Meno Male Che Ci Sei (English: Thank Goodness You Are Here) is a 2007 Italian novel by Maria Daniela Raineri.
Allegra is an insecure teenager neglected by her parents and ignored by her classmates. Luisa is 35 years old and has an affair with a married man, who also happens to be Allegra's father. Allegra's life changes after her parents die in a tragic accident, and after reading her father's old e-mails, she learns about the existence of Luisa, a woman who was genuinely in love with her father. After a shocking first meeting between the two women, Allegra and Luisa will start an Odd Friendship, by giving each other the emotional support that both needed at the moment.
It has a movie adaptation, made two years later.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Giorgio, an unattractive nerd in Allegra's class, has a crush on Allegra. She can't stand him.
- The Ace: Gabriele is handsome, sweet, intellectual, athletic, ridiculously rich, has an active social life, and is always involved in many extracurricular activities. All of this makes Allegra an Insecure Love Interest, as Gabriele is the ideal boyfriend in every way, and she doesn't want to lose him.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In the book, Luisa is pretty but slightly overweight. In the film, she is played by the conventionally beautiful Claudia Gerini, who is not overweight, except in the scenes where Luisa is pregnant.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Luisa is described as chubby, but still cute and plesant-looking. At least two men were attracted to her.
- Book Dumb: Allegra is a mediocre student with no academic interests, which makes her feel insecure when she's around her intellectual boyfriend Gabriele.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Probably Allegra's worst flaw. She gets angry, aggressive, and even depressed any time Gabriele talks to another girl. Even if Gabriele has shown many times that he's madly in love with Allegra and would do anything for her.
- Dude Magnet: Allegra has many boys and adult men lusting after her, but she's only interested in Gabriele for the most part. Besides Gabriele, she attracts the attention of creepy film director Mauro, Luisa's boyfriend Giovanni (though she is the one who seduced him), bad boys like Luca and Yuri, and obnoxious nerd Giorgio, among others.
- Easily Forgiven: Luisa forgives Allegra very easily, considering that the latter destroyed Luisa's happy relationship with her new boyfriend. She even helps Allegra to prepare for the high school graduation's exams after that. However, Allegra was in a horrible state due to being gang raped very recently, so Luisa's forgiveness is understandable.
- False Friend: Giada, Allegra's Only Friend in the beginning. She later starts to hang out with Alpha Bitch Chiara, while ditching and ignoring Allegra.
- Hate Sink: Many of Allegra's schoolmates (Giada, Chiara, Luca, Yuri, and Giorgio) are terrible people, and it says a lot that the least bad of these five is Chiara, a shallow, one-dimensional Alpha Bitch. Ironically, both of Allegra's romantic rivals, Nicoletta and Francesca, are nice and likable girls despite Allegra's hatred of them.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Luisa, who considered Allegra's father a great man who genuinely loved her and wanted to leave his wife for her before his death. He was actually a womanizing jerk, with Luisa being just one of his many mistresses. Allegra tells her the truth much later.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Allegra is 17, and her only real friend is Luisa, a woman in her thirties.
- Ironic Name: Allegra's name means "happy". She spends most of the book being sad or angry.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- One of the later chapters briefly mentions Giada getting a Humiliation Conga and losing all her popularity. That's the last time she's mentioned in the book. She deserves all of it, for being a horrible Fair-Weather Friend to Allegra in the entire book.
- Yuri initially gets away with raping Allegra. However, in the last day of school, Allegra tells everything he did in front of everyone and Yuri gets beaten up by Gabriele. It's implied that Yuri and the other rapists (Luca and Giorgio) will be punished since now everyone knows the truth.
- Maybe Ever After: The book's ending implies that Allegra and Gabriele will get back together. They actually do at the end of the movie adaptation.
- Nice Guy:
- Gabriele, Allegra's boyfriend, is a loving and caring person. And you need to have a lot of patience to be in a relationship with Allegra.
- Luisa is a female version. She lets Allegra, an orphan girl, stay in her house, because she is still devoted to Allegra's father, even after his death.
- Parental Neglect: Even before dying, Allegra's parents never really pay attention to her, and didn't know much about her life.
- Parental Substitute: Luisa becomes this to Allegra after her parents's death.
- Plastic Bitch: Allegra's initial "friend" Giada gets a nose job during holidays and this apparently allowed her to hang out with Chiara and the other popular girls. She ditches Allegra almost immediately.
- Romantic False Lead: Nicoletta at first, and Francesca later, are two obstacles to Allegra and Gabriele's relationship. Both of them make Allegra insanely jealous.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: You can sympathize with Allegra for a good part of the book, until she turns into a terrible girlfriend to Gabriele and an ungrateful bitch to Luisa due to her selfishness. Not even her Freudian Excuse justifies her horrible actions to Luisa.
- Trauma Conga Line:
- Allegra. Her neglectful parents died in a tragic accident, she spends most of the book with no friends, her behavior drives away the few people who cares about her, and near the end of the book, she becomes a victim of gang rape. She gets better after that, though.
- Luisa. The man she was in love with (and who never loved her in the first place) died. She later loses her Second Love after he was seduced by Allegra, one of her best friends. By the end of the book, she's pregnant and without a boyfriend.
