Jellicoe Road

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Also an honourable mention has to go to Santangelo, with his abs (don’t worry Taylor, I wouldn’t look away either) and Ben, my violinist and his medieval jousting. Hot damn.

Sometimes the emotional intensity slips into a blatant melodrama. I mean, there was actually a remark on how intense Taylor and Jonah's relationship was, which made me feel like I'm reading a Twilight-type love story.This is a book that I will reread again and again and know that eveytime it will still impact me as it did the first time I read it. These people have history and I crave history. I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I'm thinking.”

Another thing that might bother readers is that some characters go through a lot of tragic events, sometimes too many. However, the story never becomes overly melodramatic or emotionally manipulative IMO. Taylor's character is difficult to imagine. The memories of her past have changed the person she is today. Most of the time she is lost in her own world, but she is prone to depression, anxiety, asthma and being unfriendly towards others. She has no idea who her father is and her only memory of him is standing on his shoulders and reaching for the sky. Taylor's appearance describes her as being tall for her age with light brown hair and blue/green eyes.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." When she runs across a book/journal written by Hannah, she begins to unveil some long-standing secrets. Along with some friends from her school, she has several creepy encounters and a variety of adventures. There is some sort of rivalry described between the two groups of kids...but I was pretty confused so I can't say I ever really grasped what that was about for sure. The side characters were so well fleshed out. And I was just as invested in their stories as I was in Taylor's. Their character growth and development and their own struggles was so beautiful to read. Watching them become more to one another brought me such joy. Taylor goes to the Jellicoe school. Hannah, who works there, found her alone (left in a restaurant) and took her in when she was 11. However, when Hannah disappears leaving Taylor more lost than ever and our MC is selected to lead the territory war against the Townies (people from the town) and the Cadets (military students) her whole life is about to change. It doesn’t end there, the leader of the Cadets is none other than Jonah Griggs with whom she shared an unforgettable history. Her obsession about finding her mother only complicates matters. All of this will change not only her perspective of her life forever but her future as well. This story is told in alternating perspectives set in both past and present which, at first, seem entirely unrelated. But as the mysteries of this plot unravel, they begin to show hints of their glorious connection.

Taylor is awakened from her dream by a bunch of kids shining flashlights in her eyes. Taylor has been expecting this—it's apparently a special night, and kids at the school love doing melodramatic stuff like trooping into people's rooms with flashlights.

How It All Goes Down

All I can do is echo the voices of those who prodded me to read the book - DON'T GIVE UP. You will not forget this book. You will not regret reading. It is so worth the read. Keep some tissues handy.

There are many things that could have broken her – the abandonment of her mother, the history that seems to be stolen from her, the memories she can not trust, the hermit that killed himself in front of her and the words he said but she can not remember, Jonah’s betrayal, and the last drop is how Hannah (the woman that took care of her in the last few years) disappears, how the only constant in her life vanishes and there is no one to tell her what happened with her. and toward the middle, the plot became a little predictable, but that didn't even matter, because by that point i was so enmeshed in these characters' lives - i just wanted everything to work out for them, even though i knew this was not going to be the kind of book with a tidy-sweet ending. The connection between these two was so strong – the history, the teasing, the flirting, the fighting, everything is deeper that you might think. The way they saved each other, the way Taylor opened her heart to Jonah and trusted him, the way they care for each other – it’s all so strong, so genuine, so heartbreakingly sweet. I spent hours trying to figure out who the characters were and what the hell was going on. The transitions between characters and time frames was not always obvious, making matters even worse. I must have been hours into the story before I figured out that there were actually two stories playing out -- one in the present and one in the past. Needless to say, I lost a lot of time being utterly confused and unaware of what was going on. And Jonah Griggs, you stole my heart. Though I do think Melina Marchetta could quite easily persuade me to fall in love with a goldfish.I think quite possibly my absolute favorite thing that Marchetta does is the character reversal. She introduces a character which we view in a terrible light because the main character views them in a terrible light, and then she completely changes our mind about them in a subtle and realistic way throughout the book until finally we and the main character are in love. She did this in SAVING FRANCESCA and she pulled it off again in JELLICOE ROAD even though I was watching for it. By the time we get the first kiss in the novel, I was sort of clapping embarrassingly like a seal. I think what also added to my experience was that I read this with a group of besties. We'd text eachother our thoughts and laugh about how much this book was making us cry. I had the best time reading this. A thousand thanks to Fares for suggesting we read one of his favourite books. It has become one of mine as well 🌻. this is a rich and emotionally complicated tale, and when i go to that panel next week, i may have to throw myself on her a little bit and beg her to take me with her and tell me bedtime stories every night.