Books like 'How to Save a Life'

Readers who enjoyed How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  realistic  family  grief  coming-of-age  friendship  drama  high-school  teens 

  • Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

    Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Hunter. Autumn. Summer.Different homes. Different guardians. Different last names.Different lives.But there is one person who binds them together.Kristina.Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster---crank---her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear...
  • November Blues by Sharon M. Draper

    November Blues by Sharon M. Draper

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can't possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November's life forever, and now she's faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh's parents take the news? She's never needed a friend more...
  • I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson

    I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew. But it wasn’t to be.Jess never imagined she’d be navigating single motherhood, let alone while facing breast cancer. A life that should be just beginning is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations, and the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her...
  • Differently Normal by Tammy Robinson

    Differently Normal by Tammy Robinson

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Every family has its issues. For Maddy, life is all about routine. It has to be, to keep her autistic sister happy and healthy. With just Maddy and her mother as Bee’s full time carers, there’s no time in Maddy’s life for complications like friends, let alone a boyfriend...
  • Bronxwood by Coe Booth

    Bronxwood by Coe Booth

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The acclaimed author of TYRELL and KENDRA returns to PUSH to continue Tyrell's astonishing story. Tyrell's father is just out of jail, and Tyrell doesn't know how to deal with that. It's bad enough that his brother Troy is in foster care and that his mother is no help whatsoever. Now there's another thing up in his face, just when he's trying to settle down...
  • The Stars Don't Lie by Boo Walker

    The Stars Don't Lie by Boo Walker

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A man who thought he put his shattered past behind him embarks on a reflective journey home in a heartfelt novel by the bestselling author of The Singing Trees and A Spanish Sunrise.Haunted by a tragic decision he made twenty years ago, veterinarian Dr. Carver Livingston has not once returned to his Vermont hometown...
  • Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert

    Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    An aspiring film writer tells about her troubled teen years in the Chicago suburbs when she and her friends tried to escape the pain of their lives through rock music and drugs...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  friendship  realistic  sad  angst
  • To Live Again by Lurlene McDaniel

    To Live Again by Lurlene McDaniel

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Dawn Rochelle looks like any other seventeen-year-old girt, but looks can be deceiving. At the age of thirteen, Dawn was diagnosed with leukemia. Now almost three years into remission, Dawn is a senior in high school and looking forward to college. But her plans are disrupted when she suffers another medical crisis that causes partial paralysis...
  • Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

    Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    In the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, a harrowing account of anorexia and addiction.She was a good girl from a good family, with everything she could want or need. But below the surface, she felt like she could never be good enough. Like she could never live up to the expectations that surrounded her. Like she couldn’t do anything to make a change...
  • The Year of Chasing Dreams by Lurlene McDaniel

    The Year of Chasing Dreams by Lurlene McDaniel

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    "Readers will swoon over this story of love despite impossible odds."--Romantic TimesFrom the author of Don't Die, My Love comes this young adult novel that intertwines a family saga with a grand love story. This novel stands alone or can be read as the companion to The Year of Luminous Love and Wishes and Dreams. For fans of Sarah Dessen's The Moon and More and Ann Brashares's Forever in Blue...
  • Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney

    Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Doomed loves, failed families, nixed dreamssomeone else's leftovers are heaped on our plates the day we come into this world. Big Macs and pop tunes mask the emptiness as Madeline watches her mom drink away their welfare checks. Until the day Tad, a quirky McDonald's counter boy, asks Madeline out for a date, and she gets her first taste of normal...
  • Heartstrings by Heather Gunter

    Heartstrings by Heather Gunter

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Everyone thinks of me as this happy and upbeat person. What they don't know is that I carry a deep, dark secret. Something horrible happened to me a year ago, and I have kept it quiet all this time. I was fine for a while, but somehow it’s chosen this time to come back, and it's eating at me--like a cancer. I need to tell someone about it, I just don't know how...
  • Ethan Between Us by Anna Myers, Julia Laserna

    Ethan Between Us by Anna Myers, Julia Laserna

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Ethan is different. He is gorgeous, easy to talk to, and a uniquely gifted pianist. But his musical talent is both a gift and a curse. The doctors label him a schizophrenic, as he claims to have been taught by a long-dead, 19th-century composer...
  • The Summer I Saved the World . . . in 65 Days by Michele Weber Hurwitz

    The Summer I Saved the World . . . in 65 Days by Michele Weber Hurwitz

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    It's the summer before freshman year in high school and Nina decides to follow what someone said at her middle-school graduation: "Be unnoticed, but be remarkable." Her best friend Jorie is focusing on boys, clothes, and popularity, her lawyer parents are diving into a new case, and this is the first summer without her beloved Grandma, so she's is feeling a little lost...
  • Somewhere Between Life and Death by Lurlene McDaniel

    Somewhere Between Life and Death by Lurlene McDaniel

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The celebration isn't supposed to end in tragedy. The night of their high-school drama group's cast party starts out as fun for sisters Amy and Erin. Their lives come crashing down when Amy takes the car to get more food and has a horrible accident. Erin and her family pray for Amy to awaken from her coma...
  • Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley

    Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Fans of Jandy Nelson and Marieke Nijkamp will love this deeply moving novel in verse about the aftermath of a gun accident. Life changes forever for Liv when her older brother, Jonah, accidentally shoots himself with his best friend Clay’s father’s gun...
  • What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    A searing yet ultimately uplifting young adult novel about a teenage girl's recovery from anorexia.Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has honed a dangerous skill: starving herself. Even when her parents send her to a treatment center, she can't stop. Then she begins receiving packages from someone she doesn't know...
  • The Falling Leaf Never Hates the Wind by Tere Liye

    The Falling Leaf Never Hates the Wind by Tere Liye

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    He is like an angel to our family. He saved me, my brother, and Mother from destitution and misery of street lives. He provided us with food, shelter, helped to pay for school, and promised a better future for us. He truly is like an angel to our family. He loves us, cares for us, and sets an example without expecting anything at all in return...
  • Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin

    Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The only daughter of supermodel Katia Summers, witty and thoughtful Lizzie Summers likes to stick to the sidelines. The sole heir to Metronome Media and daughter of billionaire Karl Jurgensen, outspoken Carina Jurgensen would rather climb mountains than social ladders. Daughter of chart-topping pop icon Holla Jones, stylish and sensitive Hudson Jones is on the brink of her own music breakthrough...
  • I For You by Orizuka

    I For You by Orizuka

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Suatu hari dalam hidupku, kau dan aku bertemu. Masih jelas di ingatanku sosokmu yang memukauku. Lidahku jadi kelu, mulutku terkatup rapat karena malu. Setiap malam, bayangmu menari-nari dalam benakku. Ada sejuta alasan mengapa aku begitu memujamu. Kau menyinari relung gelap hatiku. Kau satu-satunya orang yang ingin kurengkuh. Kau yang bertanggung jawab atas segala rindu...
  • Between Two Skies by Joanne O'Sullivan

    Between Two Skies by Joanne O'Sullivan

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Hurricane Katrina sets a teenage girl adrift. But a new life and the promise of love emerges in this rich, highly readable debut.Bayou Perdu, a tiny fishing town way, way down in Louisiana, is home to sixteen-year-old Evangeline Riley. She has her best friends, Kendra and Danielle; her wise, beloved Mamere; and back-to-back titles in the under-sixteen fishing rodeo...
  • That Night by Amy Giles

    That Night by Amy Giles

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    One night in March, a terrible tragedy shakes the Queens neighborhood where Jessica Nolan and Lucas Rossi live.The year since the shooting has played out differently for Jess and Lucas, both of whom were affected by that night in eerily similar, and deeply personal, ways...
  • Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

    Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Jane Arrowood, otherwise known as Shark Girl, has been living with just one arm for over a year. Now she’s searching for a new normal. It’s been a year since the shark attack that took Jane’s arm, and with it, everything she used to take for granted. Her dream of becoming an artist is on the line, and everything now seems out of reach, including her gorgeous, kind tutor, Max Shannon...
  • The Weight of Destiny by Nyrae Dawn

    The Weight of Destiny by Nyrae Dawn

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    When “crazy” runs in your family and your namesake is known for walking into a river with a pocket full of rocks, a girl kind of wants to avoid tempting fate at all costs. For Virginia Nichols, the only way to dodge that bullet is to be perfect at everything: school, student council, life. Too bad it’s all a lie, and underneath the perfection...Virginia is lost...
  • Surviving High School by M. Doty

    Surviving High School by M. Doty

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    What's the secret to surviving your freshman year of high school? Emily Kessler thinks she has it all figured out. She eats, sleeps and trains for competitive swimming. All she has to do is keep her grades high and swim times short -- short enough to live up to her sister Sara's. But walking the crowded maze of unfamiliar high school hallways is like diving headfirst into shark-infested waters...
  • Don't Forget Me by Victoria Stevens

    Don't Forget Me by Victoria Stevens

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Seventeen-year-old Hazel Clarke is no stranger to heartbreaks, and being sent to live with a father she’s never met is the latest in a string of them. Even the beauty of eastern Australia isn’t enough to take her mind off her mother and the life she had to leave behind in England...
  • Safer Outside by Kristina Renee

    Safer Outside by Kristina Renee

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    When Liz moves to a new high school, she hopes for a fresh start. School is her escape from the violence at home and her only hope at breaking the cycle of poverty she was born into. Trying to shield her siblings from her stepfather's fury gets harder each day so when she meets Logan, she thinks it will be a harmless distraction from the fear. She's Wrong...
  • Outrunning The Darkness by Anne Schraff

    Outrunning The Darkness by Anne Schraff

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Themes: Hi-Lo, High school, neighborhoods, family, loyalty, friendship, urban teen fiction, self esteem, teen relationships, unrequited love. Written for young adults, the Urban Underground series confronts issues that are of great importance to teens, such as friendship, loyalty, drugs, gangs, abuse, urban blight, bullies, and self-esteem to name a few...
  • Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor

    Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend's life-threatening illness.Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick...
  • Sing Me to Sleep by Angela Morrison

    Sing Me to Sleep by Angela Morrison

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    THE TRANSFORMATION Beth has always been "The Beast", that's what everyone at school calls her because of her awkward height, facial scars, and thick glasses. Beth's only friend is geeky, golden-haired Scott. That is, until she's selected to be her choir's soprano soloist, and receives the makeover that will change her life forever...
  • The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder

    The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    One moment can change everything.Amber’s life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself.Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell he’s also looking for an escape...
  • I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

    I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    “For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel envy…” Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her...
  • Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

    Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Halley has always followed in the wake of her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his baby, she was devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it'll never break--because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever...
  • The Bridge from Me to You by Lisa Schroeder

    The Bridge from Me to You by Lisa Schroeder

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Lauren has a secret. Colby has a problem. But when they find each other, everything falls into place. Lauren is the new girl in town with a dark secret. Colby is the football hero with a dream of something more. In alternating chapters, they come together, fall apart, and build something stronger than either of them thought possible--something to truly believe in...
  • Winter White by Jen Calonita

    Winter White by Jen Calonita

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Isabelle Scott and Mirabelle Monroe are still reeling from the revelation that they share more than just the roof over their heads. The media has pounced on their story, and while Izzie and Mira have each put on a happy public face, someone is leaking their true feelings to the press. It seems as if the world is watching their every move, but at least the girls have each other...
  • Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

    Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When Ivy Emerson’s family loses their house—complete with her beloved piano—the fear of what’s to come seizes her like a bad case of stage fright. Only this isn’t one of her single, terrifying performances. It’s her life.And it isn’t pretty.Ivy is forced to move with her family out of their affluent neighborhood to Lakeside, also known as “the wrong side of the tracks...
  • Just Breathe by Cammie McGovern

    Just Breathe by Cammie McGovern

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    From the critically acclaimed author of Say What You Will and A Step Toward Falling comes a deeply emotional new novel, perfect for fans of Five Feet Apart and The Fault in Our Stars . David Scheinman is the popular president of his senior class, battling cystic fibrosis. Jamie Turner is a quiet sophomore, struggling with depression...
  • After Iris by Natasha Farrant

    After Iris by Natasha Farrant

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    An unforgettable middle-grade debut that will steal your heart Blue Gadsby’s twin sister, Iris, died three years ago and her family has never been the same. Her histrionic older sister, Flora, changes her hair color daily; her younger siblings, Jasmine and Twig, are completely obsessed with their pet rats; and both of her parents spend weeks away from home–and each other...
  • What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

    What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Who is the real McLean? Since her parents' bitter divorce, McLean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move-four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, McLean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva...
  • Finding Freia Lockhart by Aimee Said

    Finding Freia Lockhart by Aimee Said

    Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Freia Lockhart just wants to fit in at school but her best friend Kate is determined to get in with the popular Bs: Belinda, Bethanee and Brianna. Even Freia knows when she hangs out with the Bs she fits in like a turkey in a flock of flamingos. Kate convinces Freia to audition for the school play so they can 'all hang out together' and meet all the cute guys...
  • Unfriend You: Masihkah Kau Temanku? by Dyah Rinni, Nico Rosady

    Unfriend You: Masihkah Kau Temanku? by Dyah Rinni, Nico Rosady

    Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Aku adalah noda untuk dosa yang tak kulakukan.Aku mencoba bertahan, berusaha mengerti;mungkin ada bagian dari dirimu yang tak bisa kuraih...
  • Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

    Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

    Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole -- a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her -- she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate . . . someone who truly loves and understands her. At first, Alex is blissfully happy...
  • Love and Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson

    Love and Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson

    Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    After a not-quite-peachy year apart, three Georgia peaches come home to Darlington Orchard When Murphy chose New York City, she left her first love behind. Now, a summer in Bridgewater means trading subway trains for pickup trucks and facing the boy she turned her back on...
  • The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding

    The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding

    Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Things I know about Reece Malcolm: 1. She graduated from New York University. 2. She lives in or near Los Angeles. 3. Since her first novel was released, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list every week. 4. She likes strong coffee and bourbon. 5. She’s my mother...
  • Adored by Cecily von Ziegesar

    Adored by Cecily von Ziegesar

    Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Brett Messerschmidt is organizing Waverly Academy's annual holiday ball and secret gift exchange. But when some enterprising students decide that playing Secret Satan is infinitely more fun, the entire school starts acting naughty. All Brett wants is a successful party-and a goodnight kiss from unexpected crush Sebastian Valenti...
  • Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

    Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

    Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Warm Hawaiian sun. Lazy beach days. Flirty texts with her boyfriend back in Seattle.These are the things seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre pictured when she imagined the summer she’d be spending at her mom’s home in Hawaii with her twin brother, Penn...
  • Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

    Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

    Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    “Just let it go.”That’s what everyone keeps telling Hadley St. Clair after she learns that her father cheated on her mother. But Hadley doesn’t want to let it go. She wants to be angry and she wants everyone in her life—her dad most of all—to leave her alone.Sam Bennett and his family have had their share of drama too...
  • 7 Clues to Winning You by Kristin Walker

    7 Clues to Winning You by Kristin Walker

    Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When a humiliating picture of Blythe goes viral, she's instantly the target of ridicule at her new school. To salvage her reputation, Blythe teams up with Luke to win the Senior Scramble scavenger hunt. But Luke is an unlikely ally and potentially can't be trusted. Perhaps it's his Shakespearean witticisms that reel Blythe in despite her better judgment . .
  • Forever Changed by Tiffany King

    Forever Changed by Tiffany King

    Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Kassandra Cole has it all—a stable home with great parents, popularity and all the friends she could ever need. She is used to a lifestyle where everything comes easy to her, from good grades to being captain of the cheerleading squad.Her entire world is shaken to the core when a fatal accident takes her father, causing Kassandra to re-examine the course her life was on...
  • Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell

    Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell

    Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Rebecca Blue is a rebel with an attitude whose life is changed by a chance encounter with a soon-to-be dead girl. Rebel (as she’s known) decides to complete the dead girl’s bucket list to prove that choice, not chance, controls her fate. In doing so, she unexpectedly opens her mind and heart to a world she once dismissed—a world of friendships, family, and faith...
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
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