Melina Marchetta

On The Jellicoe Road

Taylor Markham is not a popular choice. She is erratic, has no people skills and never turns up to meetings. Not to mention the incident when she ran off in search of her mother and only got halfway there. But she's lived at Jellicoe School most of her life and as leader of the boarders that's her greatest asset. Especially now the cadets, led by the infamous Jonah Griggs, have arrived. The territory wars between the boarders, townies and cadets are about to recommence. But Taylor has other things on her mind: a prayer tree, the hermit who whispered in her ear, and a vaguely familiar drawing in the local police station. Taylor wants to understand the mystery of her own past. But Hannah, the woman who found her, has suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but an unfinished manuscript about five kids whose lives entwined twenty years ago on the Jellicoe Road . . .

On the Jellicoe Road

People weren't kidding about Melina Marchetta and gut punches, huh?

Annabella

ghost girl in satin

This book crushed me in the best way possible. 
At first, I didn't understand what was going on. I just knew that I liked the writing style and the characters, and that I liked the sort of painful feeling that came through the story, haunting but beautifully translated into writing. This story is both dark and joyful. It made me cry and smile, sometimes even laugh. It's a beautiful story of friendship, love, and grief that doesn't spare the readers but still manages to instill in them the desire to live, and to belong. 
I'm forever grateful that I picked this book up.

Christine

i figured out most everything at 50% but then proceeded to cry all the way through the last 20% lmao i miss the christine who was so adamant about never crying

sept 20th - LOL I bought a copy of this book from thriftbooks bc I literally couldn't find it elsewhere and this whole thing was annotated IN BLUE INK I am DYING on one hand this is so cool on the other, What

bianca

marchetta's storytelling is so so vivid—i feel like i've made friends with the characters. can't wait to go back to the book barn and get another marchetta novel

Annika Arguemore

It went off with a rocky start but once you get your feet on even ground and you gain your balance, it becomes one hell of a journey. Brilliant. Beautiful. I don't know what else to say. I kept screaming at certain points of the story for I cannot contain the feelings this book gives me. Albeit it wasn't very accommodating at first and at some parts, the rest of the story would make you feel right at home with its realistic characters, the romance, the supposed past, the mystery, the conversations, the war itself, etc. It's just one heaven of a book. I recommend it to everyone! Grab a copy now!

tldr: changed the trajectory of my life forever. must be the best book i’ve read so far this year and overall the best young adult contemporary i’ve ever read. just very achingly beautiful. this book's going to break your heart into million pieces and glued it again in the end. nothing but 5 stars is deserved.

★★★★ // i am no stranger to a Melina Marchetta novel, having read Saving Francesca a few years back. but this one feels a different kind of heavy to a point when things finally fell into place, there’s just this hovering emptiness and hollowness in your chest. it was not an easy read, especially because i found the origin story of the core five slightly tedious and muddled. i couldn’t find the time to deeply care for them as they simply felt like people in the past—even as certain revelations were reached. despite this, i couldn’t help but be drawn to this story. maybe because its themes of overcoming self-loathing is something i can identify with, not to mention its extremely romantic take of Taylor and Griggs’ past and present connection. going back, it provokes a good question of how far we are willing to forgive other people and ourselves. there are things in life that are surely out of our control, but our reaction to it is placed on our hands. after all, we create our own fate. 
  ”But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes, Taylor, and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can’t forgive yourself for.”

Danielle 

I absolutely loved this book! It is one of my all time favorite books now and I plan on rereading it! It's different than most YA novels but in the best way possible!

Jenny Vuu

Isadora Cal

OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMFFFFFFFFFFFGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

April 20, 2013

This kind of reminded me of the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles only it was less depressing and it had really good romance 
  (dont make me start on the romance.)


The story was normal, with a school and houses and leaders and insecurities. At first, I got a little confused by the shifting of the POV, at who's story was who's and where they began or where they ended but I got the hang of it after a while. 

The characters. This is one of those books where the authors writes them in a way that they actually feel so real to you, you feel their pain and loss and joy and you feel as if you know them to the very core. Sometimes I had to remind myself that they were just fictional characters. 

Taylor was a typical girl who has a lot of issues about herself and her past and the people she cares about. I understood her frustration, but like a normal human being, she didnt handle them well. But I really loved her character. The way she internalizes little things and events made me think about my own life. Her thoughts and views on things were really deep and they made me think. Like Taylor, I got super attached to the five characters of Hannah's story, as well as the developing "new five'. Their friendship, the bonds between them and the times they shared made a lasting impression on me. Their bond was so strong and so pure and you can clearly see their love for each other right there and I have never experienced that kind of friendship with anyone my entire life (but I still fourteen, Im not in a hurry). I was more focused on the friendship than the romance, and thats one thumbs up in Miss Marchetta's direction. 

Taylor and Jonah's relationship: I had no idea what to expect from Jonah Griggs and at first, I couldnt believe this buff, angry guy was her love interest. Their relationship started out tentatively, both physically and emotionally, until it developed into a poignant, intense , emotional rollercoaster. But when Jonah's caring, gentlemanly, super sweet side was uncovered, I fell head over heels with him. I did not see that one coming.

I am simply not capable of putting all my feelings in one review. 
So, I totally recommend this for everyone. Teen angst, intense romance, emotional discoveries, childhood adventures, lasting friendship, tragic endings, badass heroines, and gorgeous prose all rolled into one book.

I think what really got me, though, was the friendship and the history.

  I fall in love with these kids over and over again and my heart aches for their tragedies and marvels at their friendship.


Update: June 10, 2015

I cannot count how many times I've reread this (and all the other Marchetta works as well) and todays I was digging around the internet for movie details when I found the original idea Melina Marchetta had from the YA Highway interview with her!

Apparently, she says that "... the original story I wrote years ago was set only in the present. There were no cadets and no townies and no territory war. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a Griggs or Santangelo or Webb. Most of the original story was set in the boarding school where Taylor and Webb were best friends and they were the ones involved in the car accident on the first page. There was a different type of war where all the houses were enemies and Taylor was the negotiator for her house and Santangelo was the negotiator for his. Griggs was the wild outsider aligned to no one and Webb was the one who kept things together between them all. And then he disappears."

How cool is that?

Tia Malt 

If you ever want to read a book that makes you wish you'd never picked it up in the first place - not because its bad in any way - but because now that you've read this one particular book, no other book is going to live up to it? 

Well that was my exact reaction when finishing Jellicoe Road. 

There are so many ways that the story line of this book could have gone awry due to the complexity of it, and yet Marchetta never failed to surpass my wildest dreams of where this book could lead.

The writing style cannot be faulted; Jellicoe Road is written in a very sophisticated, yet still totally understandable, way. And, man, dont get me started on some of the quotes i could pick out of this masterpiece. Quotes that make you think, quotes that make you question yourself and your feelings and beliefs, quotes that change your view on things entirely, and quotes that make you fall in love with the characters (in my case one character in particular: Jonah Griggs).

The characters of this novel are another thing altogether; they fit together in the way that all characters from a book should; they compliment and contrast each other's features and no two characters are 'copies' of one another - or of a character from another book either. 

Taylor - the main character - has to suffer through tragic loss, and pain, and confusion, and an overwhelming desire to discover her past. She also proves herself capable of loving others - in both platonic and romantic ways - that have the reader understanding and relating to her. But past that, she still feels the same way any other normal teenager does - she can be reckless and she overreacts in some situations, because thats what teenagers - and people in general - do. 

Jonah, however, was the icing on top of the cake for me. He was just the right amount of everything you want in a leading male character - and love interest - but still seemed real, not the 'perfect boy' that some books try to create. He was real, and he had flaws, but in the end he was an incredible character. 

I would recommend this book in a heartbeat to anyone who enjoys reading things that make them actually think, without even realising how much theyre thinking. Its an incredible story with an incredible plot, and if i could give it 6 stars i would, but sadly i cant so i'll have to settle for 5.

Merve A. 

"webb once said that a narnie smile was a revelation and, at this moment, i need a revelation. and i get one."

reread after years (thanks to haivan ❤️) and i loved the story even more this time around, which i didn't think was possible. though the last 20 pages or so were a blur because of my tears, these characters and their story will always have a special place in my heart 🥺

Georgia Carr

A slightly odd book, but touching and intricate nonetheless.

Maria

first I thought that it's just a very boring book with weird structure where the events, dreams and pieces of a book-within-the-book are all mixed up. the "territory wars" plot is just a snooze fest, and the MC does now grow as a person at all, she is just overly dramatic and absolutely unrelatable. so, nothing happens in the book except pointless conversations and whining but then the MC kills a cat! WHAT DA FUCK? that was it for me, i'm not even gonna hide it under "spoiler" cut because I think people should know. nobody mentioned it in their reviews, and i'd actually never started it if i knew. an animal's death as a plot device infuriates me beyond imaginable

Alice

The day before I started reading On the Jellicoe Road, I was wondering when in the world I would come across a worthy 5-star read. A day and a half later, after I turned the last page of this book, I wondered how in the world I hadn't picked it up before.

If you like reads where a past story mixes with the present, this one's for you. I really appreciated the flow of the book. It was easy-paced and suspenseful enough. I didn't really like the final mystery-reveal-slash-plot-twist, but it made the story all the more unique.

I've got a secret love for the kind of conflict like the "territory war" in On the Jellicoe Road. No weapons, just teens trying to outsmart each other following the idea of a war but without casualties. In this aspect, this book has got a lot of 
  The War of the Buttons
 in it.

IMO, the character growth throughout the story is worth the read. The dynamics. The growing friendships. The book starts cold and progresses towards warm. I can't say more (let's avoid spoilers, shall we) but there is a beautiful underlying message of how, most of the times, conflicts are unnecessary and founded on flimsy reasons. People set apart by differences can actually learn to like each other.

Laura

I honestly haven't wished I liked any book more than I actually did more than this book. I figured I would love it, that it would emotionally impact me and I would laugh and cry and the writing would be beautiful and I would immediately begin searching out everything Melina Marchetta ever wrote. That didn't happen. I think the last time I felt this way was when I read We Were Liars, and thought it was only okay. 

There was so much filler, and the mystery felt dragged. Perhaps it felt dragged because around 100 pages in and once I grasped enough of Narnie and Webb and Tate and Fitz and Jude, I placed my bets as to which character each of them ended up being. I got five for five, in case you were wondering. But Marchetta isn't Tana French, I'm afraid. While it's true with French's work that I did guess who it was two times out of three, I still held onto the story because I wasn't sure if I was right or not, and because it was a murder, I wanted to know how it happened and what the motive was. In this book, it seemed fairly obvious to me who everyone was, and the entire book seemed like Taylor, our main character, was just trying to catch up, making me (unintentionally, I swear!) think she was a bit slow. 

And while I like the idea of there being a war between the Townies, the Students, and the Cadets, it got in the way of central mystery. This is also a very busy book, and that just made the central plot seem muddy and made me feel bored and restless. My eyes were jumping all over the page, looking for something that happened that had to do with the kids from the 80s, who by far had the more interesting story and felt the most developed. If all the extra stuff was cut out, and this book was just about Taylor trying to find her parents, or about Taylor trying to uncover the mystery of these teens from the 80s, then this book would be spectacular. But no, we had to get in the turf war and then the romance and a whole bunch of other stuff I just didn't care about. Hell, I wouldn't even have minded if the book was just Hannah's manuscript or just about those characters, because I wanted more from them. I didn't care about Taylor, who felt underdeveloped. In my notes, I put down that it was rare I care more about the plot than the characters, but that in this case I did. The parts with the manuscript excerpts were fascinating and engrossing, as well as some of the more contemporary-seeming parts with Taylor and her group of friends. Those parts brought back glimmers of the summer-y, nostalgic feeling I get when reading certain really good contemporaries, like The Lies About Truth or Invincible Summer or I Am the Messenger. But those feelings didn't really stay with me consistently, the way they had with the above books. They would be there for maybe a paragraph or two, and then flit off, just leaving me disappointed and just wanting Taylor to catch up and solve the mystery so the book can be over.

Continue reading this review on my blog here: http://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/20...

On The Jellicoe Road

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