Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Title: Saving Francesca

Author: Melina Marchetta

Release Date: 31st March 2003

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Francesca battles her mother, Mia, constantly over what's best for her. All Francesca wants is her old friends and her old school, but instead Mia sends her to St. Sebastian's, an all-boys' school that has just opened its doors to girls. Now Francesca's surrounded by hundreds of boys, with only a few other girls for company. All of them weirdos, or worse.

Then one day, Mia is too depressed to get out of bed. One day turns into months, and as her family begins to fall apart, Francesca realises that without her mother's high spirits, she hardly knows who she is. But she doesn't yet realise that she's more like Mia than she thinks. With a little unlikely help from St. Sebastian's, she just might be able to save her family, her friends, and - especially- herself.

In A Nutshell:
I adored Saving Francesca! It is a story of family, friendship, acceptance, strength, and looking deeper at people to discover who they really are and not just the public persona they put on.

My Review:
Oh gosh. Why oh why did I wait so long to read this?! I absolutely adored Saving Francesca and it has gone straight to my all-time-favourites list.

What I love most is that it is so real. I can picture Francesca, Tara, Justine, Siobhan, Thomas, Will and Jimmy as if they were going about their lives. There is a warmth in all of them as they are just ordinary kids, searching to be allowed to be themselves and belong without ridicule, something that is not easy in high school. People will often put on the face that they think others want them to be and they become half the person they could have been, because they are trying to please others rather than be themselves.

Saving Francesca focuses mainly around the themes of family and depression. Francesca’s once strong-willed and vibrant mother wakes up one morning and doesn’t get out of bed. This continues for months and Francesca’s dad is left to try and hold the family together. Francesca begins to question the way her parents have always interacted and her own place in the world, and while she just wants everything to go back to the way it was, her family will never be the same and she has to learn to adjust to the new family dynamic.

Amongst the trouble at home, Francesca is struggling at her new school, Saint Sebastian’s, which for the first year is accepting girls to the once all-boys school. As one of 30 female students, Francesca, who has come from an all-girls school, struggles to fit in as both the girls and the boys try to find a way to understand and relate to each other.

As Francesca begins to make new friends and rediscover those from her pre-teen years, her life begins to look up until a run in with some old ‘friends’ threatens to tip everything off balance again.

It is a story of family, friendship, acceptance, strength, and looking deeper at people to discover who they really are and not just the public persona they put on.

*****

In 2010, Melina wrote a companion novel called The Piper's Son which looks at where Thomas McKee is, five years after the events of Saving Francesca. I read The Piper's Son before I read Saving Francesca. Click here for my review.

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Short-list

Today here in Australia, the 2011 short-listed titles for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced.


In the Young Adult Fiction category the titles are:
About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

I have read three of the five titles (click on the title for my review) and while I really liked all three, my vote goes to Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon.

In the Children's Fiction category the titles are:
April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod
Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

I have only read Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, although Morris Gleitzman's Now has been on my TBR list for a long time.

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The winners will be announced in the first week of July. To view the adult short-listed books click here.

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Title: The Piper's Son
Author: Melina Marchetta

Release Date: 1st March 2010

My Rating: 4/5

In The Piper's Son, Melina Marchetta focuses on Thomas Mackee, one of the characters from Saving Francesca. Thomas's life sucks. His once happy and close family has been torn to shreds after his Uncle Joe was killed in the London bombings in 2005. Tom's dad is an alcoholic who has gone AWOL, his mother and sister have disappeared to Brisbane and his Aunt Georgie is pregnant but won't publicly acknowledge it. And Tom, well he's lost his job, his roommates have kicked him out, and he's beating himself up over losing one of his best friends after a one-and-a-half night stand 2 years ago.

As Tom pushes everyone away and spirals into a pit of depression we discover the strength, hope and love that family and friends are capable of as they attempt to get Tom's life slowly back on track. I also like that the story is told in third person, following both Tom and Georgie.

By the end you are left with a feeling of hope, and that family and true friends are always there for you, no matter how tough things get and how much you try to push them away.

Having not read Saving Francesca I was worried that The Piper's Son wouldn't make sense and that I wouldn't be able to follow the story, but that wasn't the case. While it does refer a lot to what happens in Saving Francesca, it in no way gave me any trouble. I would really like to read Saving Francesca now and while I don't feel the need to hear the story of Justine or Tara, I would really like to find out what has happened to Jimmy (the 5th member of their group), which Marchetta has given small clues to in The Piper's Son and I think has paved the way for another book focusing on him.