Beat the Backlist Book Review for Jellicoe Road
/7 Comments/by SuzannePublished by Penguin Australia on August 28th 2006
Genres: Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 419
Goodreads
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
MY REVIEW
I think I’m probably the last person on the planet to read Melinas Marchetta’s Jellicoe Road. I’ve always heard wonderful things about it and actually know a couple of people who say it’s one of their favorite books. But yet, there it still sat on my TBR pile, getting buried deeper in the pile by newer books as the years went by. Well, finally, thanks to the BeatTheBacklist challenge, I can finally say that I’ve read this beautiful book as well.
Jellicoe Road is not an easy book to read, by any means. It starts off very confusingly, tossing out a lot of seemingly random information that doesn’t appear to fit together in any meaningful way. There are territory wars taking place between townies, military cadets, and the students at a boarding school, which is located on the Jellicoe Road. Add to that dreams of a boy sitting in a tree, flashbacks to a car accident that appears to have decimated a family, throw in a hermit who kills himself, and a mysterious, somewhat creepy brigadier. Top all of that off with a protagonist who was abandoned at a nearby convenience store at the age of 11 and who ends up living at the boarding school on Jellicoe Road and a caretaker who mysteriously goes missing, a manuscript about a group of kids who lived at the Jellicoe Road school decades ago and you have the ingredients that make up this wonderful puzzle of a story.
LIKES
The beauty of the book lies in the way that Marchetta is able to take all of these seemingly random elements and weave them together into one of the most heartbreaking and poignant stories I think I’ve ever read. Taylor Markham is definitely the glue that holds the story together and it is through her eyes that we finally break through all of that initial confusion and start to make sense of the various elements that have been thrown at us. Marchetta makes Taylor such an interesting and sympathetic character that I found myself instantly wanting to know more about her – how could her mom just leave her like that, why is she having these odd dreams about the boy in the tree, why are her classmates opposed to her being a leader in the territory wars? Because many of my questions mirror Taylor’s own questions about her life, it made me very willing to wade into the chaos looking for answers.
At its heart, Jellicoe Road is a book about relationships – family, friendships, even in some cases, an absence of relationships. I don’t want to give away too many details because I think this book is best enjoyed if you follow along Taylor’s journey and discover the connections as she discovers them, but I will say that Taylor’s journey is a very personal one and often a heart-wrenching one. She knows next to nothing about her own life. There is no real mention of her father, and aside from the fact that her mother left her at a Seven Eleven and that she has been living at the Jellicoe Road School ever since, she has no real sense of self. Taylor is desperate to know who she is, why she was left behind, and even tried to run away from the school when she was 14 in hopes of getting some answers.
The closest thing to family Taylor has ever known is Hannah, a caretaker who lives on the school grounds. Hannah is the one who found Taylor at the Seven Eleven and brought her back to the school to live. When Hannah up and disappears one day without a word, Taylor is beside herself because now, in her mind, she has no one left to care about her. She desperately searches for clues as to Hannah’s whereabouts and in doing so, starts to unravel the mystery of not only Hannah’s past, but her own as well. Both of their pasts are filled with pain and plenty of angst, seemingly too much at times, but yet still completely realistic. I think what I loved most about the story was that even though there is so much pain and angst revealed throughout, Jellicoe Road still ends on what I would consider to be a very hopeful note.
DISLIKES
I did find all of the confusion at the beginning of the novel to be a little off putting. If I hadn’t liked Taylor so much right from the start, I think I probably would have just given up on the book. It was a pretty fascinating way to start a story though as I imagined all of those same elements swirling around in Taylor’s head just like they were swirling in mine. Both of us sitting there like WTF is going on, haha!
One other issue I had was why all of the secrecy. At the time the story takes place, Taylor is about 17 years old. She’s more than mature enough to handle the truth about her past, so why torture her by hiding it from her for all of these years? I know the people involved had their reasons, but I think all of the secrets probably just made things a lot more complicated than they needed to be.
FINAL THOUGHTS?
I would definitely recommend Jellicoe Road to anyone who likes a good mystery. Although the story focuses on relationships and angsty family history, much time is also spent following the clues and connecting the dots. Jellicoe Road is a beautifully complex read that will just keep tugging at your heartstrings from start to finish.
RATING: 4 STARS
About Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta was born in Sydney Australia. Her first novel, Looking For Alibrandi was awarded the Children’s Book Council of Australia award in 1993 and her second novel, Saving Francesca won the same award in 2004. Looking For Alibrandi was made into a major film in 2000 and won the Australian Film Institute Award for best Film and best adapted screen play, also written by the author. On the Jellicoe Road was released in 2006 and won the US Printz Medal in 2009 for excellence in YA literature. This was followed up by Finnikin of the Rock in 2008 which won the Aurealis Award for YA fantasy, The Piper’s Son in 2010 which was shortlisted for the Qld Premier’s Lit Award, NSW Premier’s Lit Award, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, CBC awards and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her follow up to Finnikin, Froi of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn were released in 2012 and 2013. Her latest novel Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil is an adult crime novel.
Waiting on Wednesday: Spotlight on “When Dimple Met Rishi”
/21 Comments/by Suzanne“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.
My “Waiting On” Wednesday selection for this week is When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. Okay, so I don’t typically go for any read that is classified as a romantic comedy. Romance just isn’t my go-to genre. I’m making an effort to expand my reading horizons a bit, however, so I’m actually quite excited about this book. The synopsis sounds wonderful and the book is also receiving high praise from many of my favorite bloggers, so I’m sold on giving it a shot when it comes out next month. 🙂
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Publication Date: May 30, 2017
From Amazon.com:
A laugh-out-loud, heartfelt YA romantic comedy, told in alternating perspectives, about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your WoW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Fandoms I Belong To
/34 Comments/by SuzanneTop Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Fandom Freebie — top ten fandoms I’m in, 10 reasons X fandom is the best, must have merchandise for x fandom, etc. I’m taking Freebie literally here and am branching out from books since most of my fandoms are in TV and music. I don’t think we used the word fandom to describe things we were passionate about when I was growing up, but whatever we called it, I’ve definitely done my fair share of fangirling over the years. Here are some of my favorites…
Top Ten Fandoms I Belong To
1. STAR WARS
I think this was my first fandom love. I fell in love with Star Wars back in the 1970s and early 1980s when the original trilogy films were released in theaters. I just couldn’t get enough of these characters. Chewy and Yoda were always my favorites, but I was also a diehard Han/Leia shipper and a huge Carrie Fisher fan. I’m still devastated that we lost her last year :(.
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2. CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
The CSI fandom is probably the one I’ve been most active in online. I never wrote fanfiction or anything like that, but I definitely remember reading my fair share of it and shipping quite a few different pairings on the show over the years. I didn’t particularly care for any of the spin off shows though; I was Las Vegas all the way!
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3. HARRY POTTER
Is there anyone who doesn’t love this fandom? Doesn’t matter if it’s the books or the films, I will fangirl Harry Potter all day long. I never get tired of talking about it!
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4. THE 100
The 100 is a relatively new fandom for me. I haven’t read the books, but last year I binge watched all of the season on Netflix and became pretty obsessed with the show. I’m mainly obsessed with it because it’s always an adrenaline rush, but I also do have a pairing that I ship, Kane and Abby (or Kabby as the cool kids call it).
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5. ONCE UPON A TIME
I was so enamored with the show during its first few seasons. Just like I love fairy tale retellings in the book world, I loved the new twists that this show was giving to classic fairy tales. I’m a little less passionate about it these days though because they killed off one of my favorite characters, Robin Hood.
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6. GILMORE GIRLS
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this several times on my blog since Rory is such a huge bookworm, but I adore Gilmore Girls. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve binge watched the series on Netflix and I loved the revival series that came out late last year and am hoping for even more from the Gilmores in the future.
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7. ALL THINGS DISNEY
Let’s just say I’ve never met a Disney movie or a Disney character that I didn’t love and leave it at that. This one is a lifelong fandom. I’m just as passionate about Disney now as I was when I was a small child.
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8. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
I’ve had a mad crush on Bruce Springsteen since I was about 13 when Born in the U.S.A. came out. He’s talented as hell, puts on an incredible show, and I also love that he’s not afraid to speak his mind on any subject that he feels passionately about.
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9. BON JOVI
I loved them when they were a big 80’s hair band and I still love them today. Like Springsteen, they put on such an incredibly entertaining show and let’s face it, Jon Bon Jovi has always been easy on the eyes. He’s even hotter today than he was back in the 80s too.
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10. BOOK FANDOM!
So yeah, we’re a fandom too, right? I couldn’t narrow my love of books down to any particular fandom, so I’m just going to say I fangirl over ALL the books and love ALL of my fellow book bloggers.
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