Review: Salvation by Anne Osterlund

Genre: Young Adult Romance
Series: No
Pages: 276
Copyright: 2013
Publisher: speak
Buy: Amazon

Summary: from Good Reads
A smart, unexpected romance from an award-winning author.

Salvador Resendez--Salva to his friends--appears to have it all. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill them. He's student body president, quarterback of the football team, and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.

Especially Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is used to blending into the background. But she's also smart, and she has serious plans for her future.

Popular guy and bookish girl--the two have almost nothing in common. Until fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever--because she knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.

Then tragedy strikes--and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has worked for. Will Beth's love be enough to save him?

Thoughtful and romantic, this is a beautifully written story about following your heart and fulfilling your potential.

Feelings: 
This novel surprised me. I wasn't expecting an intelligent story that dealt with race, poverty, and high school. That is asking a lot of a young adult novel. I had previously read Aurelia, and enjoyed it so I thought I might read another book by the author. Salvation is very different. I thought their might be a fantasy element since the previous novel had it. However, this one is set in reality. 

There are small details throughout the novel that don't slam home the poverty and race issues the book covers but add to the story. They build the feeling of being stuck in a hard place.

Salva scanned the stark classroom. The seniors sat so frozen in their seats you'd have thought the air-conditioning was working. (p. 8)

Many of the characters in the novel are Hispanic and dealing with the racism and poverty of being the minority.

"You tell your real boss," the guy said to him, "I'm talkin' to someone who speaks English on the phone, not this Spanish flunky. This is America." (p. 109)

The sad thing is I've seen white Americans treat non-white Americans exactly this way. Reading it hopefully people will see how despicable these action is and how it reflects poorly on all Americans. I want to think of America as a place where we accept others for who they are. However, this is not the reality.

This novel doesn't allow the characters to feel sorry for themselves because they aren't going to the best school and their options are limited because of poverty and race. I respect that. The characters in this novel were strong. I enjoyed both Beth and Salva's perspective. They had dreams and they weren't going to be held back by the situation they found themselves in. Their relationship starts slowly. They are friends at first. Although they are both conflicted about their feelings, things progress in a fashion that you would expect from two shy teenagers.  For me the relationship was nice but it was the strength of the characters that made the story for me.

I recommend this book. I know I've only given it a three bird rating but that is because I prefer fantasy. This was very good for not being fantasy.