lots of books out there with suicide references (trust me—I’m a YA editor, I see a lot of them), most of them don’t have a character who acknowledges up front that her “suicide attempt” is a targeted bid for attention. For some reason there exists this belief out there that if a kid attempts suicide “just for attention,” then it doesn’t need to be taken as seriously as if he or she attempted suicide in order to actually die. I think that belief is pernicious and I wrote this book in part to address it.

6. If you could hope for readers to take one message away from this book, what would it be?

Different readers will take away different messages or truths, and I love that; I don’t want to control what every person takes home. For me personally, the heart of the story comes from Elise: “Sometimes people think they know you. They know a few facts about you, and they piece you together in a way that makes sense to them. And if you don't know yourself very well, you might even believe that they are right. But the truth is, that isn't you. That isn't you at all.”

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And now, I have an awesome giveaway for you all! One lucky winner will get a hardcover copy of This Song Will Save Your Life, as well as a disc with the full book soundtrack on it. This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only, and it will end promptly at midnight EST on September 20, 2013. Still want to enter? Simply fill out the Rafflecopter to do so!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Title: This Song Will Save Your Life
Author: Leila Sales (Twitter)
Publisher: FSG BYR
Publish Date: September 17, 2013
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 288
Source: Publisher

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, This Song Will Save Your life is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

Elise has never really fit in. It's not so much that she's weird, but that she's different. She's a teenager with quirks and all the awkwardness that comes with it, but it's a time in one's life when being different doesn't earn you any friends. And so, she does everything she can to fit in. She changes her appearance, feigns interest in things she could care less about and works hard to be anything other than who she is. It seems that there's no way out for Elisa, and she's giving up on everything when she meets Char, Vicky and Pippa, people that might just be able to appreciate her for who she is...and show her that it's okay.

The beauty of contemporary fiction lies in an author's ability to capture, bottle and evoke all the cringe-worthy awkwardness, resentment, angst and confusion, all the while making you feel as though it entirely true. Leila Sales has written a book that does that and so much more with This Song Will Save Your Life. Rather than glossing over the sheer brutality of our teenage years, she spins a tale that is so extremely wrought with truth that it might very well take you back in time to the high school experience of your own.

Here's a secret for you guys. In high school, I was pretty invisible. I wasn't popular, or extremely pretty, or even academically inclined. I did year-round swimming for a team out of high school, never had time to make friends, and I was perfectly middle-class, never owning the very best of anything, but really never wanting for anything either. I kind of just existed. Immediately though, this recollection of my high school experience helped me latch onto the verity of Elise's character, empathize with her utter confusion and her extreme desire to fit in. Let's be honest, our high school years are pretty much the only time in our lives that we want nothing more than to blend into the masses and become a part of the whole. It's easier. From the start, I could sense the deep, aching sadness in Elsie's voice, which was refreshing, despite her bleak outlook on life. She saw no way out of the endless ridicule, and while I wanted desperately to hate her for wanting to give up on it all, I can't say that I didn't have simple notions like that at least once in my life. Elise was a very tangible character, and I felt that I could step into her shoes without ever judging her, simply because her voice was so real and honest. Vicky is the best friend that we all wish we could have had in high school. She was unfalteringly honest, true to herself and unfailingly honest, of the secondary characters with whom we are presented, she felt the most real to me. I had a bit of a difficult time with Char in the sense that he almost resented Elise's abilities, which I worried would hinder her past the pages of the book, and yes, that's a reflection of how absorbed I was in this story. Pippa offered us a lightness that helped us breathe easier in the heavier parts of the story, and I was grateful for her refreshing outlook. There's a definitive character progression through the novel, as well, which helps fuel the plot of This Song Will Save Your Life, but I have to admit that this is a character-driven novel, and the plot is almost secondary to that...and it works. By giving us characters that we've all known at some time or another in our lives, wrapped up in rich, startlingly honest prose, this book is one that I truly felt from start to finish. And yes, music plays a large part in this novel. Think of it like a modern-day symphony. As it crescendos, so does the novel. The one simple thing I would have changed about the book is more focus on Elise's parents and that relationship. I think it could really have enhanced her journey to self-discovery.

It's hard to review a book like this because to reveal plot progression reveals too much of the story, but this is one of those books that simply must be read. Despite wishing for a bit more from the parents, This Song Will Save Your Life is a book that many teens will relate to empathize with. I give it a 4.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary fiction.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.