Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A teen read to be enjoyed by moms and daughters alike, June 30, 2005
I picked this up because someone told me they loved it. I'm an adult and I had no idea this was YA fiction until I realized that it was set in high school from the point of view of a high school girl, but by that point, it didn't matter, because the story is so great that teens and adults alike can read it and relate.
I'm not too far out of high school, so Marchetta's descriptions really rung true for me. Francesca deals with feeling like a loner, worrying about doing "the wrong thing," worrying about which friends are her real ones, meeting people outside her "normal" friend circle and realizing that they are worthwhile, too, and dealing with her family. Everything was vivid and lifelike, including Francesca's mother's depression.
I went on highs and lows with Francesca, rooting for her the whole way through, and the end of the book has an excellent resolution that wasn't everything tied up with a pretty ribbon, but learning to deal with your place in the world and finding your own little pocket of happiness and worth.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta, October 24, 2004
Saving Francesca is the much awaited second novel by the bestselling author Melina Marchetta. Marchetta's first novel was the award winning cross-over fiction Looking For Alibrandi and readers have been hungry for a second novel from this admired author. Finally Marchetta has produced a novel that satisfies expectations; Saving Francesca. This novel deals with many similar issues as her first novel; multiculturalism, Catholic education and the search for one's identity at a very significant time in life. The style of Melina Marchetta's writing has matured and she has once again produced a compelling read.
Francesca's mother, Mia, is a very motivated and vivacious Communications Lecturer, who plays a huge role in the Spinelli family. Mia insists on sending Francesca to St Sebastian's, an all boy's school which has just started accepting girls. At St Stella's, Francesca's former school, she had belonged to the "cool group," the group that every girl dreams of being in. St Stella's only caters for students up until grade 10 (the majority of the students continued their education at Pius Senior College). Mia believes that Pius Senior College limits students and does not want this for Francesca. Much to Francesca's dismay she is bombarded with testosterone and forced to move away from her comfort zone to associate with three other girls from St Stella's; Siobhan the `slut', Tara the `fanatic' and Justine the `loser'.
The students of St Sebastian's are thoroughly against sharing their school with females. They hate change and especially hate those who cause the change. They cannot deal with girls having an opinion and if faced with an opinionated female, label them a "lesbian". This does not cause Francesca any grief as she is a self described "go with the flow type" and much to Mia's apprehension, is reluctant to speak out. Francesca believes that Mia won't accept her for who she is and instead wants Francesca to be more like her.
When the lively and passionate Mia, turns into a depressed bedridden mother, Francesca's family loses the key link in their lives and are close to break down. Francesca realises that without Mia's motivation and high spirits she is unsure who her mother is, and even more unsure who she is. So the journey begins. However; instead of Josie Alibrandi it is Francesca Spinelli who is on the road to self discovery. She begins to realise that her "hip," "down to earth" friends from St Stella's who saved her from befriending the "losers," were actually preventing her from showing her true colours. St Sebastian's guides Francesca on this journey of self discovery and on the way Francesca forms strong friendships, is faced with romance and realises that she is more like Mia than she thinks.
Like Marchetta's first novel, Saving Francesca creates a powerful story in the period of one school year. This novel is relevant to teens in our society as it relates to many key issues; a major one being depression. This issue is portrayed through Mia and is explored in a very realistic manner. This theme is dealt with clear-eyed compassion and this novel implies that there is no quick fix. Belonging is another key issue and is explored through the central character, Francesca. I believe that the characters within this novel are likeable by the audience and are extremely realistic and believable. I recommend Saving Francesca for a wide range of readers, between 13 years to adults.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saving Francesca, November 22, 2004
Saving Francesca is the story of a girl with so much on her mind, but without the right words to say it. At the beginning of the book, Francesca speaks of how irritated she is with her mother. She is sickened by her always be positive attitude, and her dramatic behavior. She is upset at her for making her attend St. Sebastian's, a school with 750 boys and only 30 girls. Francesca finds it difficult to be the social butterfly she was at her old school, and blames it all on her mother. She knows something is wrong when her mother begins sleeping late rather than waking Francesca up in the morning with uplifting music, but she figures that she is just sick. After several weeks of waking up to silence, Francesca is worried. She learns that her mother is suffering from depression, and she has a hard time understanding how this could happen to such an optimistic woman. She no longer looks at her mother as the woman who ruined her life, but as the woman who's life she ruined. She wishes that her mother would go back to normal, so that she could live the happy life she lived before the first day she awoke to silence.
I enjoyed every last minute of Francesca's battles to get back to a life of normalcy. She was incredibly easy to relate to, and easy to feel for. Melina Marchetta brilliantly created a character that any teenage girl would want to read about. She goes through many of the same problems that normal girls go through, such as boy and friend problems, but also goes through so much more. The things that she goes through that could not be compared to normal every-day life, such as her mother's depression, are the things I enjoyed the most about this novel. It makes the little problems in our lives seem so small. It also gives you the desire to meet new people, and to really analyze the relationships that are existent in your life. Francesca wanted desperately to stay away from a certain group of girls at her school, but by the end of the novel realized that they were the girls that she needed the most. The girls that she once thought she needed the most were the girls who ended up needing her the least.
Not only was this novel incredibly interesting and easy to relate to, it was also beautifully written. Many novels are written in the same format, but Melina Marchetta goes beyond that format and simply puts her words onto paper. She does not always pay attention to grammar and sentence structure, as we have been taught to do. It is this that makes many of her passages from the novel so easy to relate to. A run-on sentence that may have been marked to death by any english teacher may make it the easiest to understand the thoughts going through Francesca's head. If those thoughts had been broken up into smaller sentences, the desperation in Francesca's mind would never have been noticed. Marchetta brilliantly created grammatically incorrect but emotionally perfect sentences throughout this novel.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something to become a part of for a few hours. I am not the type of person to sit down and read a book for several hours in one sitting until I am done, but with Saving Francesca, I could not help myself. I could not put it down. If you are looking for a book to read over the course of a few days, this is not the book for you. Every time I put it down, I found myself with the desire to pick it right back up and finish, and you will too.
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