A few months ago, I found out about a YA australian author by the name of Melina Marchetta on goodreads. I read possibly her most famous book, Saving Francesca, first, and read the rest of her bibliography in the next two weeks. Yes, her books are that good.
Even knowing that her writing is amazing, even knowing that I was going to love Jellicoe road, I almost gave up in the beginning. The first 4 or so chapters are confusing, and leave you thrown out of the loop. This story just jumps in, with few introductions, and you're supposed to put things together as you go along. The whole book goes back and forth between two stories, present day narrated by Taylor Markham, and an italicized manuscript that tells stories about a group of friends. Of course, this isn't explained, so in the beginning you have no idea what's going on.
My advice is to please, please push through the beginning. It gets way better.
Jellicoe Road is a story about Taylor Markham, who's mother abandoned her at a gas station when she was 11 years old. A woman named Hannah picks her up and takes her to the Jellicoe boarding school, where every year they have the Territory Wars against the Townies and the Cadets. This year, Taylor is chosen as the leader for the school, Hannah has gone missing, and the leader of the Cadets is Jonah Griggs, a boy who Taylor had run away with in a search for both their mothers a few years ago and who betrayed her.
Complicated? You don't know half of it.
Sure, there's a lot of issues going on, and at some points you think "Really?" because it's all so much, but it's never bad. In the hands of any other lesser writer, this book would read like a really bad soap opera. In the hands of Marchetta, it's a masterpiece. But the plot isn't what makes this book amazing. It's the characters. All of them. Even characters who are only in the book for a couple of pages feel real and three dimensional. I don't know how she does it, but this book has some of the most lovable and fleshed out characters I have ever read.
From Taylor, with her strong voice and the way she makes you feel everything she's feeling every step of the way. The way that when she has an asthma attack, you feel your chest tighten with her. To Jonah Griggs, who is up there with Mr. Darcy for my best fictional men of all time list, who makes you want to reach in the book and pull him close. Jonah Griggs is, to me, one of the best parts of this book. Every page he's on makes the book that much better. He manages to be strong and fierce and vulnerable all at the same time. Even the secondary characters, like Santangelo and Raffie and the mullet brothers. By the end of the book, you know all these people. They are all your friends.
The language in this book is also very beautiful. Melina Marchetta has this habit to make long, conjoined sentences that end up making a paragraph, but with her it makes the writing more powerful. During the whole book you get the feeling of being underwater and fighting to break the surface. Even when some really terrible things are spoken of, like one of the characters killing his father or child molestation or drug addiction or serial killers, it's all done so tastefully that it doesn't seem like she's trying too hard.
So give this book a chance and I promise you it will be one of your favorites. It's one of the best books I've had the pleasure of reading, and if you do read it and feel like giving up within the first 50 pages, just get to the end. It's worth it.
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