How to Save a Life

"Yet I can't help thinking, am I not enough?" How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr is about a family that has become lost when the father dies. Jill and her mother, Robin have a weak relationship. Robin decides to adopt a baby leaving Jill to think she is not enough. On the other hand, the baby Robin is adopting, is still inside a 18 year old teenager named Mandy. She is also lost and unwanted by her mother, she wants to give her baby a better life than her own. I think the author is trying to teach the reader the idea of feeling unwanted. This is the perfect nook or teenagers who feel abandoned or lost because we learn how Mandy and Jill overcome these emotions.

To begin with, Jill is always questioning her mother about the adoption because she feels confused. She feels as if this is all fake, she feels like her and her father are being replaced. Now that her father died, she has nowhere to go and no one to look up to because she closed out her friends and loved ones. However, that's exactly the opposite of what she's supposed to do. We learn that staying around the ones you trust, build you back up when break down. Mandy also feels unwanted. She always gives us anecdotes of when she was little and how she was treated. Her mother hated her and treated her like nothing. Also, unlike Jill, Mandy grew up with economic problems. Her mother was poor so she had a boyfriend that also mistreated Mandy, therefore she wants to let the baby have a better life. Mandy and Jill don't know each other, however, if they knew what both of them went through, they would be able to help each other. Everyone has a story, and it can benefit everyone if everyone understands that story.

The surprising fact about Jill is the amount she changed. A big change is expected after a loved one passes, but Jill's attitude toward everything has changed. She is a completely new person and it looks like she isn't going to be going back. She's become a person that always views everything as a negative, she's a pessimist. However, she teaches us later, that being with your friends, or ones you trust, can get you through hard obstacles. Jill meets up her ex-boyfriend and an old high school friend and sees that she can trust/look up to someone. In addition, although this is a small moment, Mandy makes a friend when arriving to Jill's house. She doesn't have any friends so she gets a very joyful feeling when she meets Alex on the train. She finally has someone to talk to.

To conclude, this book shows readers how people can easily change after a loved one passes, it shows how people change people. I haven't finished this book yet and I really can't wait to read more, How to Save a Life is a very intriguing book and I can't wait to see what comes next!