How to Save a Life

Title: How to Save a Life
Author: Sara Zarr
Major Themes: Friendship, Abortion, Family, Adoption
Synopsis: Loneliness, grief, and confusion—Mandy and Jill have much to figure out in life, and the resolution to the dilemma both face in this story is quite surprising!

I’m not sure how to feel about How to Save a Life. There was so much I loved about this book, but at the same time, if you look at my long list of warnings for it, there was a lot I didn’t appreciate. I certainly wouldn’t hand it to a teenager who wasn’t solid in their moral beliefs. I’m not sure I will keep this book on our shelves, either.

The chapters alternate between Mandy’s point of view, and Jill’s. Both are 18 years old when the story begins. Mandy has found herself pregnant and without support to keep her baby. She has decided her only option is to adopt out her baby, but she doesn’t want to go through social workers. Jill’s father recently died suddenly, and then her mother decides, apparently out of the blue, to adopt a baby—and invites the baby’s mother to live in their house until the baby is born.

Jill has shut everyone out of her life since her father’s death. Now, with a stranger moving into her house, she has to find people to vent to. She makes up (for the third time) with her boyfriend, as well as a couple of girlfriends, but is still so prickly they can’t really get close. Mandy is also lonely. Neglected by her mother, she never even had friends in her hometown, let alone here in Denver with no one she knows. What she really wants is a mother for herself, but will it be good enough to find a mother for her baby?

A coming-of-age story, a story of loneliness and grief, adoption and friendship…How to Save a Life ends with a surprise twist that I loved. I loved seeing the changes both girls went through in the course of the month or so in which this story takes place. I loved seeing both learn to care about other people. What I didn’t love was all the language used, and a couple of scenes in which unmarried people were intimate with each other, as well as repeated references to sexual abuse. This is not a Christian book, so there is no discussion about morals and why such behavior is wrong. 

WARNING: (Chapters are not numbered, so I had to use page numbers here, which won’t help much with a Kindle edition, but give you an idea of whether you want to read the book or give it to a teen.) Page 4: stupid shit. Page 41: leave me the hell alone. Page 44: girl knocks down a boy using self-defense tactics. Page 47: tough shit. Page 63: full of shit, what the hell. Page 66 scared as hell. Page 75: full of shit. Page 76: being a bitch. Page 78: I curse. Page 80: get the hell out. Page 90: bedroom scene between unmarried teens. Page 98: shit. Page 102: remembering being raped, sex scene. Page 106: oh shit, why the hell. Page 107. Right to bitch about it. Page 108: people I’ve pissed off. Page 117: remembering being raped. Page 119: freaking poser-ass magical-schoolgirl anime. Page 123: boy kisses and gropes a girl. Page 125: leave me the hell alone. Page 145: God, what the hell, a one-night stand. Page 147: give a damn, damn the torpedoes. Page 156: go through hell, shit. Page 161: gee. Page 177: damn cute. Page 189: treated me like crap. Page 193: holy shit. Page 214: world-class bitch. Page 219: God, fucking. Page 224: God. Page 225: I am an ass too. Page 233: sure as hell. Page 248: what the hell. Page 249: get my ass. Page 253: why the hell. Page 256: remembering being raped. Page 272: that damn watch. Page 276: a pissed expression. Page 283: can be a bitch. Page 289: oh shit. Page 301: not everything is bullshit. Page 303: bitchy teenager. Page 313: He abused me. Sex. Page 310: I’d be pissed. Page 319: damn. Page 323: oh shit.

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