Saving Francesca
by Melina Marchetta
When I checked this out of the library, I didn't realize it was the same author as Jellico Road. I disliked--or failed to like--Jellico Road so much that I stopped partway through and read reviews just to see if there was any point in finishing it.
Unlike it, Saving Francesca was told in chronological order. Flashbacks and flashforwards are all useful tools in the right time and place,but this was not the time nor the place and, luckily, the author recognized as much. This is a simple, one person narrative of a girl starting a new school, making new friends, and trying to cope with her mother's depression. The character of the father threatens to become two-dimensional, but the various family and friends are just foils for the reflection of the growing girl. But I didn't mind--she's a cool, smartalecky, all-around sharp girl that I enjoyed watching. not knowing, exactly. But watching.
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