Saving June

by Hannah Harrington

[Joni Reads]

I know that summary doesn't really tell you much about this book. But trust me, it will blow you away. I know I have mentioned it before and I will say it again. There is something in the water amongst YA authors writing about the death of a sibling, be it by suicide or accident. But each time I read a novel where that is a key plot point it is done differently. Sometimes it is done extraordinarily. Saving June is one of those books. It pulls you in from the opening scene during June's wake and it keeps your attention the whole way through to the end.
I felt an immediate connection with Harper. It wasn't exactly that I felt for her because she didn't even know what to feel. She was sad, angry, numb. Name a negative emotion and I guarantee Harper was feeling it during June's wake. Her older sister, thought by all to be happy go lucky, perfect all the time had just curled up in the backseat of her car and swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. How would you feel?
During a brief repreive from the houseful of mourners Harper runs into Jake, a mysterious boy who seems to hold a grudge against Harper though she has never seen him before in her life. Though he seemed to have known June. After a series of event unfolds Harper winds up deciding to travel cross country with Jake and her best friend Laney in an effort to come to peace with her sister's death. But she never intended to fall in love along the way.
A huge factor in this book is the saving grace of music. How it brings people together and also brings peace to the soul because a song can take every emotion you have bottled up inside and express it in a way that you yourself never could. There is even a playlist at the end of the novel of all the songs mentioned in the book. Instead of most books, which talk about bands that don't exist and songs that the reader can never hear, this book features real bands and songs that you will most likely hear if you switch on the radio right now. It makes the book more relateable that it already is.
What didn't I like about the book? Nothing major. I didn't connect well with Harper's name for some reason. You know the feeling. Where you love the character but halfway through the book you can't for the life of you remember what their name is? Yeah, it was like that for me. And that's really the only issue I had. The characters were well developed and I fell in love with each one of them. I would definitely read anything else by this author.