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A review by fachrinaa
Saving Francesca - Tolong Aku, Dong by Melina Marchetta
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(idc if my slang is outdated, when I read in English it's mostly books from around a century ago, so hush)
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)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Grief
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Grief, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment