Review: Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet

by:  Kelly Braffet
published by:  Crown
publish date:  August 6, 2013

Patrick Cusimano is in a bad way. His father is in jail, he works the midnight shift at a grubby convenience store, and his brother's girlfriend, Caro, has taken their friendship to an uncomfortable new level. On top of all that, he can't quite shake the attentions of Layla Elshere, a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn't understand and doesn't fully trust. The temptations these two women offer are pushing him to his breaking point.
The publish date on this book is a while off, but I picked this book up and couldn't put it down.  I was really impressed by it.  I've been in a bit of an "actual book" reading slump for awhile.  I've been tearing through audiobooks like crazy, but when it comes to an actual book in hand, nothing has held my interest in quite awhile.  The little blurb about this book said it was like Gillian Flynn and Donald Ray Pollock, and I happen to enjoy the darkness of both of those writers so I was really interested in reading this book.

Save Yourself tells the intertwining stories of Patrick and Layla.  Patrick is stuck in a dead end job in a town where everyone knows his family's terrible story.  He is the son of an alcoholic that killed a boy while drunk driving, and he turned his own father in to the police, but not fast enough for the town's forgiveness.  Layla is a preacher's daughter gone goth and fallen under the spell of a sadistic psychopath.  Layla is dragging her perfectly obedient little sister down with her and gets Patrick involved in all of their drama as well.

I read almost this entire book in one sitting.  If it wasn't like 2 am and I wasn't utterly exhausted I would have stayed up and read the whole thing.  Next day, I flew through the rest of it.  I loved this book.  It was the first book by Kelly Braffet I've read, and I'll will definitely be adding her name to the list of authors to keep an eye out for.