Author: Melina Marchetta
Series: None
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Genre: Realistic Fiction; Mystery; Contemporary; Romance; Young Adult
Pages: 419
Taylor is leader of the boarders at the
Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal
with Jonah Griggs - the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought
she would never see again.
And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.
The moving, joyous and brilliantly compelling new novel from the best-selling, multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca.
And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.
The moving, joyous and brilliantly compelling new novel from the best-selling, multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca.
To anyone that has not read the Finnikin of the Rock series, this is for you. I am officially handing you a formal invitation to read one of my favorite series.
Now, to anyone that has not read Jellicoe Road, you might want to add that to your to-do list. Near the top of the list is my recommendation. Preceded by a big fat #1 would be appropriate also.
Taylor Markham has a past. A secret one that even she hardly ever looks back on. Her past is one that she would rather forget. One she would rather replace. She would rather not remember the mother that abandoned her on Jellicoe Road. When Hannah, the closest thing that Taylor has to mother, abandons her too, Taylor’s not so easily willing to forget. Besides becoming the new leader of the boarders, and her ongoing occupation with trying to decipher her strange dreams, she must find Hannah, wherever she may be, with only a out of order, loose-leafed manuscript to guide her. But then, of course, things get complicated. The complication’s name? Jonah Griggs. Yet another piece of Taylor’s past she would rather forget. But, things are still too easy; not only is Griggs nothing like his scrawnier, younger self that Taylor seems to remember, he is also leader of the Cadets, only one of the two gangs Taylor must thwart in the territory wars. The world is against Taylor as she fights to reveal a past she’s not sure she wants to uncover. Not only will Taylor learn more about herself than she ever knew she could, she will also discover a secret buried deeper than her own that will not only change her life, but everyone around her as well.
Do you like boarding school underground societies? Sparks of romance about to burst into consuming flame? Protective and loyal friends willing to endure the depth of the earth for you? If you said no, then this blog really is not the place for you. If you said yes, then congratulations, I think you've just found your perfect novel. Not only does this book have all of these things (and so much more), it is also deeply riveting and will hang over your head for months. The secrets are so mysterious and the characters so seamlessly portrayed, I really don’t know how anyone could not love this book. I read this a couple months back, and I still think about it. I wonder about the ending, the middle, and the beginning. If I could, I would buy it, just to have it on my shelf. Just so I could know I could revisit the characters whenever I wanted.
Yeah. This book is that good.
Taylor has it rough: abandonment (on two cases), and a strange dream she can’t stop having. A boy on a tree branch, listening to her every thought and secret, but telling only so much as to make her more lost that she already was. I love how, through it all, Taylor never stops being strong, determined and pugnacious. She wasn't scared of doing what she had to in order to discover the truth. Both she and Jonah were that way. Jonah a bit more enigmatic, but broodingly intriguing and easy to love. Raffy and Chaz, two incredibly well rounded characters were perfect friends and totally admirable. Especially Raffy, who keeps Chaz on his toes. The romantic connection between Jonah and Taylor was my favorite kind; consisting of two independent people who interlock perfectly with each other. Neither of them depends on the other, just relies on the other for support. They coexist, instead of depend. One doesn't make the other. They make themselves, and their rough edges just happen to match up with each other. It’s beautiful and true. They don’t try and change the other, they accept and embrace instead. They bring out the best in one another.
It makes since that if you love E. Lockhart (which I do), you will love Melina Marchetta (again, that’s me). Their novels are so similar, both in their topics, but also in style. They have strong female heroines that just seem to overtake the story, but in a good way. They let their character run the show, instead of the plot or setting. Like Lockhart, Marchetta also has strong beginnings. Most reviews that I have read mention a slightly strange and ambiguous start, which is true. But you must power through. You’re dropped in the middle of story that you have absolutely no idea what is going on, but it’s a wonderful story. I promise. When you figure out the beginning and the ending to the middle you seemed to have been dropped into, you’ll love it. I know I did. And I won’t forget about it anytime soon.
This book has taken up the very proper place on the right hand side of the screen, just under the words “Books I Love”. If you look close, you’ll find it, and, just as soon as I get my hands on them, I’m sure Marchetta’s other novels with take up residence right next to it.
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