Thursday, July 14, 2011

Saving Francesca

Saving FrancescaSaving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love you, Melina Marchetta, for writing such a wonderful book.

It's been a while since I've fallen in love with a book and it's characters this much. I loved every single one of them and all their flaws. It really is kind of hard not to.

Saving Francesca is set in St. Sebastian, a formerly all-boys school which has recently turned co-ed. It has a male to female ratio of 25 to 1. And the boys aren't all handsome and act sophisticated all the time. They're normal teenage guys who act awkward at times.

At the beginning of this book, Francesca does not have any true friends in school, and her mom has just succumbed to acute depression. With no one to talk to, Francesca keeps it all inside, bottled up. At school, she's frustrated because of the sexism - the girls are ignored or viewed sexually.

With this, Francesca starts her Year 11, and along the way, becomes friends with a feminist, an obnoxious boy (I still love you, Thomas), a delinquent, a musician, and a slut (or just a girl with really bad choices in guys). And she becomes each of them sometime along the way.

I adored this, it's heartwarming, funny, honest, and heartbreaking as well. It portrays one's relationship with their family and friends flawlessly.

PS: Is it just me or are Australian YA books better? Or maybe it's because Australians only publish the good ones, rather than very many with the same storylines...

PPS: I've read The Piper's Son and loved that too. Someone please tell me there's a sequel to that with Jimmy Hailler as the main character? Please...?

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