INVINCIBLE SUMMER Playlist: Song 11

SONG #11: "Time Won't Let Me Go" by The Bravery.

This is another song I'm not incredibly fond of, but I never mind listening to it because it works so damn well. I know it originally because I heard it in that horrible movie Never Back Down, and I grabbed it because I heard the line about Cherry Valence.

It's one of the first songs that made it onto the playlist that wasn't direct inspiration for the story. We haven't gotten to any of those yet--those are songs 16, 18, and 20.

This is the first song of Chase's 3rd summer, and this is really a turning point in the book, I think, because the third summer is nothing like the other two. Chase has changed because his life has changed. He's not the idealistic, hopeful kid he used to be. In a lot of ways, he's turning into Noah.

He's a little cynical and a little sad and very much angry, but he's still Chase, which means he still keeps this close to him and regards it as some kind of personal failure, and he still holds onto his family harder than anything.

Time Won't Let Me Go is a song about growing up against your will, and about regret and disconnected. And that's kind of what's eating at Chase this summer. Coming back to the beach, this place was supposed to be his childhood forever, doesn't help. He doesn't want to think about college. He doesn't want to see Bella after two years without her. And he definitely doesn't want to hear Noah and Melinda.

But yeah, some things haven't changed so much. There's still Melinda. There's still Camus. And Noah.

In completely unrelated news...this is my 200th post on this blog, and I want to thank you guys so incredibly much for reading the blog, and following me on twitter, and most of all for reading the books, if you do. I don't think you know how much it means to me that you do. I don't think you could possibly know.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

I am so homesick now for
Someone that I never knew
I am so homesick now for
Someplace I will never be

Time won't let me go
Time won't let me go
If I could do it all again
I'd go back and change everything
But time won't let me go

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

Bella comes by Shannon's room to ask if a shirt is hers or his. She gives me a polite smile. “Hey, Chase. How've you been?”

“Fine. You?”

She nods.

Shannon says to me, “I have a college book you can borrow, if you want. I can show you around the common application, let you see how it's done.”

Down the hall, I hear Noah and Melinda, laughing.

“I should get going,” I say.

--p. 173



PLAYLIST SO FAR:

1) "Turn Up The Sun" by Oasis
2) "Island in the Sun" by Weezer
3) "Just Like Heaven" by Gatsby's American Dream
4) "Bigger Than My Body" by John Mayer
5) "New Soul" by Yael Naim
6) "Across the Universe" by Rufus Wainwright
7) "Boys of Summer" by The Ataris
8) "Slang" by Def Leppard
9) "City Hall" by The Fray
10) "The Worst Part" by Motion City Soundtrack
11) "Time Won't Let Me Go" by The Bravery.