How To Save a Life
by Sara Zarr
However does a person invent such a sweet but painful maze of personalities? There's got to be a personal experience behind this! I'll say what I think first, then do some author research.
I'm not a fan of dual-perspective novels in general, but Sara Zarr's two characters were so delightfully at odds that it worked. Two young women are forced into an almost-but-not-quite family situation when the mother of one decides to adopt the soon to be born baby of the other. The author tells both their stories in alternating chapters of internal dialog. There's some actual dialog, too, but it's not where the action is happening.
Mandy is the pregnant one. She's hoping Jill's mom will give her baby the loving home that she never had, but she's likely to ruin it all with her habitual and incessant lying. You come to understand why she lies so much, but that only adds to the tension--will she ever be able to tell the truth?
Jill is grieving over her dead father and unable to let herself live, or love, or even accept friendship, ever again. Her fear of giving or receiving love is ruining her life but she refuses to admit it. You could say that she lies too--not to others, but herself. Will she ever be able to stop?
And there's even a third character in the mix who gets to be a real person--the mom. She's neither afraid nor deceitful; she's overflowing with love and has nobody to shower it on. But...why in the world would she expect this 'open adoption' to work, and what will she do if it doesn't?
The male characters get short shrift, but at least they're not stereotypes. And...oops--I've already told way too much.
Once again I think the audiobook format was preferable to paper. Personal narratives told first person are smashing.
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