Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël



Struggling to figure out what to read next, visiting one of my local Little Free Libraries turned serendipitous when I picked up this book with my not-quite-that-common name (and its spelling) in its title and learned that death and complicated grief were the main themes of this young adult novel.

The first few words of Saving Zoë instantly grabbed my attention and I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it down until I learned along with Echo, the protagonist, more about her murdered sister, Zoë, and just exactly what happened to her.

Right off the bat, Alyson Noël tackles the subject of the five stages of grief when her protagonist, Echo, discloses how “up until last year I didn’t know there were lists like that.” The unfortunate circumstance that teaches her a lot about grief and how it can become complicated is her older sister Zoë’s murder right before Echo’s 14^th birthday. Echo details her struggles of reaching the final stage of acceptance when she often still hovers around the fourth stage of depression.

In Saving Zoë, Noël poignantly blends twinkles of humor from more typical teen trysts, such as navigating through all of the confusing moments with first experiences of love and dealing with difficult parents, to heart-wrenching moments where an overwhelming amount grief, loneliness and sadness consume Echo’s daily functioning in the days right before and months right after the first year anniversary of Zoë’s death.

Alyson Noël
(Credit: amazon.co.uk)

Readers get to journey with Echo when the late Zoë’s boyfriend, Marc, hands Zoë’s diary that he kept safe from the police over to her, so that she can get to know better the sister she didn’t really know towards the end of Zoë’s tragically short life before it ended in brutal murder.

As soon as she begins reading the diary, Echo endures even more drama as she uncovers the dark secrets Zoë kept from everyone during her last few months in the hopes of accomplishing her lifelong dream of becoming a famous model and actress to escape the town.

Although the book definitely has its very sad moments that make you feel as though you are going through the roller coaster of grief alongside Echo, the overall message of the book completes itself on a positive note.

My only major gripe is that the book ends on a too chipper note. While I’m happy that Echo finally understands her sister and can move on with her life now, I sincerely wished that Noël hadn’t followed the age-old YA method of “books must always end with silver linings no matter how difficult the situations the characters are facing might be” that I remember learning about in a workshop back in my college days.

The ending seemed just a tad too clichéd for everything that Echo endured and learned during the first year and a half after Zoë’s murder.