"Looking for Alibrandi" is not my favorite Marchetta's book. But if you like her other works, you will enjoy this one too. And Josie is a wonderful character - intelligent, snarky, kind and always a smartass. 
 Melina Marchetta is very good in showing youth realistic, so thet when you are reading you constantly think "I did just that when I was a teenager!". 
 And though this book was not my favorite, it was the book I felt the most related to. It touched me on the raw. 
 My Mama and grandmother didn't get along (just like Alibrandi women). If they were in the same room they were always fighting. So I completely understand Josie's mixed feelings. When you hate your grandmother for hurting your Mama, but you still love her because she is your grandmother after all... It can be very confusing for a child, teenager or even an adult. 
 But what I could relate to even more than family problems, was Josie's confusion about who she is. Josephine Alibrandi is "Australian with Italian blood flowing rapidly through her veins". Because of her Italian blood, Australians didn't consider her their own, and because she and her mother was born in Australia, Italians felt like they are not their own either. So it is no wonder that Josie was lost. 
 Boy, do I know how it feels. I was born in Estonia, but my Papa is Russian and my Mama is Tatar. Three culture, three languages, three religions, three sets of different traditions. I know all about ignorant people who tell you that it is not your country even if you were born and lived here all your life. Or when people make assumptions about you based on your nationality. Or when you see how hard it is for your parents and grandparents to live here without knowing the language. 
 Marchetta through Josie's eyes managed to show all ups and downs of multiculturalism. And I love her for that she led Josie to be proud of being multicultural person. Because in the end of day, when you forget about ignorant people, you understand that maybe it is a blessing to know so many languages, to know all this traditions. You understand that it is a good thing to be able to belong not to one, but to three different, but great nations.