Review: Jellicoe Road, Melina Marcheta

Jellicoe Road
Melina Marcheta

Official Summary:
"What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.

Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn't a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.

In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.

What the Pros Say:
Printz Award Committee Chair Mary Arnold: "This roller coaster ride of a novel grabs you from the first sentence and doesn t let go. You may not be sure where the ride will take you, but every detail from the complexities of the dual narrative to the pangs of first love is pitch perfect."

Kirkus: "A beautifully rendered mystery."

What I Say:
This is one of those books that grabs hold of you somewhere deep down and doesn't let go until long, long after you've snapped the book shut for a long time. I was caught from this sentence in the prologue:

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.

I counted.

I had to know what happened. I had to know whose story this was and why they were waiting and watching and counting while their father died. The plot summary posted above does the story little justice, although it was enough to intrigue me into buying the book in the first place. This is Taylor's story, and the story of five intertwined lives that were lived on Jellicoe Road long before Taylor ever set foot there. It's maddening, and frustrating, but more than that it's captivating.

Taylor is injured and guarded, and she has a difficult time letting anyone in, and in that she's one of the most relatable damaged heroines I've ever read about. You can see her destroying herself, and you just want to reach into the page and give her the hug that you know she deserves and have never been able to get.

I won't try to summarize the plot myself, or to say too much about what happens. It'll just have to suffice to say that this is a beautiful, beautiful book, and that while I think some people may be frustrated by it, or tempted to put it aside, it is one of those books that is simply worth reading, word for word, all the way through. And then, when you've put it down, pick it up and read it all over again, because there is no way to pull the full oomph out of this story with one reading, and maybe not even with two, or three. It is beautiful, the kind of book that should simply be read and loved and not forgotten.

Intrigued?
Check out Melina Marcheta's website.