A review by trin
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

3.0

Reminiscent of one of my favorite books, [b:The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks|1629601|The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks|E. Lockhart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313980820s/1629601.jpg|1623714] (right down to the coincidence of the main characters having the same first name!), but not nearly as good -- at least not for me. I loved all the female friendships, but I didn't find the romance convincing at all, and for whatever reason the familial relationships didn't quite ring true to me either. A parent's depression is a worthy topic for a young adult book, but something about the way it was handled here seemed too simplistic to me -- Mia's work is amazingly understanding and she doesn't get fired even though she doesn't go in for months; there's an "explanation" for the depression instead of it just being, you know, depression. And so forth. Also this book felt weirdly dated: I would have sworn it was written in the '90s, not in 2003, because Francesca's friends' references were all to '90s movies, music, and TV and there's rarely even mention of a computer. Maybe the '90s only reached Australia in the early aughts? (I grew up in Vermont, where for much of the '90s it was still the '80s, so I sympathize.)

Still: female friendships! I can't be too mad at a book that's delivering so well in that department.