SarahJanet's Books

Saving Francesca

by Marlena Marchetta. This is a book that a lot of people have recommended to me over the years, both online and in real life. I read another book by this author, Looking for Alibrandi, and I was severely underwhelmed by it. Still, people assured me that this one was better, and they were quite right.

Set in Australia, this is the story of a girl who has recently begun attending what was previously an all-boys school. As if that isn't trouble enough, her mother has sunk into what appears to be an endless depression.

What I liked most about this book was the development of Francesca's relationships with the other girls at her school. I have always loved and probably always will love books about a group of girlfriends. I like movies about it, too. Those have always been my favourites - my favourite book of all time is Look Through My Window by Jean Little, about the development of a friendship between two girls. Part of it is that it's one of the things in books I find most consistent with my real life. I have had many best friends in my life, and I love reading about that relationship because it's one that I think is often hard to capture. People know the shortcuts for romantic love but I think the bonds of friendship between two girls are harder to describe and put into words. So that was really why I loved this book so much.

It also reminded me of another of my all time favourites, Feeling Sorry for Celia, which is also...about two girls becoming best friends. (And oh, it's glorious. The relationship between the two girls in that book is fantastic.)

The portrayal of Francesca's mother's depression is also quite well done, and I like that it wasn't neatly wrapped up at the end as stories about depression often are. I wasn't so impressed with the "depression doesn't need to be treated!" angle that the book occasionally took, but I think they ended up with a mostly satisfying portrayal.

So. Good book. Much better than Looking for Alibrandi, in my eyes. A good YA book for a fairly wide audience, I think. (Plus, there are Buffy discussions! That always improves a book.)

posted by SarahJanet @ 6:54 PM