This Song Is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin

There’s a simplicity to lines like Ramona’s declaration that, “if it wasn’t for Sam and the band, I’d have gone crazy years ago,” which might make a cynical adult reader groan, but this is followed with the far more profound, “I’ve made it clear that high school is an abysmal den of idiocy, right?” (page 26) which adds more complex layers to the character. Structurally, however, it’s an effective way of showing the speed with which attachments form, adding to the intensity of feeling on display. The chapters alternate between the three protagonists as narrator, and with each chapter only being a couple of pages long, this does sometimes make the reader’s head spin a little bit. Have you ever met someone and you could feel that they were going to be important to you? It’s like you never knew it, but you’ve been waiting your whole life to meet this person, and you recognize him with the same ease that you recognize your reflection.

It’s a bit less subtle than Franklin’s book, although Nowlin achieves a level of slow-burning intensity which avoids the much-maligned “insta-love” cliché and resembles a more believable attachment between the trio. This pair, secretly in love with each other, are soon joined by Tom, and the plot thickens. The characters in question in This Song is (Not) For You are long-time best friends Ramona and Sam, who make up April and the Rain, a band with one internet groupie. Nowlin’s book bears more than a little resemblance to another book I’ve recently reviewed here at Fourth and Sycamore: like Emily Franklin’s Last Night at the Circle Cinema, which was this book’s equivalent in length, it focuses intently on a trio of teens involved in a complex love triangle figuring out their futures. (Incidentally, this is how I read it, and it was a bad idea, because it meant I stayed up too late and then couldn’t get to sleep because I was drafting this review in my head. Nowlin somehow manages to convey this with sparse narrative and unadorned dialogue, within a story you can easily read in a single sitting. It is deceptively slight–just 230 pages–with very short chapters and a relatively simple style, yet conveys some of the most complex emotional thinking I’ve seen in YA.

This Song is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin (Sourcebooks Fire, 2016) is kind of a weird book: not really in terms of its subject matter, but in its delivery.

This Song Is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin