Saving Zoë

“They say there are five stages of grief: 1. Denial, 2.Anger, 3.Bargaining, 4. Depression, 5.Acceptance.”

These are the five stages of grief Echo was just going through a year ago.
Echo’s sister Zoë died a year before her school started. She wants to have a fresh start in high school but instead high school leaves her with grief, isolation and doubt about friendships. For her 15th birthday Zoë’s ex-boyfriend gives her Zoë’s diary about her life. As Echo starts unfolding her sister’s diary, she finds herself trying to live in her sisters world and the bits and pieces of her own life start to come together. Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël is novel about a 15-year-old girl dealing with different situations in life and finding out who she really is.

This book has two main characters: Echo and Zoë. Zoë’s secret life story is told through her diary as Echo is reading it, alternating chapters with Echo’s own experiences and her growing understanding of Zoë’s life. Echo is the shy and smart sister who is always afraid to try things. Zoë is the fun, wild one that’s always putting her life in a risk. The difference between the sisters makes the reader question about which sister makes the right choices. As Echo starts reading Zoë’s diary she figures out that she really didn’t know her sister. Echo wishes she could have been there to help her sister get through all the struggles. As Echo gets deeper into the diary, she starts realizing that her sister is not going to come back and she has to learn to live up to her sisters memories.

The use of foreshadowing really pulls you into you in the book. The author
is constantly giving hints to the reader about how Zoë died. In every entry of Zoë’s diary the author gives clues to figure out the murderer and you have to put the pieces together. The use of foreshadowing creates suspension and mystery, and makes you feel like a detective. The hints the author gives is always twisting around in the story. You think something is going to happen but instead something else happens. At first I thought Zoë died of a car accident but after the author started mentioning Zoë’s big secrets it made me change my mind about the murderer.

Alyson Noel’s writing gives you goose bumps as you’re reading the meaning of friendships, death and relationships throughout the book. She has shown how much someone can mean to one even long after they’re gone. Saving Zoë deals with many issues prevalent today. If you like a book with a little bit of humor, but a also a sad touch to it, I highly recommend this book to you. It will keep you at the edge of your seat.