Look, friends. I know that by now you think I’m a professional Marchetta evangelist, but I HAVE TO BE. She is the best YA writer out there (six reasons I love her!), and if you’re not reading ALL THE MARCHETTA, your reading life has an abysmal hole in it that you need to fill.

Today I want to just pause for a moment to relish in the masterpieces that are Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son. Every time I re-read one or the other, I come away thinking, Yes. This. This is what a perfect book looks like. No one does characters as well as Marchetta.

In Saving Francesca, we first meet the crew. It’s the first year that St. Sebastian’s, a traditionally all-boys school, has admitted girls, and it’s not going well. Francesca is miserable … but as she goes through the year, her life is changed by the people she encounters at St. Sebastian’s: Justine, Tara, Siobhan, Thomas, Jimmy, and Will. Will. *heart eyes*

Then in The Piper’s Son, we catch up with the group five years down the road, only this time the story centers around Thomas and it’s his life that’s in shreds. This book. These characters. They mean so much to me that I don’t even have words.

If you need a good book recommendation, I will always, always start with Melina Marchetta. And these two books are an incredible introduction to the wonder that is our queen.

I have only two things more to say: 1) You’re welcome. 2) What are you waiting for?