Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: August 26th, 2008 (Originally published August 28th, 2006 in AUS)
Genre: Contemporary, mystery
Dates read: January 5-10th, 2018
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ /5
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.
This was a buddy read with Heather from bookstrustandpixiedust, and you can check out her review right here! Thanks for reading with me, Heather!
Review (with mild spoilers):
Every once in a while, I read a book that completely takes me aback. It doesn’t happen very often – I read a lot of really good books but very rarely do they shake me to my core and seem to get right at my heart. Jellicoe Road was one of those books. I went into this book knowing basically nothing, and it ended up being one of the best books I’ve ever read. I personally felt such a strong connection to the story and the characters, and I’ve been trying to find the words to express how much I loved this book for days since finishing it, but nothing I say will ever do it justice – there are no words for how spectacular it was!
Melina Marchetta’s writing was absolutely beautiful and really made the book stand out from anything I’ve ever read before. The beginning was definitely confusing, I had basically no idea what was going on for a good chunk of the first part, but the writing style is what held me over until I got to about 50% and fell completely in love with the story. I am usually not a fan of flowery prose, but Melina Marchetta’s wasn’t overly flowery and it was the perfect tone for this book. At times, I felt like I was reading a magical realism book, even though there was no magic in it, because the writing was just so beautiful and ethereal.
It’s been a while since I read a mystery novel, and while I wouldn’t categorize this book completely as a mystery, it was still really fun to read about Taylor trying to solve the mystery of her family. After I hit about the 50% mark and I understood how everything was coming together, I was completely hooked and needed to know what was going to happen next. The results were heartbreaking but I was so happy that Taylor finally got her closure.
The dual narratives only added to my confusion in the beginning, but once I realized who the people in Hannah’s story were I fell in love with them. Melina Marchetta seamlessly wove these passages into the overall story, and it completely blew my mind by the end. I became just as invested in the stories of the older generation as I was in Taylor’s story, and figuring out which adult was each character in the story kept me on the edge of my seat. Some of the reveals were so shocking I had to put down my kindle for a minute! The mystery aspect of this story was so well thought out, and its interconnectedness with Hannah’s story made it even more interesting.
I really connected with Taylor, the main character. Her voice was extremely poignant and I loved her as a character. The friendship that develops between her, Jonah, Raffy, and Santangelo was so cute, and some of my favorite scenes in this book were between the four of them. Their friendship felt so real and intense, and they were there for each other even when it meant sacrificing the territory wars (which allowed for some really fun scenes as well!). The chapters that took place over their break were so fun to read, and I loved reading all the backstories that added even more depth to their relationships. I was highlighting my favorite passages on my kindle, and so many of my highlights were just meaningful moments between the four of them because their dynamic was just so beautiful. The group dynamics in Taylor’s house were really interesting to explore as well, especially with Jessa and her newfound parentage. Each of the characters was so well-written and had so much depth that made them truly the heart of the story.
There were a lot of really intense scenes in this book that had me catching my breath. I was really sucked into the story, and finding out about Taylor’s childhood when she goes into the city with Jonah and then the scenes at the end with the fire left me truly speechless. The emotional intensity of the writing was definitely one of the things that made this book so beautiful.
There were so many other amazing parts of this book that I could get into – The romance! The territory wars! – but I’m having trouble putting into words just how spectacular this book was, and if I included every single thing I loved about it, this review would never end. It’s not often that a book climbs near the top of my all-time favorites list, but this one has done so. I was reading over my highlighted quotes on my kindle to find other things I wanted to mention, and I found myself getting choked up over how much I love the story all over again. I don’t know why I waited so long to read it, because I’ve been hearing good things about it for ages, but I am so glad that Heather and I decided to buddy read it which gave me a reason to do so. Jellicoe Road is unique and beautifully written, with a mystery and fantastic characters, and really made a mark on me. It was incredibly heartbreaking but I also had so much fun reading it – it was the best of both worlds! If you, like me, have been meaning to read it, definitely pick it up because it is so worth it.
Have you read Jellicoe Road? What did you think? Comment and let me know down below!
Happy reading,
Sara
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