Jellicoe Road

This book confused me. I spent the first several chapters feeling mostly disappointed, but also frustrated, because I really wanted to love it and I wasn't sure that I did...love it, that is.

Taylor was such an unlikable character that was full of annoying teenage angst. She almost came off as spiteful and petulant. I couldn't understand her, or the strange world she lived in. At first, it didn't make much sense, and I was trying to grasp all the pieces of the puzzle that were being thrown at us, bit by bit. The townies and the cadets and all the houses and this battle that the three groups were caught up in, each led by one character. Taylor being one, Griggs, and Santiago.

Then there's this whole other story being told about 5 friends, an accident that brought them together, and a life that they lived together. It takes a while to clarify that this back story is important and directly connected to current events. Then there are Taylor's dreams of a boy in a tree, which also don't make any sense.

So that whole set up was quite confusing for me, and hard to follow. However, once the pieces started to come together, and I started to understand and see the bigger picture and connect all the dots...well, I found it to be heart wrenching and incredibly beautiful and amazing.

I loved the relationship that blossomed between Griggs and Taylor. I loved the friendships that were created, the bonds that formed, the different set of characters and their quirks. Once the story was over, I felt it leaving a mark, and it stayed with me long after I had finished it.

The only reason I wasn't able to give it 5 stars was Taylor. Even though I sympathized with her and rooted for her, I found her so annoying. Her sudden bouts of irritability and crabbiness and the way she'd sulk like a child were frustrating, and although I understood where she came from, it didn't mean I was OK with the way she treated her friends and loved ones.

Otherwise, a wonderfully told story, with so much beauty and tragedy intertwined.

Jellicoe Road is another winner from Marchetta! What a gorgeously written, emotionally exhausting, brilliantly constructed and effortlessly executed piece of art this book is! I can't tell you much about this book without spoiling, but it's honestly something that everyone needs to experience themselves. Yes, the rumors are true: it takes quite a while to understand things but when you understand you're in it for the long haul! I knew that this "not understanding" part could be an issue, but I just tried to go with the flow and enjoy it as much as possible until the turning point. This book does NOT disappoint, let me tell you!

“A home to come back to every day of their lives.
Where they would all belong or long to be.
A place on the Jellicoe Road.”

This is foremost a book about characters AND THEY ARE ALL SO AMAZING! Quite frankly idk who I love more, because they're all so squishy and lovable and broken but you can't help but root for them and then you want them to all have the world and oh god I'm getting extra, aren't I? Alright. Um. Um. Ummmmmmm even though the book is mostly character-driven, plot doesn't lack one bit. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and there are so many twists and turns and there are OMFG kind of happenings and everything. There is quite a bit of fooling around (in every possible sense of this term) and I loved following all of these dorks during the Territory wars. The book itself has two narratives. One where our MC Taylor leads us through the "now part" and one another set of characters. But really! I can't tell you anything more, because oopsy daisy! I wouldn't want to spoil youuuu. So is it finally proper time to speak about my feels since I can't talk about anything else?

OK SO THE SHIPS??? I AM BROKEN IN PIECES BUT PUT TOGETHER ALL THE SAME. THIS BOOK IS SO AMAZING ON THE ROMANCE FRONT BUT DON'T LET MY SCREAMING FOOL YOU; JELLICOE IS PAIN! I DON'T REMEMBER WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I CRIED SO MUCH WHEN IT WASN'T A KRISTA AND BECCA BOOK? MAYBE DURING FIXING DELILAH?? ANYHOW, THIS BOOK BROKE ME IN A THOUSAND TINY PIECES AND AFTER THE BOOK WAS DONE I WAS A SOBBING MESS. I TEXTED KATIE AND ERI THAT I COULDN'T STOP CRYING AND I JUST CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED. THIS WHOLE BOOK IS SO EMOTIONAL [and quite honestly a tad bit messed up] AND I'M GETTING SO EMO JUST THINKING ABOUT IT ;___________; THIS BOOK IS MAGIC AND YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY. YOU. ARE. MISSING. OUT. KKKK.

This is the place where I apologize and bow down to Tanja and Rashika who have been pestering me for years to read this book. I was stubborn and resisted, because most of Aussie writers' books I've read haven't suited me that much. The books I've read all have this distinct style of writing where words and scenes are cropped and rushed. While Marchetta does have that in her prose, it's very minimal and I never really turn much attention to it, because her books do what very few books are able to: these books suck you in and consume my mind, heart and soul. As Lisa likes to say: READ THE MARCHETTA!

[Pssst! Thank you to Nick for gifting a gift card for my birthday last year with what I purchased this gem for my Kindle and massive thanks to Jasprit who gifted the paperback for my birthday this year; you're golden Jazzy! ;*]

Overall rating: 5.0 out of 5.0

Everyone wants to discover life-changing things, whether they come in the form of events, people, paintings, or books. If you're lucky, you will experience these encounters more than once.

I was lucky. I read JELLICOE ROAD. This extraordinary book changed my life, and maybe it will change yours, too.
To tell the truth, JELLICOE ROAD kind of ruins you temporarily for all other books. For several days after I finished this book, I wandered around in a daze. I picked up books, halfheartedly read the first few pages, then put them down and wandered away. Nothing seemed to match the magical dream-come-true that was genius author Melina Marchetta's third novel.

It starts out confusingly. What's going on? Why is there so much tension between all these people? Who are they, anyway? What do they want? Why are they so serious about their situation? But then, invariably, you'll get sucked in. It's probably a little like how the average person might fall in love: you can't pinpoint exactly when someone became special to you, all you can say is that it happened, and you can't even remember back to a time when they weren't special to you.

The narration and plot progression of the book reads like a dream: choppy and distracted in a whimsical manner. Don't expect a conventional story arc, or you'll probably get really frustrated. Best if you just let it happen as it does.

JELLICOE ROAD reads like someone laughing through tears. I couldn't help but smile as Taylor, Jonah, and the others endeared themselves to me even before I could figure out what was going on between them all, even as their painful discoveries about their tragic pasts tugged at my heartstrings.

A story this magnificent, this heartbreaking, shouldn't have this much hope...but it does. That's the beauty of this book. Melina Marchetta has written a book that is so much more than a simple story in words: it takes on a life of its own.

If Deb Caletti decided to write a Lord of the Flies/Wuthering Heights mashup, it would look a lot like Marchetta's Jellicoe Road, a beautifully-written, tonally confused work that swings across YA genres like a possessed pendulum.

Taylor Markham, abandoned by her mother at a Seven Eleven, has lived at the school on Jellicoe Road almost as long as she can remember. Despite having always kept aloof from the other students, her senior status earns her the position of dorm head, leaving her in charge of waging the annual war the school students fight against the local Townies and the Cadets who make camp once a year on school grounds. It's difficult for Taylor to focus on winning back territory for the school when she's worried about the disappearance of the woman who's the closest thing she's ever had to a mother and when the head of the Cadets just happens to be the boy she ran away with four years ago. The escalating tensions among the groups lead to violence, and eventual revelations about a tragedy that happened on the Jellicoe Road oh-so-many years ago.

One might be forgiven for initially mistaking Jellicoe Road for dystopian fiction. The curt prose paired with the emphasis on the battle among the warring factions (as well as the power dynamics which bring our outside heroine to leadership) feel more like the opening of The Hunger Games than anything else. I've actually taken part in dorm wars before, and while I'd never say we didn't take things seriously (We had dorm cheers.And jingles. And a bloody dress code.) at no point was the drama ratcheted up to Apocalypse the way it is here.

Once you get past the first hundred pages or so, the feeling of trepidation that someone's going to throw a near sighted kid off a cliff eases a bit and it becomes clear we're in for more of a sins-of-the-past-generation-get-made-right-in-the-present kind of thing, with a few random bits of supernatural dreamquest thrown in for s***s and giggles. It's here that the novel really starts to find itself, and becomes not just interesting but honestly affecting emotionally. I'd have gotten a bit sniffly, only the author opening with a 76th Annual Hunger Games vibe kind of warned me to not get too emotionally attached to anybody.

Despite being a bit of a hot mess in an MFA project kind of way, Jellicoe Road clearly demonstrates Marchetta's promise as a writer. Hopefully the next thing I read by her will be more at home in its own skin, and less likely to have me picturing the heroine blowing a conch while dashing her head against a tree.

Jellicoe Road is incredible. I have no idea how Melina Marchetta wrote it, nor do I know how she managed to weave such an intricate tale spanning over 22 years. It's one of those books that refuses to let you go until you've reached the end, and it's a story that really does stay in your head for days. I loved it so much, I'm seriously considering reading it again.

The first 100-120 pages are pretty confusing. The past keeps appearing, people and places are alluded to, and nothing makes a lot of sense. After that, everything slowly starts slotting together, in what is possibly the best depiction of friendship I've ever come across. I can't really say anything else without giving something away, but here's a tip: read the prologue a couple of times, and read it carefully.

Marchetta talks about the Jellicoe Road like it's a character in itself, and it's just brilliant. If I could zap myself to that road right now, I would. I want to experience the Australian beauty she describes in such detail, and whether it's a real road or not, I want to go there. As you've probably guessed, the novel is primarily character-driven, and that's why I loved it so much. I haven't liked a group of people so much in ages, and their realism astounded me. The original 5 - Webb, Narnie, Tate, Jude and Fitz - are off-the-chart awesome, and their friendship is so inspiring. It's how every friendship should be and, although the circumstances in which they meet aren't favourable, it's the catalyst for a bond that will last a lifetime.

In the present, Taylor Markham and Jonah Griggs are the main protagonists, along with Santangelo, Raffy, a mysterious Brigadier and numerous other classmates. They're all in the middle of a turf war between the boarders, the townies and the cadets, which is a tradition that has been taking place for years. The turf war is a fantastic plot, and that alone would have made this book amazing. I could talk for hours and hours about these characters, so I'll just say that Taylor is one heck of a leading lady, and Jonah Griggs is now one of my top YA boys. *swoon*

The way Jellicoe Road unfolds is nothing short of genius, and it's a book that is guaranteed to leave you in tears. I know this review explains nothing, and doesn't tell you why it's an absolute must-read, but if I said anything else, it would ruin it. You need to approach it knowing nothing more than the summary, then you too can experience all the OMG moments that I did. Fellow YA fans, you NEED to read this book. You'll fall in love with it, I promise.

Why did I wait so long to read this book?! On the Jellicoe Road is absorbing, emotional, and thrilling. There's mysteries, and questions abound (both for the MC and the reader). There's a thread of magical realism and mysticism. There's romance and tension and friendship and grief. There's complex characters and simple characters, smart humor and character growth, and the charm of Australian things. (That last one may be less charming to Australian readers, but for someone who didn't know what a singlet was, or why there would be a school for orphans and arsonists in the middle of the bush, it was lovely. And educational!)

In short, it had all my favorite things, more or less. And as a result, I had a difficult time putting it down. I felt compelled to keep going, and definitely tied up with the MC, Taylor, even though she's rather spiky and cold sometimes. There are urban truths in here, too, that it's difficult not to flinch away from. And so much raw vulnerability at times, it hurt.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys lyrical fiction with a bit of mystery, intelligent contemporary YA, ensemble casts that are all very realized characters, and character-driven narratives. Also, Australia.

The first 100 or so pages of this book are confusing as hell. Don't stop reading, because it's meant to be. When everything starts falling into place and you start piecing the chapters together is when I immediately thought 'holy crap this is kinda brilliant.'

I don't want to give anything away in this review, but I will say that every character in this book has a purpose and I love that. I loved the way they all evolved in the book. It's filled with mystery, a bit of danger and even some romance.

I admittedly have a habit of falling for the male characters in books and this is no exception. Jonah Griggs starts out as a total jerk ... or so you think. It turns out that Taylor's perception of him isn't really who he is. When he spills his secrets, you're going to want to hug him close.

Definitely going on my favorite and reread list!

Just finished this yesterday and I loved it! Very intriguing storyline and character development. At first it was a little confusing because it shifts between two different time settings and stories. But as I kept reading I found myself not wanting to put the book down! Definitely recommend it!!

I didn't expect to love this book as intensely as I did. As I do. None of my real-life friends had read it before, it was relatively old (sorry, I'm a millennial, everything published 10 years ago is old), and to be quite honest, the cover wasn't all that appealing either. (I know they say 'don't judge a book by its cover'. If you know anyone who actually doesn't, that's a rare breed.) I picked it up because I saw a quote from it on tumblr, and that quote was so gorgeous I thought, "well, even if the plot turns out to be terrible, at least the writing should be pretty."

And for the first half of the book, it was pretty hard to get through, I will not lie. I've always been pretty bad at following dual storylines, and the one in here was a killer. I had only a vague, hazy idea of what was going on, and I stopped and started it so many times I got myself even more confused.

But man, when I got to the thick of things? It was GOOD.

It was so incredibly good, I got scared I was going through it too fast. The amount of witty one-liners and the remarkable camaraderie between the main four characters was electric, and soon I found myself in love with each character. They're so brilliantly written, so multi-dimensional, that it was impossible not to be.

And when the two storylines neared the end, the goddess that is Melina Marchetta tied them up so neatly that suddenly everything made perfect sense. (If you're a easily-confused dork like me, fear not. The Great Melina is merciful and you'll understand it eventually, I promise.) But it was such a ride from the beginning to the end, and even when you think there's nowhere else to go, there is.

The ending was wonderfully satisfying, and I cried and laughed and was basically left an emotional, happy mess. Altogether, it was truly a work of art, and I couldn't recommend it more. This book deserved the Printz so much, and I'm so happy I stumbled across that quote on tumblr because it brought me to this beautiful book.

(If you're wondering what the quote was, it was the exchange between Taylor and Griggs that goes, "If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless." To which Griggs eloquently pulls to the side and says, "Not driving any more." :)

perfect item