It digs deep into how it affects the person and everyone around them. This book talks about depression and delves into it. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. The truth doesn’t set you free, you know. She writes the truth and all of its pain and anger. It feels like the author knows what’s going on and does not sugarcoat anything. It’s an important read because it does everything right. This story focuses on family, mental health, self-discovery, friendship, and growth. I thought I was going to roll my eyes at the cringey teenage romance and perky cheerleaders. Francesca is one of the very few girls in a previously all-boys school and I am ashamed to say that I went in not expecting the best from this book.

I immediately borrowed it (audiobook format) expecting a sweet and fluffy contemporary.Īs you may have known, I am not a huge contemporary fan but I do pick it up once in a while between my fantasy and science fiction reads because they are usually a lighter read. Melina Marchetta was on my “authors I need to read” list so when I stumbled upon Saving Francesca in the library catalog. Simultaneously humorous, poignant, and impossible to put down, this is the story of a girl who must summon the strength to save her family, her social life and-hardest of all-herself. Then there’s Francesca’s mother, who always thinks she knows what’s best for Francesca-until she is suddenly stricken with acute depression, leaving Francesca lost, alone, and without an inkling of who she really is. The boys are no better, from Thomas, who specializes in musical burping, to Will, the perpetually frowning, smug moron that Francesca can’t seem to stop thinking about. Her only female companions are an ultra-feminist, a rumored slut, and an impossibly dorky accordion player.

Sebastian’s, a boys’ school that pretends it’s coed by giving the girls their own bathroom. Goodreads // Book Depository // Booktopiaįrancesca is stuck at St.

Saving francesca by melina marchetta