Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
A hall-of-fame favorite with layers full of nuanced, complex, stunning reflections about growing apart from friend groups, the impact of a mom's depression on her teenage daughter, etc,. A moment of appreciation for that cover, too: so 2006.
Published December 11, 2024



Novel: Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Release Date: May 9, 2006
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
“As I rebuild the WLS archive with books I've read from 2011 through to 2025, I want to build a fully-fledged ecosystem of books I've read and recommend. I'd like to be able to reference and speak to any I've finished. For books I haven't reviewed (or can't entirely remember), please enjoy this brief questionnaire that can help you decide whether it's a read you'd like to pursue. Some of these are favorites I just haven't gotten around to fully reviewing yet—I'll explain in each description, but I hope this Q&A can be illuminating to you in the meantime.”
A compelling story of romance, family, and friendship, with humor and heart, perfect for fans of If I Stay, The Spectacular Now, and Looking for Alaska.
Francesca is stuck at St. Sebastian's, a boys' school that pretends it's coed by giving the girls their own bathroom. Her only female companions are an ultra-feminist, a rumored slut, and an impossibly dorky accordion player. The boys are no better, from Thomas, who specializes in musical burping, to Will, the perpetually frowning, smug moron that Francesca can't seem to stop thinking about.
Then there's Francesca's mother, who always thinks she knows what's best for Francesca—until she is suddenly stricken with acute depression, leaving Francesca lost, alone, and without an inkling of who she really is. Simultaneously humorous, poignant, and impossible to put down, this is the story of a girl who must summon the strength to save her family, her social life, and—hardest of all—herself.
I don't love the blurb, but if it gets teens to pick up the story, I don't really care.
Jellicoe Road (a Printz winner, which is totally my taste) was one of my favorite books upon reading, and Saving Francesca by the same author quickly secured that honor for different reasons. Both are illuminating coming-of-age stories that balance a rich, interior main character with a vivid, complex cast dealing with piercing struggles. The plot and reading experience are both great and solid, so I almost think many of its layers are sneaky and potent.
Francesca starts her narration when her mother falls into a severe depression, casting her house into disarray. During that time, she's also part of the first grade of girls to enter an all-boys school. She misses her old friends, has to reconcile the new ones, etc,.
It's not so much the story that gets me. It's that Francesca has these small, gorgeous, and true-feeling moments when she just totally nails what it's like to be lonely while growing apart from a group, or absorbing family tension that they're trying (and failing) to keep from affecting you, or when you're frustrated with someone having a hard time but guilty about not being graceful about it—because it still affects you. Very human experiences, but perhaps less frequently conveyed this well? She has a fair and honest reflection on life's messiness.
And of course, Francesca still has plenty of texture to her life and thought. She's a quiet girl who's still a very memorable narrator. I have this litmus test related to whether or not I remember characters' names throughout the book or have to look them up later, and Saving Francesca passed this with flying colors throughout the whole cast.
As a note, Marchetta is Australian so the school structure is different, but it's still a great high school story.
Personally, I also love any YA book that grapples with subtle family changes or issues that aren't flattened by either the parents being terrible (or glossed over entirely.) For example, I don't remember much about Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo, but I still remember how powerful it was to see the teen character frustrated with the realization that her dad put all the burden of household maintenance on her mom, and how that impacted their dynamic as a whole. That, like the many situations detailed in this one, show situations in family dynamics (both loving and non) that still affect kids.
Saving Francesca is so considerate in its portrayal. Francesca is allowed to be angry, and the parents are allowed to make mistakes and keep things from her. It's all about shades of gray. People are doing their best, but that doesn't mean it's okay. There's a powerful moment at the end when Francesca finds out her mother is devastated over a miscarriage she knew nothing about that's a particularly elegant tribute to the truth that we're all operating on limited info and never actually know the real baggage anyone's going through. (Which is why I think it's always best to be kind, but, you know.) Hardship in this book isn't an excuse, nor does it absolve them from ripple effects, but it does give important context.
For me, the most powerful aspect of Saving Francesca is its depiction of friend groups. I'm a deeply independent person with a lot of meaningful, lifelong connections, but have definitely struggled a lot with fitting into friend groups over the course of my life, especially when they're all-girls. I've thought a lot about active and passive friendship, proximity vs. compatibility, what "unconditional" really means in practice, etc,.
But for many years, I called myself the date friend. I excelled in 1:1 coffee dates or lunch catchups or long phone calls or showing up in moments of crisis, but I also sometimes didn't know who to call for simple, mundane company. I wasn't quite similar enough to the groups I was most closely associated with—maybe 10% off from a fully intuitive fit—although I did love them and knew they loved me in their own way, maybe.Still, were we really as good friends as I said/thought?


That definitely affected my tendencies as an adult. At the first moment of rockiness with a new (better-fitting) friend group this year, I got way more insecure than normal, reading a phase of divergence as incompatibility. Your friends are the ones you choose and who choose you, but the love doesn't always feel even either—on either side. I've had my moments of failure as a friend.
Needs change and warp, and time elapsed can give you the time and patience to allow people to be people (for them to fall apart, and you) etc,. etc,. Maybe we've all just grown up more. Either way, I remember Saving Francesca hitting hard at the precise age I needed it.
“'Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?' 'I notice when you're not. Does that count?'”
Saving Francesca is (not to get sappy, but totally to get sappy!!!) a love letter to and portrait of the process of loving people even when they don't feel "together" enough to deserve it, and very understanding of how that feedback loop can affect self-consciousness regardless of the person's independence.
Like in Jellicoe Road, I love that the romance in this book is functionally an extremely strong friendship between two equal people. (You also might love this one if you hunt books by trope, because it's rivals-to-lovers in a way.)
The writing is precise, emotional, and grounded, varying between personal and universal in the exact right way for a coming-of-age. It's an enduring favorite, and a frequent reread. Definitely gift to the 16-year-old girl in your life, especially if she's undergoing a transitional period!




For fans of:
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta; Moonglass by Jessi Kirby; Letters from Rapunzel by Sara Holmes; The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson; Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes; A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (but only specifically Jamie's internal conflicts and processing); My Old Ass (recent movie, hate the title); The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

