Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

8 reviews

fachrinaa's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book saved my life in high school. I will always forever be grateful for the day I picked this book out of my high school's library shelf (I'm pretty sure I read, like, 90% of the fiction collection there). Then I spent the rest of my high school days regularly borrowing this book over and over.

I'm sure I'd read other books dealing with mental illness before this one, but none of them left such a memorable imprint in my life. This book is just so raw and honest and real. Living with depression is not easy, one step forward three steps back, but you still have to fight. None of the relationships in this book is easy -- not Francesca's relationship with her parents, not her friendship with Justine, Tara, and Siobhan, not her feelings for Will -- but they are all the more precious exactly because of that.

And somehow in the past few years I hadn't made the time to reread this book, so when I started a few days ago I was apprehensive, because what if it's not as good as I remember? Sometimes you love something so much and then years later you discover that the thing is not actually as great as you thought it was.

But this book? Still slaps. 

(idc if my slang is outdated, when I read in English it's mostly books from around a century ago, so hush) 
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erinsmithart's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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nibs's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

How does Melina Marchetta keep knocking it out of the park? She just writes teenagers so well, and brings the world around Francesca to life. I think I might like this more than Looking for Alibrandi as it has a bigger focus on friendship.
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lovesickreadings's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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tonks345's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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thayets's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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yaboicolleen's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Saving Francesca was the first book I read by Melina Marchetta, and I knew instantly that I needed to read more. Character development is one of my favourite things in fiction, and Saving Francesca is basically built of character development! It’s not just that the main character, Francesca, develops, though she does, but that the entire cast of characters around her flourish as her attitude towards them slowly moves away from barely tolerating their ‘weirdness’ to accepting them as fully-fleshed-out friends for life.

There’s not a character in Saving Francesca that I don’t love, except for Francesca’s old 'friends’ and, even then, I appreciate how will written they are as villains. They’re horrible! The arcs of Jimmy and Thomas are particularly impressive, and very fitting for a YA novel. At first, they’re other, boys, and completely incomprehensible, but they make room for themselves in Francesca’s little group and it becomes obvious that there’s so much more to them than that.

The aspect I’m least interested in is Francesca’s love story, though I can see how it’s a necessary part of her momentum through the book. I’m just more interested in the friendships, and the hints of relationship drama that are buried there.

I enjoyed the book even more this time around because I knew that I’d be able to revisit these characters in The Piper’s Son, which I’ll have to review eventually! Saving Francesca certainly makes me cry, but it’s got nothing on the sequel, from what I remember!
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