I so don’t want to be attracted to him and the fact that I am surprises me. I wasn’t a fan of Will at first, but the antagonistic attraction between him and Francesca was just too thrilling-and too close to how I remember high school being like-to resist:

And she begins to question whether her old life at Stella’s had been as good as she had thought.īecause it’s a Melina Marchetta book, there’s also a bit of romance thrown in. Francesca turns ‘into a delinquent’ when a teacher fixated on rules and punishments gives her a week of detentions for failing a butcher’s paper exercise. This first act of defiance seems to trigger a spark of rebelliousness. When Will Trombal, one of the House Coordinators, urges her to tell the girls to go with the flow and acts dismissively, Francesca can’t help but put him in his place. To make things worse, Francesca’s mother, Mia, has had a breakdown, and as Francesca struggles to make sense of who she is in her new school, she has to find a way to define her family when its most dominant personality is suddenly silent.įrancesca is nominated to represent the girls and argue for improved conditions. My mother calls that complacency but whatever it’s called, I miss it like hell. At Stella’s, you turned up to school, knew exactly what your group’s role and profile was, and the day was a blend of all you found comfortable. Then, on top of that, you have to make a whole new group of friends after being in a comfortable little niche for four years. What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls? But the reality is that it’s either like living in a fish bowl or like you don’t exist. The rest of the place is all male and I know what you’re thinking if you’re a girl. St Sebastian’s pretends it’s co-ed by giving us our own toilet.

Saving Francesca gives me diamonds on every page.įrancesca Spinelli is one of thirty girls at St Sebastian’s, a previously ‘all-boys’ school that has opened its doors to girls in Year Eleven for the first time ever.’ She misses the feeling of belonging she had at her old school with her old friends:

I long for these moments of empathy that can turn an otherwise forgettable book into a treasure in my bookshelf. Sometimes a scene will get me, or a character, or a turn of phrase. When I read fiction, regardless of genre, I automatically seek a sense of connection with the words on the page. Not to to be effusive or anything, but this is the book that began my love affair with Melina Marchetta’s books.

Saving francesca