Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Published: August 28th 2006 by Penguin Australia
Rating: 5 Stars
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance, Family, Mystery.
Source: Purchased from Book Depository
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Goodreads Summary
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.

“It’s funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that’s why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love.”

This story is beautifully heartbreaking. I was moved to tears by this book. Melina Marchetta excels at writing flawed, fascinating and realistic characters.

This is the third book I’ve read by Melina Marchetta and once again I am speechless at how deeply her writing and her characters have affected me. My heart ached with so much sadness and so much hope for Taylor, Jonah, Narnie and Jude. The way she explores human nature is so captivating and raw you can’t help but feel connected to these characters. So while I may have figured out some of the puzzle pieces early on in the book, it did not make the emotional impact any less powerful when our characters finally figured it out themselves. 

This book was also beautifully crafted. I loved seeing the way that the actions of the past had a lingering effect on the present. I can understand why people may be confused by the first 100 pages or so but when the pieces fall into place you will be left awed by the intricacy of this story. I would recommend everyone to pick up this book.