Book Review: Saving June

So, I've been meaning to write a review of this book almost since the moment I finished it, but at that moment all I really wanted to do was go back and read my favorite parts again. This book immediately went to the shelf on which I keep all of my favorites, like John Green and Stephanie Perkins and, yes, The Hunger Games.

Not that Saving June is really anything like those (especially The Hunger Games). But still, I find it somewhat shocking that a debut author-- with a publisher too small to even put out a hardcover version of the book-- could manage to get on that bookshelf. Especially with a basic concept that's been done so many times before-- the death of a family member. Namely, the sister of the main character.

This book could have ended up just like The Sky is Everywhere. Except for the fact that Harper and her sister never really "got" each other. They weren't best friends. Their last conversation was a bickering match. June's boyfriend was a jerk, and OH, June committed suicide. There's the notion in Jandy Nelson's book, which you'll recall I gave 4 stars, that Bailey's death was unfair because she was full of life (literally, she was pregnant) and wanted to be here. It's unfair because everyone who loved her wanted to be a part of who she became. In Hannah Harrington's book, the questions are somewhat more complex. Is someone's death still unfair to them if they choose it? Or is it more unfair to the people they left behind? Are you allowed to be angry with someone when they end their life and put you through the pain of dealing with it? Should you feel guilty for not having seen the signs? Whose fault is it?

“I've never been good at emotional stuff. Except anger. Anger, I'm good at.” 

And yet, this grief book is only a little about grief. The main character, Harper, has a knack for pushing things down and not letting anyone in. At first I didn't really believe the things Harper tells us about herself-- that she's a delinquent, that nobody is proud of her the way they were of June, that even before June's death she always wore black on black on black. I kind of felt like she was showing more than telling. But as the book progresses, you learn that that's part of Harper's defense mechanism. She wants people to believe she is someone she's not, so that nobody really knows who she is. But at the same time, all she wants is for someone to care enough to get to know who she really is.

Enter, Jacob Tolan. Jake, the mysterious and disrespectful guy at June's wake, who eavesdrops on a conversation Harper has with her best friend, Laney (who we'll get to later-- heads up: she's awesome), and demands to go with them on the road trip to California they have planned to scatter June's ashes in the ocean. It's the one thing Harper can think of to give June the ending she deserved, rather than the ending she gave herself: in the back of her car with a bottle of pills and a lot of exhaust, her ashes split between their divorced parents' houses. June was Jake's tutor while she was alive, the only person who encouraged him to make something of himself ("don't let the bastards grind you down"), and he wants to go to California because he appreciated that. And also he's got a secret.

This is where the book detours from the typical-grief-book outline. A road trip! I love road trip books, especially when they've got pit stops that actually 1) Help the storyline along, and 2) Are fun, entertaining, heartbreaking, or all of the above. This one's got the goods. 

Which include Laney, Harper's charismatic, flighty best friend who has an obsession with old movie stars and wants to be Marilyn Monroe. She and Jake bicker a lot because one accuses the other of living in the past and then the other points out that they're not the only one-- Jake listens to old music and Laney likes old movie stars. They judge each other and at times are really mean, but that's what makes it so much more rewarding when you see them actually come to care about each other. There's a high-drama storyline with Laney that I won't spoil you about, but let's just say Jake kind of becomes the unexpected knight in shining armor.

Throughout the trip, the three of them don't sit around wallowing in their own problems. Jake's music becomes a soundtrack to everything that happens to them, from the crazy drunken philosophical contemplations to the tourist traps to the emotional breakdowns. Harper and Jake's relationship doesn't develop out of nowhere-- half the time they can't stand each other, half the time Harper expects more of him than she's ever let herself expect of anyone, and that scares her. She's suspicious of his real motivation for coming with them (did he have a thing with her sister? If so, how could he like her when she's nothing like June?), and he's hiding something, but they both still manage to be exactly what the other needs. Without, of course, admitting it. Which makes for a highly entertaining dynamic in which last names are used a lot and games of Truth or Dare don't go very well. And an offer from Harper for Jake to sleep in the same bed as her (instead of on the floor) is attributed to a temporary psychotic break of which he must take advantage if he wants to sleep at all.

“You're nothing like your sister," he tells me. "She meant a lot to me, okay? It's true. But the things I like about you have nothing to do with her. You - you are so strong and stubborn it drives me crazy. You're the one going through all this and you still put Laney first every time, instead of throwing yourself the pity party we both know you deserve. You call me out on my shit, and I like that, because sometimes I need someone to call me out on my shit. And you get Johnny Cash, and you take these incredible photos, and everything about you makes me hurt, in a good way, and it blows my mind that someone can be so amazing and not even see it.” 

Sometimes there are male love interests in books that are intended to make readers swoon and want for themselves. Jake Tolan is not that guy. True, I love him. He's supposed to be drop-dead gorgeous, but no, he doesn't really make me swoon. I don't want him for myself-- I want him for Harper. Which is more important.

There's a lot about this book that would satisfy someone who is only looking for a romance, but to that person I'd say they're missing out on a lot if they focus solely on romance. Laney is an extremely well-developed character and, believe it or not, so is June-- who isn't even there anymore. The questions Harper has to ask and answer about her sister's death are thought-provoking, and at the same time it never becomes one of those soggy, bawl-your-eyes-out-and-get-crushed-by-the-weight-of-sorrow novels. It's believably plotted in a way that's not predictable or boring, and the emotional ride is somewhere between floating on waves and riding a rollercoaster. It's heartbreaking at times, yes, and you'll never hear "Let It Be" the same way again, but you come out of it without feeling like you've sunken two feet into the ground. Heck, you'll probably feel a little bit lighter.

“I gaze out at the glittering sea, the breathtaking sky above it, and think of birds and the moment before the fall, and how my sister as a child had been strong enough for the both of us, and I wonder when exactly that changed. I don't know when, but it did. Jake was right - I'm strong in a way June never was. Because I know that I want to be here. Even with the pain. Even with the ugliness. I've seen the other side - marching side by side down city streets with people who all believe they can change the world and the view of the sunset from Fridgehenge and Tom Waits lyrics and doing the waltz and kisses so hot they melt into each other and best friends who hold your hand and stretching out underneath a sky draped with stars and everything else. 

There is so much beauty in just existing. In being alive. I don't want to miss a second.” 

 ★★★★★

Recommended for: Anyone. Specifically fans of John Green, Gayle Forman, Lauren Oliver, Jennifer E. Smith, and yes, The Sky is Everywhere