Melina Marchetta

Sixteen-year-old Francesca could use her outspoken mother's help with the problems of being one of a handful of girls at a parochial school that has just turned coed, but her mother has suddenly become severely depressed.

Saving Francesca

“I lean against a streetlight and throw up, just near his shoe. 

He looks down at the ground and then at me.“The guacamole was a mistake,” he says matter-of-factly.

For the second time that night he makes me laugh. “Don’t make me have to like you,” I tell him.”

“The bus comes toward us, and as we stand up he breaks out into “Edelweiss” and he sings it loudly and dramatically, his voice wavering with mock emotion.

And I hug him, holding him tight. At first I think I’m doing it for him, but then I don’t want to let go, so he does the letting go.”

Francesca is at the beginning of her second term in Year Eleven at an all boy's school that has just started accepting girls. She still misses her old friends, and, to make things worse, her mother has had a breakdown and can barely move from her bed. But Francesca had not counted on the fierce loyalty of her new friends, or falling in love, or finding that it's within her power to bring her family back together. A memorable and much-loved Australian classic told with humour, compassion and joy, from Melina Marchetta, the internationally bestselling and multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi.

bianca

“I was born seventeen years ago. Do you think people have noticed that I’m around?”

“I notice when you’re not. Does that count?”

But I’m shaking because I’m laughing so much. I’m laughing so much that I have tears streaming down my face and then I’m sobbing until it’s like I’m going to choke and I’m feeling so many things that I don’t think my mind can handle it. I can hardly breathe and it must sound so frightening that Thomas Mackee grabs me and holds me and everyone’s saying, “It’s okay, Francesca, it’s okay, Francesca,” and they’re crying too.

We stay like that for a while. No one tries to analyze it or offer solutions. No one interrupts. Sometimes, momentarily, I’m embarrassed by the whole disclosure, but I realize that I trust these people and I don’t know how or when that happened.

I don’t remember the last time anyone looked me in the eye to speak to me. I’m frightened to look at myself in the mirror because maybe nothing’s there.

Sometimes you don’t let us talk about how we’re feeling. If we feel scared, you say, ‘Nothing to worry about, guys,’ but 

that doesn’t make it go away. It makes it grow.

Maybe she didn’t want to be told it was going to be okay. Maybe she just wanted to talk to you about it.

I just want to wake up in the morning and for the light to be on, and I want to stop feeling like a success just because I can eat my toast and I want to be able to brush my teeth without throwing up and then when I get through all of that, I want to work at getting that look out of your eyes. That look of fear that I put there and I hate myself for that.

And being that happy makes me feel guilty. Because I shouldn’t be. Not while my mum is feeling the way she is. How I can dare to be happy is beyond me, and I hate my guts for it.

Why do I feel as if something’s missing in my life without them and they don’t feel the same about me?

Sometimes you look at me and it’s like all the bullshit gets stripped off and I’m left with what’s underneath and I kind of like what I see. Someone who actually fails. Someone who has absolutely no self-control. Someone who says real dickhead things like ‘this is complicated.’ I like that part of me, you know. I like the fact that I know I can’t control you or how I feel about you and that doesn’t freak me out.

The depression belongs to all of us. I think of the family down the road whose mother was having a baby and they went around the neighborhood saying, “We’re pregnant.” I want to go around the neighborhood saying, “We’re depressed.” If my mum can’t get out of bed in the morning, all of us feel the same. Her silence has become ours, and it’s eating us alive.

“Just ask me how I’m feeling,” I want to say. “Just ask and I may tell you.”

"A piece of me is gone,” she told me once. “I think we’re made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you’re left with less of yourself.”

He catches my eye for a moment and smiles. It’s a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that’s kept right next to my soul. The one that holds Mia’s scent and Justine’s spirit and Siobhan’s hope and Tara’s passions. Because if I’m going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I’m going to need everything I’ve got to fight this bastard of a disease that could be sleeping inside of me.

I can’t believe I’ve said it out loud. The truth doesn’t set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defense-less and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don’t feel free. I feel like shit.

ghost girl in satin

There are books that you just want to live in and Saving Francesca is one of them.
 This is the second novel I read by Melina Marchetta, the second time I cry and laugh and smile and feel happy and devastated and hopeful and hopeless and scared and excited at the same time. I don't know how to phrase this, but this book? This book is an absolute jewel of a book.

i wish i read this book 10 years ago or simply forever ago when i felt like frankie day in day out

Maria

the way the last chapters made me cry is unreal. i can’t exactly put my finger on what makes this special to me, but i think it’s honest and vulnerable in a way that a lot of coming of age stories don’t manage to be. i wish i had this book when i was 16.

Vicky  Nuñez 

I loved this book.

Not really, I loved this book.

I haven't loved a book so much like this one in a long time. 

I don't even have words to describe how perfect this book is. 

The story, unlike in most books, starts with the issue/problem. And for that reason, we get what Francesca is going through from the start, which helps us commiserate with her.

Saving Francesca has the most vivid characters I've had the pleasure of reading, I truly felt I was getting to know every single one of them.

Overall, Saving Francesca is amazing & one of the best books I've read & everyone should read it.

maryam

4.5 stars. This book really surprised me! I thought it was going to be a light, funny, chill read. And for a lot of it, it really was. But it was also gritty and lovely and honest. I loved Francesca's character, and I loved how she developed throughout the book. Most of all, I fell in love with her friends. I think I'm a sucker for those kinds of relationships, the band of misfits who don't seem like they'd fit, but love and protect each other. It's such an endearing quality to have in a book. I'm really glad I picked this one up, and I've heard so many great things about Melina Marchetta's books that I'll be picking up her other ones, too.

My old school, St Stella's, only goes to Year Ten and most of my friends now go to Pius Senior College, but my mother wouldn't allow it because she says the girls there leave with limited options and she didn't bring me up to have limitations placed upon me. If you know my mother you'll sense there's an irony there, based on the fact that she is the Queen of Limitation Placers in my life.Francesca is at the beginning of her second term in Year Eleven at an all boy's school that has just started accepting girls. She still misses her old friends, and, to make things worse, her mother has had a breakdown and can barely move from her bed.But Francesca had not counted on the fierce loyalty of her new friends, or falling in love, or finding that it's within her power to bring her family back together.From the bestselling, Multi-Award-Winning author ofLooking for Alibrandi, comes a memorable story told with humour, compassion and joy.

Annika Arguemore

Tearjerker. Page-turner. I'll love this book until hell freezes over!

edit 2nd dec for rating:
i have gained clarity when starting tps marchetta universe deserves nothing but 5 stars

--- 

changed person everytime, marchetta books never disappoint it seemed

★★★★ // i initially thought that i wouldn’t like this, but it turned out to be a really lovely read. i absolutely loved each and every character, especially the main friends. i think this is the first YA book that i read in which i was able to find a portrayal of depression and how it ultimately affects those close to you in a non-romanticized way. it has this bubbling sadness underneath it that was no less palpable.

Melina Marchetta did it again! The Marchetta effect!

debre

i wish i could say eloquent things about this book, but right now i just know that 5 stars isn't enough.
i pray that someday i'll be able to find the right words to explain how much i loved this book.
melina marchetta, you own my heart.

Isadora Cal

I can't give it 5 stars because I read "On the Jellicoe road" first, and I think Jellicoe road is a better version of Saving Francesca. There are too many similarities!
That said, this book is really good. It gets you stuck in the character's lives and dramas, you fall in love with each one of them and it's like you belong to them, you feel what they feel. I cried a bit, and it surprised me because it's so rare for me to cry over family issues in books.
Without giving away too much spolier, I kinda hated the way the romance ended up, but I just can't hate it because not being a teen anymore and having been on their shoes, I know it was the right thing. It was real. It wasn't just cliché-teen-happy-ending. It wasn't at all like Stephanie Perkins though. Whoever said that probably never read "Anna and the french kiss". But it was a real happy ending, which means it wasn't an end. That's something Melina Marchetta does. She never finishes the story completely, because at 17 how can you just have an ending? There is like everything to happen yet.

UPDATED June 25, 2015

Saving Francesca is still better than ever. I have no more words.

Original review:

Some authors are great writers, while some are great storytellers, and Melina Marchetta is both! I totally get why everyone is just singing all these praises for her. This book has been an amazing, funny and emotional ride. She totally ranks up there with all my top ten authors.

So far Ive only read two books of hers, On the Jellicoe Road and now this. Ive grown to love her writing, the Australian terms I cannot understand, the exotics settings, and educational system I will never get to experience personally. She writes fictional guys I wish I could date and thoughtful friends I wish I had. She writes about teens and knows what she's writing about. Personally, On The Jellicoe Road is far better than this one, but only because that story has a larger scale and coverage. 

The characters are so so so beautiful. They feel so real, never one dimensional even if they don't get center stage. The whole story just isn't built on the main character, Francesca and her love interest, Will. Its built on the minor characters as well, her family and her friends, characters so different and colorful and human. She writes all her characters with depth and personality and sense. They are funny and sensible and sarcastic and flawed and strong and perceptive. They make an incredible support system for Francesca. They feel so alive, they breathe and they say things that I wish I could come up with as easily as they do. 

And just so you know, I dont think the book cover does it any justice, AT ALL.  

It's a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that's kept right next to my soul and Justine's spirit and Siobhan's hope and Tara's passions. Because if I'm going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I'm going to need everything I've got to fight this disease that could be sleeping inside of me.

UPDATED June 25, 2015

Saving Francesca is still better than ever. I have no more words.

Original review:

Some authors are great writers, while some are great storytellers, and Melina Marchetta is both! I totally get why everyone is just singing all these praises for her. This book has been an amazing, funny and emotional ride. She totally ranks up there with all my top ten authors.

So far Ive only read two books of hers, On the Jellicoe Road and now this. Ive grown to love her writing, the Australian terms I cannot understand, the exotics settings, and educational system I will never get to experience personally. She writes fictional guys I wish I could date and thoughtful friends I wish I had. She writes about teens and knows what she's writing about. Personally, On The Jellicoe Road is far better than this one, but only because that story has a larger scale and coverage. 

The characters are so so so beautiful. They feel so real, never one dimensional even if they don't get center stage. The whole story just isn't built on the main character, Francesca and her love interest, Will. Its built on the minor characters as well, her family and her friends, characters so different and colorful and human. She writes all her characters with depth and personality and sense. They are funny and sensible and sarcastic and flawed and strong and perceptive. They make an incredible support system for Francesca. They feel so alive, they breathe and they say things that I wish I could come up with as easily as they do. 

And just so you know, I dont think the book cover does it any justice, AT ALL. 


  It's a weird smile, but it reaches his eyes and I bottle it. And I put it in my ammo pack that's kept right next to my soul and Justine's spirit and Siobhan's hope and Tara's passions. Because if I'm going to wake up one morning and not be able to get out of bed, I'm going to need everything I've got to fight this disease that could be sleeping inside of me.

Nicole

I didn't want this book to end. so beautiful.

Ella

This is still one of my favourite novels ever, I cant even begin to describe how much the story and its characters mean to me.

Eman Nighaoui

It is safe to say that it's been a long time since I enjoyed a book this much. Francesca is fascinating! I loved every side of her colorful character. It's safe to say, that she reminded of myself at times (or most of the times). The fear of going out of your shell, and the audacity to step out of your comfort zone, are feelings that, we all deal with most of the times (even the strongest of us). However, all it takes to make it work, is to believe in who we are and, in our ability to be who we want to be. Francesca, knew all that despite, the bad things she was facing. And, that last sentence sum it all up "Do something that scares everyday", something that would shake your "foundation" and open new doors for you.
Tara, Justine, Siobhan, Jimmy, William and Thomas are an amazing set of characters. The kind of people, you would keep around you, so you can see life as it is. Tara's passion and strength are empowering. Justine's compassion and passion are heartwarming. Siobhan's carelessness and boldness are mind challenging. Jimmy's sense of humor and big heart are heartening. William's shyness and leadership are soul stirring. And, Thomas' charming yet disturbing personality is brilliant. The whole team, was all I needed for these two days read. An amazing journey through sadness, love, compassion, friendship and life. 
I am so glad I came cross this heartwarming, spirit-lifting and mind challenging book. To talk depression is something, and witnessing it first hand, is a totally different. I know how it feels to be in Mia's shoes, sometimes you weak up and you don't want to experience anything. It's like you want to disappear and dissolve into nothingness. The way her family dealt with her situation is heartbreaking and real. Sometimes, people around either won't understand or, don't know what to do. And, Mia's family were the latter. However, the journey that Francesca went through showed her, how to make it right despite her young age. Again showing that age is just a number! 
Dear @MelinaMarchetta Thank you so much for sharing with us this amazing piece of art.

Francesca is at the beginning of her second term in Year Eleven at an all boy's school that has just started accepting girls. She still misses her old friends, and, to make things worse, her mother has had a breakdown and can barely move from her bed. But Francesca had not counted on the fierce loyalty of her new friends, or falling in love, or finding that it's within her power to bring her family back together. From the bestselling, Multi-Award-Winning author of Looking for Alibrandi, comes a memorable story told with humour, compassion and joy.

Jen Estrella

I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.

Well I thought this book would be an easy read. I didn't think it would make me cry, but it did (almost). If you enjoyed Stork's The Memory of Light and Ng's Everything I Never Told You, then you'll certainly enjoy Saving Francesca. It will make you laugh. It will make you feel annoyed and frustrated. It will make you feel giddy. It will make you sad and scared and hopeful, and it will make you cry (or teary-eyed, in my case). 

  The depression belongs to all of us. I think of the family down the road whose mother was having a baby and they went around the neighborhood saying, "We're pregnant." I want to go around the neighborhood saying, "We're depressed." If my mum can't get out of bed in the morning, all of us feel the same. Her silence has become ours, and it's eating us alive.


This whole book is perfection, honestly, and now there is nothing left for me to do other than to start reading Marchetta's other books.

Julia Cerrato

I loved the book it was amazing it was just so good I have no words to describe it!!!

Rina

I can't believe I put this off for four years (or more), especially after I read Jellicoe Road and how much I loved it. The writing here is just as good, the main characters just as broken. I think this book hit home- especially Francesca's inner monologue- and was very grounding. I found it very close to reality, of day to day experiences at home and in school; just the truth, no b*llshit. It's honest, moving, and simple, but also much deeper than it lets on.

Olivera Mitić

Edit 31/5/17 
After having read On the Jellicoe Road, I have to lower my rating to 4 stars.

This isn't by any means a perfect book. 
It also isn't the best book out there handling depression and being a teenager. 
Nor is the writing perhaps the best I've ever read. 
But it's pretty close to all of those things. 

Damn, was it relatable! Was it lovable!
I don't remember having been so fond of characters since reading Harry Potter. Or like...ever, when it comes to female protagonists and their point of view. 
I loved Francesca. I loved how realistic she felt and I loved how it was like reading about something so familiar and already experienced. I truly believe that there isn't anyone who can't find a piece of themselves in Frankie (even though, yeah, I am aware that this was probably one of the cheesiest lines I ever used). 

And the other characters, oh my god! They were so refreshing and such a delight. The only one I didn't like as much was Francesca's dad, but he gets a few bonus points near the end. You who've read this already know what scene I'm talking about. 

As far as the plot and writing go, I was really blown away. Something so simple was done so amazingly well. There wasn't one single boring or out of place thing in this entire novel. The chapter lenghts was puuuuurfect. I don't know, I just flew through this once I was finally able to sit down and give it my full attention. I'm sure there isn't a single review that doesn't mention this, but the dialogue was done perfectly and I have such a huge need to point it out. 

These kids felt like kids. The problems felt like real problems. I loved it. I can't stop talking about it. 
If I were ever to write I book I'd like it to turn out like this one. 
Truly amazing. 

And now, please excuse me while I order everything Melina Marchetta ever wrote from the internet and wait for a month in agony before I can get my hands on it!

Mags

Lacey

My very first book by Melina Marchetta and I fell in love! Humorous, deep, and oh so special. This is one of my all-time favorite books!

Saving Francesca

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