Fern, 17, returns home from school one afternoon to find out that her mother has been taken to the hospital. When the teen finally gets there, she is told that her mother has died of a massive heart attack. Fern immediately takes stock of the situation and realizes that she now has to make her own way in the world, as her only living relative is an uncle she’s never met, and who was recently released from prison. Fern takes over her mother’s house-cleaning jobs, but knows that she can’t earn enough to support herself so she takes a job as a janitor, where she can get free rent. Although initially fearful, she quickly gains confidence in her abilities and adds two other part-time jobs. Nonetheless, she feels overwhelmed and exhausted all the time, until Uncle Jack shows up and helps out with some of the work she’s been doing. Written as a series of letters to an imaginary friend on another planet, this is a compelling story of determination and the will to survive. Readers will sympathize with Fern’s situation, especially in this time of serious economic instability.

- School Library Journal

The Saver is a satisfying read with sober subject matter at its heart…Most memorable is Fern's earnest, honest and cheeringly satirical voice. The "worm-beige" of the social worker's outfit; Fern's fantastical imaginings of Xanoth's planet, which are incisive critiques of our own; her deadly descriptions of some of her stranger tenants - it all mingles brightly in a story of a brave, lonely girl who manages to make a community for herself.

- Toronto Star

Edeet Ravel has made a name for herself with a much-lauded trilogy for adult readers (Ten Thousand Lovers, A Wall of Light and Look for Me) and the well-received Pauline trilogy for the middle-grade reader. The Saver marks Ravel’s debut as a writer for teens, and a splendid debut it is, in part because her chief protagonist is such a brilliantly evoked character.
This is an epistolary novel, a series of chapter-length letters written by 17-year-old Fern to an imaginary friend, Xanoth, who lives on a distant planet. The first letter begins with the salutation "Hi Xanoth," and an explanation of sorts, for Fern’s correspondence: "OK, I know you aren’t real. I’m not a psycho or anything.
"But I like thinking about you. I like thinking about your violet eyes and how beautiful your planet is. I love how it’s so clean and perfect, there isn’t even a word for garbage in your language."
Now, Fern needs Xanoth more than ever, as this letter makes clear. Fern has come home from school, to the cockroach-ridden Montreal apartment she shares with her aboriginal mother, and been told by a neighbour that her mother had been taken to hospital in an ambulance. By the time Fern gets to the hospital, her mother has died.
Fern, underage, nevertheless completes the paperwork to donate her mother’s body to McGill University. This is the first of many decisions she takes; the second is to quit school, where she has been relegated to the "dummy" class. Quite alone, isolated except for her imaginary friend and her cat, Beauty, Fern moves into survival mode. Robinson Crusoe-like, she embarks upon the tasks that will ensure her survival. It is a steady shoring-up of a life, documented with great specificity: The quantities of food that Fern buys and eats are accounted for with great precision, buttressing Fern’s assertion that no one would want to have much to do with a person like her.
Fern’s letters to Xanoth unwittingly describe her extraordinary grit as she takes on new jobs, several of them simultaneously, that will allow her to live and eat and, ultimately, to grow into herself and leave an island of self-doubt and self-hatred.
In her final communiqué to Xanoth, she writes, "I probably won’t have much time to write, Xanoth. There’s a lot going on now in my life, and I need to concentrate on Earth and the people in it."

- The Globe & Mail, Toronto

Seventeen-year old Fern returns home from school and discovers that her mother has been rushed to the hospital. She dies before Fern even has a chance to say goodbye. For a teen with a loving support network, this would be a devastating emotional experience. For Fern, who lives an existence of extreme isolation, this is a catastrophe of a different nature. She must find a way to survive; this means lying about her age and keeping her mother’s death a secret.
Ravel succeeds in creating a wonderfully three-dimensional character even while Fern’s thoughts and insights are understated and reserved. Sometimes Fern does share her loneliness and these instances are especially powerful. Fern is utterly believable and even though she is more marginalized than most young adult heroines, she is smart and easy to sympathize with. Ravel slowly introduces some stability and emotional support into Fern’s life and shows that she is too strong and adaptable to give in to despair.

- Canadian Children’s Book News

I loved [The Saver]; it was a joy, both fresh and deeply moving. I am truly a fan.

- Teresa Toten, Governor General’s Award Jury Member