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A review by mariahistryingtoread
Ellie Engle Saves Herself by Leah Johnson
2.0
Ellie Engle Saves Herself is more of a coming of age story with a dash of magic than an actually magical story. Based on the synopsis, I expected it to be the core of the book, but it's about 40% give or take. The viral video that is supposed to be so significant doesn't even happen until halfway into the book.
I loved Ellie's character arc about learning how to deal with change and navigate complex interpersonal relationships. Change is hard at any age, but lacking the life experience to build coping skills, find a way to improve the situation, or even reach out for comfort makes it particularly difficult when you're young. The most important part of the book is - like the title implies - Ellie saving herself. What that looks like is messy and evolving, but the point is that Ellie doesn't let her fear of the unknown or failure stop her from trying.
The second half of the book is all about how Ellie's powers affect her life now that everyone knows, however, I felt like that aspect was not as well written. It took way too long for her to be discovered, and when she is, it blows over relatively quickly because an incident causes people to believe she's merely a fraud. Her powers were a part of Ellie discovering the power she had all along - ie confidence and security in who she is - but I would have appreciated if they were more relevant to the plot not just character dynamics. I'm going to get into spoiler territory here, so be warned.
For example, Ellie keeps saying that she wants to find a way to help her mother with her powers as her mom works 2 jobs to support the family now that her father has abandoned them and Ellie's beloved grandfather is deceased. All this amounts to until 60% into the book is helping some dying rutabagas grow so that she can bring a bag of them home for dinner one night. They're hurting for money in a general sense, but there are never any food scarcity issues, so while helpful, it's not particularly special. When her big opportunity comes, it's essentially forced on her as Willa Moon - a famous actress - pops up to ask her to revive her dog when Ellie goes viral.
If the viral video is going to be so late in the book, I think the story would have flowed better if Ellie secretly started reviving things for money around town to help the household. The first half would have been Ellie secretly reviving things as a makeshift superhero, and then the viral video is when she gets caught. Willa Moon approaches her with the offer and though Ellie has started to feel weird about it now - the viral video has now opened her up to a barrage of ethical considerations she's been ignoring - she agrees anyway to get the money. This change would tie together the plot thread about Ellie deciding what kind of superhero she wants now that she's been given this gift, makes her powers less of an afterthought in the first half, and would make her decree to help her mom less like narrative hot air.
When Willa Moon asks Ellie to revive her dog, they quickly find out that Ellie's powers are a give and take. By bringing one dog back to life, Willa Moon's other dog is automatically killed in its place. This slides neatly into my above idea as Ella's downfall would be her compromising her integrity for money as she would be ignoring signs that things were off with her powers and the Willa Moon revelation would bring this into stark relief on live tv.
The give and take aspect also doesn't remain firm, which undermines the entire message of sacrifice being an essential part of life. When Ellie brings back her first plant, her pet beta fish, and a dead frog prepped for dissection, there is no sacrifice made. Nothing dies in their stead, and there is no explanation as to why this is. So, the fact that Willa Moon's dogs have to trade their lives feels random.
Additionally, when everyone finds out about Ellie's powers, it's noted that the only people who stalk her are the news and a bunch of people who view her as either a liar or abomination. It makes absolutely no sense that nobody other than Willa Moon tries to ask her to revive someone. There would be desperate parents, doctors, lawyers, adults, children, whatever of all shapes, sizes, religions, backgrounds beating down her door for her power. No amount of accusations of fraudulence would deter them when she's literally (in their eyes) the only way to reclaim their loved one(s). Especially since literally all it takes is one person to catch her by surprise, touch a dead thing to her skin, and everyone would immediately know that it wasn't fraud.
It is impossible that she would be able to simply move on and people leave her alone because it's too easy to prove it's not a lie. People would be throwing dead stuff at her constantly or worse, begging her for assistance at every turn. She would have to move and change her name in order to get any peace.
The way Johnson has the reveal play out is absurdly unrealistic, to the point I could no longer even enjoy the story as it played out, I was so annoyed.
The supporting cast is underdeveloped. I recently saw that Breonna Boyd, a childhood acquaintance turned actual friend, has her own book, so that might explain why she doesn't get as much focus. However, I don't think that's any excuse not to develop her now to incentivize reading her original story. Sammy Sparks, Ellie's mother, and Ellie's surrogate grandfather, Mr. Walker do not appear enough either based on how important they supposedly are to Ellie. If a character is said to be a key part of a characters' life, then I expect to see plenty of interaction to justify it. Abby, Ellie's best friend turned short-term frenemy, is an example of how the character usage should be executed. She is present consistently throughout, Ellie thinks of her often, and she's directly tied to the events of the story.
On a positive note: I liked that Ellie coming out was not a focal point of the story. Coming to terms with being queer underscored her arc, however, coming out was never presented as a necessary component to her growth. Being comfortable in her skin was vastly more important than aspiring to some arbitrary standard of queerness. Coming out does not have to be the end all be all for queer stories, particularly because not everyone decides to come out for one reason or another.
A decent book marked by logical inconsistencies, poor pacing, and a (seemingly!) tacked on superhero gimmick. The book would have been a lot better as a straightforward coming of age story.
I loved Ellie's character arc about learning how to deal with change and navigate complex interpersonal relationships. Change is hard at any age, but lacking the life experience to build coping skills, find a way to improve the situation, or even reach out for comfort makes it particularly difficult when you're young. The most important part of the book is - like the title implies - Ellie saving herself. What that looks like is messy and evolving, but the point is that Ellie doesn't let her fear of the unknown or failure stop her from trying.
The second half of the book is all about how Ellie's powers affect her life now that everyone knows, however, I felt like that aspect was not as well written. It took way too long for her to be discovered, and when she is, it blows over relatively quickly because an incident causes people to believe she's merely a fraud. Her powers were a part of Ellie discovering the power she had all along - ie confidence and security in who she is - but I would have appreciated if they were more relevant to the plot not just character dynamics. I'm going to get into spoiler territory here, so be warned.
For example, Ellie keeps saying that she wants to find a way to help her mother with her powers as her mom works 2 jobs to support the family now that her father has abandoned them and Ellie's beloved grandfather is deceased. All this amounts to until 60% into the book is helping some dying rutabagas grow so that she can bring a bag of them home for dinner one night. They're hurting for money in a general sense, but there are never any food scarcity issues, so while helpful, it's not particularly special. When her big opportunity comes, it's essentially forced on her as Willa Moon - a famous actress - pops up to ask her to revive her dog when Ellie goes viral.
If the viral video is going to be so late in the book, I think the story would have flowed better if Ellie secretly started reviving things for money around town to help the household. The first half would have been Ellie secretly reviving things as a makeshift superhero, and then the viral video is when she gets caught. Willa Moon approaches her with the offer and though Ellie has started to feel weird about it now - the viral video has now opened her up to a barrage of ethical considerations she's been ignoring - she agrees anyway to get the money. This change would tie together the plot thread about Ellie deciding what kind of superhero she wants now that she's been given this gift, makes her powers less of an afterthought in the first half, and would make her decree to help her mom less like narrative hot air.
When Willa Moon asks Ellie to revive her dog, they quickly find out that Ellie's powers are a give and take. By bringing one dog back to life, Willa Moon's other dog is automatically killed in its place. This slides neatly into my above idea as Ella's downfall would be her compromising her integrity for money as she would be ignoring signs that things were off with her powers and the Willa Moon revelation would bring this into stark relief on live tv.
The give and take aspect also doesn't remain firm, which undermines the entire message of sacrifice being an essential part of life. When Ellie brings back her first plant, her pet beta fish, and a dead frog prepped for dissection, there is no sacrifice made. Nothing dies in their stead, and there is no explanation as to why this is. So, the fact that Willa Moon's dogs have to trade their lives feels random.
Additionally, when everyone finds out about Ellie's powers, it's noted that the only people who stalk her are the news and a bunch of people who view her as either a liar or abomination. It makes absolutely no sense that nobody other than Willa Moon tries to ask her to revive someone. There would be desperate parents, doctors, lawyers, adults, children, whatever of all shapes, sizes, religions, backgrounds beating down her door for her power. No amount of accusations of fraudulence would deter them when she's literally (in their eyes) the only way to reclaim their loved one(s). Especially since literally all it takes is one person to catch her by surprise, touch a dead thing to her skin, and everyone would immediately know that it wasn't fraud.
It is impossible that she would be able to simply move on and people leave her alone because it's too easy to prove it's not a lie. People would be throwing dead stuff at her constantly or worse, begging her for assistance at every turn. She would have to move and change her name in order to get any peace.
The way Johnson has the reveal play out is absurdly unrealistic, to the point I could no longer even enjoy the story as it played out, I was so annoyed.
The supporting cast is underdeveloped. I recently saw that Breonna Boyd, a childhood acquaintance turned actual friend, has her own book, so that might explain why she doesn't get as much focus. However, I don't think that's any excuse not to develop her now to incentivize reading her original story. Sammy Sparks, Ellie's mother, and Ellie's surrogate grandfather, Mr. Walker do not appear enough either based on how important they supposedly are to Ellie. If a character is said to be a key part of a characters' life, then I expect to see plenty of interaction to justify it. Abby, Ellie's best friend turned short-term frenemy, is an example of how the character usage should be executed. She is present consistently throughout, Ellie thinks of her often, and she's directly tied to the events of the story.
On a positive note: I liked that Ellie coming out was not a focal point of the story. Coming to terms with being queer underscored her arc, however, coming out was never presented as a necessary component to her growth. Being comfortable in her skin was vastly more important than aspiring to some arbitrary standard of queerness. Coming out does not have to be the end all be all for queer stories, particularly because not everyone decides to come out for one reason or another.
A decent book marked by logical inconsistencies, poor pacing, and a (seemingly!) tacked on superhero gimmick. The book would have been a lot better as a straightforward coming of age story.