Throwback Thursday Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

 

Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature here at I Heart YA Fiction where we will be reviewing older releases and/or books that have been on our shelves for awhile. Feel free to participate by reading from the bottom of your shelf and join the linky list below! We would love to read your Thursday Throwback Reviews! (Link up any reviews of older books! Your post doesn't have to be on Thursday!)

This week's feature?

Release Date: August 26, 2008

Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 419
Source: Purchased (because Sara said so)

ISBN-10: 0061431834

Rating: 5 Hearts

Book Description

"I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

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."

Review

Short and Sweet:

  While this book took a bit to get into, I don't think I've ever had so many feelings during a story. I'm so glad I made time for this book and I hope, if you haven't already, you'll read it soon too!

To Elaborate...

When Sara at The Hiding Spot first mentioned this book as one of her all time favorites, I didn't really pay attention. I thought the title sounded kind of generic and at the time I didn't read much contemporary, so I didn't plan on picking it up. But then she became a bit insistent, so I bought it and I'm so glad I did. Jellicoe Road is really quite beautiful. In fact, it is two stories woven into each other chapter by chapter, and figuring out how it all comes together is part of what makes it so special.

Jellicoe Road is the story of Taylor Markham, a girl abandoned by her mother on the Jellicoe Road. She lives at a boarding school where she is the leader of the Boarders. There are two other groups: the Townies and the Cadets and they have this territory game that they take quit seriously. There is a lot of focus on these groups in the beginning of the book and throughout, but it is really not the most important part of the story. More important is that Taylor becomes the leader of her group right as Hannah, the woman who found her on Jellicoe Road and somewhat 'parental figure,' secretly takes off for weeks without warning. Taylor, who has isolated herself from connecting with others (even Hannah) is now the most dependable person in her own life. As a result, she really struggles with feeling abandoned all over again. She passes the time reading Hannah's left behind manuscript about 5 kids named Web, Narnie, Tate, Fitz and Jude and begins to wonder if there is more to the story than fiction. 

Meanwhile, the dynamics between the leaders of the 3 groups are changing. Chaz Santangelo (leader of the Townies), Jonah Griggs (leader of the Cadets), and Taylor find they are caring less and less about the rules of the territory wars and more about each other. They spend evenings in a tree house becoming friends and solving a decades old mystery that becomes increasingly personal.

It's hard to say much more without giving too much away, but I can say that Jellicoe Road is SO deserving of it's beloved status and if you give it a chance (and push past a somewhat confusing beginning) you will encounter characters you will love and a story that is anything, but generic. This is a hauntingly beautiful and often heartbreaking tale that you would be crazy to miss! 

5 Hearts!