Reviews

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

iamliterate's review against another edition

4.0

Grab some tissue and prepare to be charmed with our Italian hero. She is bitchy and honest and I love her. This book explores depression realistically with a cast of characters you can't help but love. Plus, who doesn't love Catholic school hijinks?

lasvers's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

carlyroth10's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 edging on 5 territory

So, um... yeah I liked this book. I kinda read the entire thing in 6 hours. Normal.

After reading On The Jelicoe Road, this book has been on my want to read shelf for a while. After reading it, I’m almost happy for waiting since I am now the age of the main character, Francesca. I resonated with this character a lot. Like a lot a lot. It was interesting to read and see myself in this book. This book was a simple kinda of complicated. The story was great and every relationship had so many layers, but somehow Marchetta wrote it with a simplicity and realness. I literally (and I mean the literal literally) could not put this book down.

stasliu's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

5.0

eternalcities's review against another edition

4.0

I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did. I picked this book up because I was still getting over another amazing book which I just finished, so I picked something I thought would be tedious and forgettable. I wasn't really into the story at the beginning, but once I got into it, I ended up completely engrossed in the novel. The story of family and friendship and standing up for who you really are and belonging was amazing. The relationships Francesca ended up building throughout the novel were truly heartfelt. I'm a family person who genuinely loves hanging out with her parents and little brother, so for me it was a really good read.

aaron_j136's review against another edition

2.0

This book was not my cup of tea. Though I think it could be someone else’s cup of tea
“ but Francesca had not counted on...... falling in love.... (quote from blurb of the book)
Francesca got herself into a kind of toxic relationship. It wasn’t really resolved or addressed until the last few chapters of the page and I really didn’t see the chemistry between her and Will but whatever.

I found this book to be slightly all over the place. This book has a lot of important topics discussed and I felt like they were talked about well but I despised the main character so much. She was annoying. Even though she was going through hard times she was still annoying. I’m rating this book a 2 stars for my enjoyment but it would probably be a 3 or 4 if I was ratting it critically.
I just didn’t like it. Francesca was just a stereotypical YA character thinking they can fix anything by doing anything. She thinks curing her mother’s depression is easy and she thinks she can cure her by yelling at her father.

Once again not my cup of tea but it wasn’t absolutely terrible. I just didn’t like Francesca

Representation:
- Italian
- mental health

TRIGGER WARNINGS
- depression
- Talk of suicide
- miscarriage
- rude comments towards the LGBT community (specifically towards lesbians and gay men)
-disrespecting parents
- cheating- really annoyed me in this book

zoli's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-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

4.75

sallyn's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

buthainna's review against another edition

2.75

this is one of my least favorite YA novels that I have ever read. Unfortunately, I could not relate to the protagonist, and I did not understand her. I didn't understand any of the characters for that matter she hated them one day she was their best friend the next day, I just couldn't understand. It felt like the author had vivid, descriptions and images, and a clear vision for these characters only inside her head, but she couldn't really translate it so well into words for us to understand, and I couldn't even understand the romance between the protagonist and the boy she likes I couldn't appreciate when they actually started liking each other 

lizaktzxy's review against another edition

5.0

This was everything I wanted and more.