Melina Marchetta

***

This is what a good book does to you. It makes you lose sleep, makes you struggle to finish it despite the lingering and more important problems (or exams in my case), makes you cry at the wee hours of the night, and makes you think about it for at least a week.

I don't know how to put into words how a ~400-page book did all of those to me.

But I will try. (Spoilers ahead- read at your own risk)


The touch of parallelism was good. Two stories are unfolding at once: Taylor Markham's, our show more heroine, and another about children-turned-teens named Webb, Narnie, Tate, Fitz, and Jude. The former goes on excitingly in a chronological manner. The latter pops up in non-linear excerpts, as it was in the form of a jumbled manuscript written by Hannah Schroeder, Taylor's guardian.

It's definitely a jumble at first- but in the end the format definitely sharpened and made the story more striking.

There's also this thing about tragedies that really pierce me. One of the few truths I really believe in is that the most beautiful things are also the saddest ones. Taylor Markham is in the center of chaos- imagine being left by your mother at a 7-Eleven parking lot, and witnessing someone shoot himself in the head before you even turn seventeen. It's a lot to take in and carry for a lifetime.

But wait! The rest of the characters are just as fucked up. Jonah Griggs, head of the Cadets, had a father who was so abusive that Jonah was urged to kill him with a cricket bat. Webb and Narnie's parents died in a car accident, the same one that killed Tate's parents and little sister. There's also this side story of children disappearing everywhere, indicating a pedophile/serial killer on the loose.

It's easy to fall apart at these circumstances but these people don't. And they come together. It took a long time and it was extremely difficult, but there were spots of good things here and there that made everything eventually okay.


And the romance. Sigh. I love characters who have a not-so-good start, because the journey of their reconciliation (+ more) is the sweetest. And the romance is not much of the central story, which I was thankful for, because I'd hate reading a full-blown cheesy, vomit-inducing account of the two's love life. That's not how I like my YA OTPs. It just pops up and at times it just leaves me wondering, or grinning stupidly.


Reading tip: I'd suggest reading this the first time just to kill yourself with all the shockers this book contains, and then a second time (or a third... fifth... fourteenth... go on) just to check out all the clues [a:Melina Marchetta|47104|Melina Marchetta|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1277655889p2/47104.jpg] (you are one crazy genius of a writer, ma'am) has left behind. It gets really fun when you do that part.

If I can give ten stars to only one book I've read in my lifetime, so far I'd say I'd give it to this one. show less

I loved this intricately plotted, expertly structured book, which won the 2009 Michael L. Prinz Award for literary merit in a book for teens. The cover looks very YA-ish, and there is certainly a coming-of-age part to the book, but truthfully, I would not call it a YA novel. At the very least, I would call it a crossover.

It’s not easy to read at first; like other reviewers, I felt very lost for at least the first fifty pages. And yet, there was something about it that made me want to keep show more going, rather than to engage in my usual reaction of driving the book back to the library with all due speed. It ended up, for me, being a lot like the movie “Sixth Sense” in that, as soon as I was done, I had to go back and start again so I could see what I had missed before! (So yes, I read this twice in a row!)

One half of the the story is centered around Taylor Markham, a 17-year-old [female] senior at Jellicoe School, which is a boarding school out in the bush in Australia for those who either don’t have parents, or whose parents find it convenient to send their kids elsewhere. Every autumn there is a “war” waged between the students: the “townies” of Jellicoe, and the military cadets from a school in Sydney. The cadets set up camp by the school each September as part of an outdoor training program. Taylor, whose mother abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, has been around the longest, so she is voted as the leader of the students for the war. Chaz Santangelo, son of the police chief, is the leader of the townies, and the cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, whom Taylor identifies as “not just a name but a state of mind…”

As if all this weren’t complicated enough, interwoven among Taylor’s story is another, concerning five kids from twenty-some years previously. Their story is told more in bits and pieces, and in a way is the more fascinating for it. We don’t know for quite some time whether it is fact or fiction, nor how it is related to what is taking place in the present.

The gradual revelation though, is what drives the story forward, and comes to supply its heart and soul.

Discussion: Taylor is a complex character: defensive, reckless, brave, but scared of a lot too: of being close to people; of being dependent on them; and of trusting them. Being abandoned by her mother defined her early life; assuming others want to abandon her colors the rest of it. There are a number of people who want to love her, but either they can’t let themselves for their own reasons, or she pushes them away for hers. So she is a loner, and wonders if not having anyone to grieve over you if you die would mean that you are worth less as a person.

In spite of all this need, however, for love and friendship from other people, Taylor wants them to figure it out without her asking; that way there is no risk to her. So she doesn’t ask because she doesn’t have trust, and thus she doesn’t receive. But as the story progresses, Taylor comes to realize that life is too short for waiting for more from it, and if she wants more, she needs “to go and get it, demand it, take hold of it with all my might, and do the best I can with it.” Her growing process is both painful and exhilarating in its realism. It is perhaps expressed best by her realization about sex the first time she has it: it might hurt; hurt a lot even; but you can figure out together how to do it better until it becomes something else; until it becomes everything.

Evaluation: This is such a moving and well-crafted book that the effects of the story were hard to shake after I finished. Normally, I would not even persevere if I were so at sea at the beginning of a book, but I trust enough in the Prinz Award to know it would be worth an effort, and indeed it was.

And it has been hard to review without spoilers, but I can say (not too helpfully) it’s about love and trust and friendship and loyalty, and in a year of great reading, is right up there for me with the top tier of books. And I can add this: I did something with this book I’ve never done before. As I mentioned above, the day after I finished, I opened the book, and reread it again. I knew that this time, I would know what everything in the beginning meant, and there was a lot to gain from going back. And I swear, even though I had just read it two days before, it was even better the second time! I fell in love with this author, and immediately put in a request at the library for her other books. Highly recommended! show less

This book was unexpectedly wonderful, because it was the sort of high fantasy that does it right. The characters are not cliche, the setting has a fresh originality to it, and while the plot has some familiar facets it also brings an entirely new take on some old stories.

Finnikin of the Rock has always loved his homeland Lumatere, where his father was a Captain of the Guard and he was bosom friends with the prince and princesses. But when a hideous coup snowballs into a destructive chain of show more events, Lumatere falls into utter ruin, sealed by a witch's curse and ruled by a puppet imposter king. Finnikin and thousands of others are locked outside their own kingdom, forced to wander as persecuted exiles.

But years pass, and the determined hearts of some men and women cannot be broken. Finnikin and his mentor Sir Topher wander the other kingdoms, waiting for a miracle. They don't expect it to be the novice Evanjalin, a silent and ferocious young woman with intoxicating hope and power in her eyes. But she will be the catalyst that begins a journey; the journey of a broken people ready to reclaim their home.

The characters are absolutely incredible; they are built so subtly and layered so realistically and emotionally that you hardly realize you are getting attached to them. You run the gamut of emotions following their stories, you feel as though they and their struggles and flaws and triumphs are real. Their emotions are wonderfully human. Yes, the plot and action are slow to build, but after a while I realized it was truly working for the story. The complexity of this world and its people needs to be done slowly in order to add to its beautiful sublety.

And in the end, the entire story is brought to such an amazing and satisfying conclusion that is thrilling without being overdone, sweet without being cliche, and peaceful without being perfect. All in all, one of the best epic fantasies I've read all year. show less

I was looking forward to Melina Marchetta's forthcoming novel until I discovered that The Piper's Son is a sequel-of-sorts to Saving Francesca. Then I didn't know whether to be thrilled or frightened. Saving Francesca is one of my favourite novels - I've read it too many times, I quote or refer to it frequently, I love it to pieces - and I wasn't sure that I wanted to know where Francesca and her friends were 5 years later. Not if finding out would change my opinions of Saving Francesca. I show more was emotionally invested in the characters before I even picked up the book!

I need not have worried. The Piper's Son leaves me feeling about Francesca and her friends exactly the same way as I feel about them in Saving Francesca. (I didn't like everything that had since happened to them - but that's life, that's realistic - and I loved the way their friendships had survived beyond high school.)
And anyway - the book isn't about Francesca. It's about one of her former school friends, Tom Mackee. Tom's life is a bit of a mess. He's dropped out of uni and lost contact with his old school friends, and he's still grieving for his uncle who was killed 2 years ago. His mother and sister have moved interstate, his father has disappeared... When Tom's flatmates kick him out, he finds himself living with his aunt, Georgie, and working at the pub with his former friends.
The Piper's Son is as much Georgie's story as Tom's. Georgie is dealing with her own grief, and what grief has done to her family - and the complications of being pregnant with her ex-partner's child.

I might have felt emotionally invested in Tom and his friends before I even opened the book, but there were certainly times when I was much more caught up in Georgie's story. I love how The Piper's Son is a young adult novel, and one of the main characters isn't a young adult. It works so well partly because it's is a story about family - a family torn apart by death and grief - and families comprise of people of all ages.
And my goodness, can Marchetta write about family! Her portrayal of a family is very convincing and powerful - both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.
The Piper's Son is also moving as a story about people putting the pieces of their lives back together, and re-becoming friends. (If Saving Francesca is about making friends, The Piper's Son is about keeping the ones you've got.) I love the dialogue, the bantering, the humour - it made me smile, and it made me laugh. I was also entertained by the popular-culture references. Hurray for quoting Pride and Prejudice!

(On a slight side note, I was surprised to find I had a problem with the swearing in this. I am usually not that bothered swearing in books, but I found myself disliking it intensely, and I'm not entirely sure why. However, when everything is said and done, it doesn't change my opinion of The Piper's Son.)

There's a lot in The Piper's Son, and a lot I could possibly say about it. It's not my absolute favourite of Marchetta's, and in my mind, it isn't her best - and I don't think that matters. It's captivating and emotional, a fantastic story, and very satisfying. I couldn't put it down, and when I finished, I wanted to read it again. show less