{NIN} Review of Saving Francesca

Saving Francesca is Melina Marchetta’s sophomore release. Since I’ve become such an MM Fangirl, I had high expectations to be thoroughly entertained or enraptured one way or another. Unfortunately, I have to say that it was not the case with this book for me. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the book – rather…I just have really high expectations for MM books and it just didn’t grab my attention the way that Looking for Alibrandi and Jellicoe Road did. Though I suppose after JR, everything is just downhill from there. The thing about me and books is that if I really like/love the book, I’ll re-read it right away after I’m done, or at least re-read my favorite parts…which usually results in me re-reading the whole book anyways. But I didn’t really do that with Saving Francesca. Sure, I re-read a few parts but I really didn’t feel like picking it up again after I was done.

Saving Francesca is about another Italian-Australian girl, Francesca Spinelli dealing with the trials and tribulations of being a high school student and how it affects her family and social life. Whereas Josie Alibrandi had a ton of spunk and no filter on whatever came out of her mouth, Francesca has, in an effort to be accepted by her St. Stella peers, learned to “put a lid on it.” Her high-spirited mother Mia, the life force in her family, wants Francesca to break out and be who she is supposed to be and not who her friends want her to be.

At the start of the book, Francesca is starting school at St. Sebastian’s, a formerly all-boys school that just opened their doors to girls. Most of her spirit-repressing St. Stella friends (who aren’t really her friends) go to a different school, so Francesca is separated from them and forced to interact with the 3 other St. Stella girls she used to shun that are also attending St. Sebastian’s.

Mia’s mother unexpectedly falls into a deep depression and suddenly Francesca’s family is lost on what to do with themselves and how to go on living. Adding to that, Francesca is inexplicably attracted to the not-available and stick-in-the-mud Will Trombal.

I have to say, one of my favorite things about YA lit is clean and innocent first love-ish type things. Though, as Ja and I were discussing the other day, YA lit sure has a lot more…explicit happenings between guys and girls these days and it’s no wonder teens are engaging in a lot more…explicit behavior lately. And then we decided that we are prudes but what the heck, we like it clean and innocent (L.J. Smith fire-erupting kissing scenes are good enough for us!). Anyhoo, way off track on the point that I was trying to make – Francesca and Will didn’t seem to have much of a connection to me throughout the book. I didn’t see a progression in their relationship; rather…it seems like it just happened over very few interactions. For me, there was just no squeal-worthy moment that had me shipping for them.

There were a few great scenes in the book: Francesca putting Will in his place at the start of the book, Francesca’s developing friendships with 2 boys who previously irritated her (not including Will), becoming friends with the girls she previously avoided and how they are there for her with a Pride & Prejudice fest (Colin Firth!) to wallow in after she found out Will had a girlfriend, and the ending.

* As a side note, any mention of BBC’s production of Pride and Prejudice is always winnahz in my book!

I enjoyed the ending more than I did the journey through the book (besides some of the great scenes). I still recommend this book because of the underlying message in the book to know who your true friends are regardless of how others perceive them and, more importantly, to value yourself enough to be who you want to be.