Jellicoe Road

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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 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 show more 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 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 show more 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

Jellicoe Road is a complex story with tantalizing mystery and heart wrenching discovery. The characters evoke love and attachment from the reader, so that you really miss them when the book is finished. I still think about them even though I finished the book over a week ago. The Jellicoe story is one of adult struggles and pains wrapped up in the exhilaration and fun of childhood games like capture the flag and jailbreak. Not only is the story brilliant, but it is punctuated throughout with deep glimpses into the human truths born from relationships that will make you stop and re-read so that you may truly soak up their subtle fullness.

"What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?"This book is a journey.Let me preempt by saying that I will not do this book justice with my review. I had read other reviews before starting this, so I didn't have a problem with being slightly lost in the beginning--I was expecting it, so it was much smoother sailing for me, I was prepared to have some confusion and a ton of unanswered questions at the beginning, knowing that it would all be worth it in the end.And man, was it worth it--this book was so worth the small investment of my time to see where the author was taking us on this journey, and that's exactly what it was--a beautiful journey through heart wrenching sadness and heartwarming joy. Not a little quick trip of a show more book that I'll forget about as quickly as I got into it, but one that will stay with me. And all the mystery & slow build up only added to the resonance of it when we finally got answers.Read this book. Now. Today. You will thank me later. :) show less

To me this book has just such an essence of summer days, of being young, of friendship, of love and family, of growth, all wrapped up in the mystery that connects the past and present. Taylor’s own narrative starts off darker as the tragedy she has experienced of being abandoned by a junkie mother and being present for a man’s suicide is faced, interspersed with the lighter narratives of the friendships and relationships between Narnie, Webb, Jude, Fitz and Tate from the past. As the book progresses Taylor’s own story becomes more hopeful as she develops deeper relationships with those around her which is juxtaposed with how the narrative of the past takes a darker turn when those characters world starts to fall apart with the show more loss of one of their own. While the book started off a bit slow I found the characters intriguing and charming enough and was quickly fully hooked. It had me questioning everything the entire time as I got completely enveloped into the mystery of Jellicoe. It was touching and amazing and I didn’t expect to cry as much as I did at the end of it. show less

From the prologue:

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said.

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With a beginning like that, how could you put it down? Well, I did, two times, but the third time…well…wow. Every once in awhile, show more a book comes along that just hits you in the gut. It hits too close to home, it tears your heart out, it grabs you by the roots of your hair and spins and doesn’t turn loose until well after the last page has been turned. Jellicoe Road did all these things to me and so much more.

Taylor Markham has been living at the Jellicoe Road boarding school since her mother abandoned her at the nearby 7-Eleven six years earlier. She doesn’t really know what happened to her father; only that he has been gone for most of her life. Now she’s seventeen has been newly elected to the post of student leader of her dorm and to lead the Underground Community as one of the three boarding schools who battle for territory (among other things) in her small Australian community. The two other gangs are called the Cadets and the Townies. For years these three camps have fought in the “Territory Wars;” wars fought over land, trees, water, and more. Everything is going swimmingly, until Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family disappears without a word. Jonah Griggs, the boy Taylor ran away with three years ago and the leader of the Cadets has popped back into her life with smoldering looks and mystifying behavior. And all the young kids of Taylor’s house are now looking to her for everything. Things start falling apart.

Understandably Taylor wants to know what’s going on with Hannah. We are given glimpses of a novel that Hannah has been working on, which at first Taylor takes to be fictional but quickly realizes that it might not be so fictional. It provides an all important glimpse of Hannah’s, and Taylor’s, life. As she gets closer and closer to the truth the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together and, well, good luck putting the book down. This is an absorbing story where nothing is quite what it seems and the clues only lead to more questions for Taylor, as she tries to work out the connections between herself, Hannah, her mother and the character’s in Hannah’s book. This is a book about secrets, anguish, pain, love, betrayal, hope, death, life and oh so much more. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful. It’s gorgeous and haunting. It’s going to live with me for a long time, I’m sure. I’m so glad I gave it that third try.

Oh and this is important. Jellicoe Road won the Printz Award! show less

Jellicoe Road was my first Marchetta novel - though this is an author highly touted and often recommended, I was strangely hesitant to read any of her books. Example? I bought Marchetta's acclaimed ya fantasy Finnikin of the Rock for Nook over two months ago, when it was on sale for $2.99, and haven't yet peeked at a page. Hype is often a double-edged sword, as many other anticipated YA novels can attest and I didn't want to feel the sting of disappointment here. I have to say that the first 50 pages of Jellicoe certainly intriiigued me, but they didn't quite convince me as I had hoped. I can certainly see why some readers find the beginning off-putting and hard to comprehend initially, but even after the dual narrative of past and show more present were cleared up, I just didn't get It, the Big Deal about this book and this author. Then, near about 100 pages later and a "save yourself, Taylor," I got it in a big way. This book made me Feel Things. All of the feelings really: happiness, amusement, sorrow, anger, fear, love. I'm stuck with the feeling that no matter how much I edit and revise and rethink, I will never be able to do this beautiful novel justice. As soon as I finished this, I knew I didn't want to think about other characters, other stories. I wanted to stay here, in Jellicoe, with these characters. So I did the only thing that made sense and flipped the book over and immediately began rereading all my favorite parts. It still packs a punch the second time around, even knowing explicitly what will happen.

I grabbed this on a whim three days ago, having been close to finishing the excruciatingly emotional Code Name Verity but with 100 pages and hours of work to go, I opted for a longer novel that hopefully wouldn't make me cry at work. How wrong I was; tears were streaming down by my lunch break (aka p. 255) I engulfed this absorbing, heart-breaking tale in just over twelve hours, covering work and family dinner, starting just before I left at 9 am, sneaking in pages whenever - wherever - I could. Melina Marchetta is the real deal: an imitable and simple but striking style, a masterful storyteller with impressive authorial sleight-of-hand, capable of rendering complex, fallible and damaged characters I still wholly and completely loved. This novel is a masterpiece of young-adult fiction (the 'territory war' was obviously the weakest part of the novel, but it brought together the core four [Taylor, Santangelo, Raffaela, Griggs] initially and eventually was revealed to have a larger purpose) and Melina Marchetta deserves all the accolades she's garnered. As the lovely Emily May of GoodReads so aptly put it: "[She] plays my emotions like Jimi Hendrix played guitar." Skillfully, elegantly, and above all subtly, Marchetta takes utmost time and care with crafting both her storylines and her compellingly damaged and so so real characters.

And let me tell you: oh boy, did I ever care about Taylor, Jonah, Jude, Hannah, Tate, Jessa, Webb, etc. While it took a while for these many personalities to manifest, I think this might one of my most beloved ensembles. From Jonah to Jude, these characters are real, vibrant, and dear to me. Jonah Griggs: I officially Get It. I officially Want One of My Own. Everyone take note for in Jellicoe Road, with Melina's hand at the wheel, there is an authentic, believable and touching YA romance with a swoon-worthy broody love-interest. I don't go in for broody asmuch now that I'm not 17 and I certainly don't say "swoon-worthy" as a descriptor for men I like, but Jonah Griggs defies that. He is broody and swoon-worthy, but that's not all he is. Like Taylor and Jude (Oh, Jude show less