the fact that melina marchetta writes relationships and characters to be so realistic and believable will never cease to amaze me. i was super emotional because of the characters even if some of them behaved like assholes sometimes, especially boys. my favorites are probably jimmy, francesca, thomas and tara. didn't understand the point about depression though... don't want to spoil, but that's not it, chief™ anyways... i'm excited to read the other books by the author because this one and "on the jellicoe road" are the shit (the latter is better, but "saving francesca" is also a baby