“I Will Save You” by Matt de la Pena is a book about a boy named Kidd who suffers from a traumatic experience as a child. Throughout the book he is dealing with a internal conflict to not be like his old self, and to not hurt the ones he loves, like his mother did. It takes place in the 2000s, in a beach town called Cardiff. Kidd escapes from his foster home called horizons and finds himself in a beach working for a man named Mr.Red. While working there, he meets his old friend from horizons named Devon. He is a wild person who hates the upper class and has a death drive. Devon is always pulling off shenanigans and Kidd believes Devon wants to hurt the ones he loves. The book is narrated by Kidd as memories while he is in solitary confinement in prison. He is in there because in the beginning of the book, we find out he murders Devon. The story then tells you all of the events that lead up to the murder. The characters are very different from one another at first. As the book goes on you learn that they aren't all so different, and that Kidd is trying to be more like the people around him. The end of the book leaves you shocked and all the confusion you may have had before, about what you though you read, is cleared up. Everything makes sense, and you realize that not everything was as you read, and it gives the book a much deeper meaning. What I did not like about the book was the confusion throughout the story. You will read one thing but then later in the book the author will contradict what we learned about the past. However this is necessary for the ending to tie everything together. Overall I would rate this book a 5 out of 5. The story line was engaging and the author leaves little inklings throughout to hint you about the ending but you still just won’t see it coming. It felt like a 300 page long joke and at the end you finally get the punchline and it all makes sense. Instead of laughing your thinking about each and every event that happened, and all the oddities that didn’t seem to be normal behavior come together.
Kidd escapes from his foster home called horizons and finds himself in a beach working for a man named Mr.Red. While working there, he meets his old friend from horizons named Devon. He is a wild person who hates the upper class and has a death drive. Devon is always pulling off shenanigans and Kidd believes Devon wants to hurt the ones he loves. The book is narrated by Kidd as memories while he is in solitary confinement in prison. He is in there because in the beginning of the book, we find out he murders Devon. The story then tells you all of the events that lead up to the murder.
The characters are very different from one another at first. As the book goes on you learn that they aren't all so different, and that Kidd is trying to be more like the people around him. The end of the book leaves you shocked and all the confusion you may have had before, about what you though you read, is cleared up. Everything makes sense, and you realize that not everything was as you read, and it gives the book a much deeper meaning.
What I did not like about the book was the confusion throughout the story. You will read one thing but then later in the book the author will contradict what we learned about the past. However this is necessary for the ending to tie everything together.
Overall I would rate this book a 5 out of 5. The story line was engaging and the author leaves little inklings throughout to hint you about the ending but you still just won’t see it coming. It felt like a 300 page long joke and at the end you finally get the punchline and it all makes sense. Instead of laughing your thinking about each and every event that happened, and all the oddities that didn’t seem to be normal behavior come together.