Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta

I picked up “Saving Francesca” looking for a cute, chick-lit book to read before I started on a mystery/horror title, but found myself caught in a humorous, yet depressing book.

Francesca is just starting her eleventh year in high school at a completely different institution than her friends, St Sebastian's. However, the high school just recently became a co-ed school and the majority of its population is dominated by males. She misses her old school, St Stella, but learns that new friends will be essential for the rest of her career at St Sebastian’s. With only 30 female students, Francesca has slim pickings for new friends – and those interested, are all former St Stella outcasts. Those she used to ignore and ridicule, the hopelessly nerdy girl, St Stella’s psychotic feminist and the promiscuous show-off are the only ones who can get her through the tough days that lie ahead. On top of her transfer, her strong-minded mother has a mental breakdown, becoming severely ill and bed-ridden.  Who will save Francesca and bring her life back together again?

I’ll admit, this book is funny – this was my favorite aspect of the book and what kept me going until I finished. I laughed quite a bit at many of the Shakespeare references, for example this one about Macbeth:

“Why do you get to say, ‘The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan, ‘ and I get to say, ‘Fly, Fleance, Fly’?”
-Thomas to Francesca about his role as Banquo

However, the ‘touching’ scenes with her family didn’t make me feel anything until the last thirty or so pages. The mother was a great character – it goes to show that even the strongest people can break down, but her father was what one would call an enabler. He kept her in her sickness by pretending everything was ok when it most certainly wasn’t, he was slowly destroying the family. The other characters weren’t the most realistic (they were a little bit TOO animated), but I still liked them enough. Will Trombal and Francesca seemed the most authentic to me, and I didn’t despise their romance, but I wasn’t necessarily spazzing about a pairing as much as I wanted to.

I think maybe the reason why I didn’t fall in love with this book is because I wanted a girly book to read today, but “Saving Francesca” is neither a ‘happy’ book, nor a ‘sad’ book – its somewhere in between the two. The humour definitely made me enjoy it though! I read this book in one sitting; it’s only 240-ish pages, so it’s a short read if anyone wants to try it out. :D

Final Verdict: 7.5 - 8.0/10