REVIEW: On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Review by Jocelyn of Teen Book Review

Before you pick this book up, I've got to warn you: it is heartbreaking. There is beauty and hope there, too, but there is so much sadness in this story that begins with a car accident in which five people die on the Jellicoe Road. Three survive, though, and one saves them and the bodies of their loved ones. One more is added to their number, and those five friends are everything to each other.

Over two decades later, Taylor Markham is a student at the Jellicoe School. She becomes the leader of her school in the territory wars between the Jellicoe School students, the Townies, and the Cadets, who come in for six weeks from the city. The three factions fight and negotiate and bargain for territory, with an extensive set of rules and lots of tradition and history. That history is personal, too, when it comes to the relationship between Taylor and Jonah Griggs, the Cadets' leader.

This exquisitely crafted story is far too complicated and difficult to explain properly in a few short paragraphs here. It is two stories, really, from the past and from the present, that come together seamlessly and wonderfully told. This book is full of gorgeous, fluid language, and complicated, well-drawn characters, and intricate, perfectly done plots. It's just such an amazing book, going above and beyond even my high expectations for something by Melina Marchetta. On The Jellicoe Road is an extraordinary, beautiful, terrible, and incredibly powerful story. It's about the power of a shared history and love and loss and grief and secrets and truth and reconciling the past with the present. On The Jellicoe Road is a book no one should miss reading.

Review by Jocelyn of Teen Book Review

This book will be released in the USA with the title "Jellicoe Road", to be published by HarperTeen in September 2008.

For a short review of Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, see our Gimme Five: Australian Authors

Comments

[Doret]

omg I am so jealous you've read this. I love this author. I live in the states, was tempted to order it from Australia.

[py]

How does it feel being the winner of the best children’s book council award of the year?

the recognition that you have received. Have you meet any one of your favorite writers?

In particular, how growing up in an Italian family influenced your choice of subject matter?

How did you go about writing your book? Especially the first paragraph?

I heard that Erica Irving of Penguin helped you with the first draft. How did you go with that?

can you tell us about the main point of the story? What were you trying to convey to your audience about all else?

Can you tell me about the main character and the other important people from the book?

Is any of the characters based on your real life family and friends?

I think the main character Josephine is really two different people at the beginning and the end of the book. In the beginning she is overdramatic and self-absorbed. Does this character reflect your personal life?

Do you think her character is similar to the majority of girls in real life?

At the end of the story there are so many important points that are concluded about teenagers being mature and vulnerable. Could this be the reason for writing this book?

[Luisa]

Thanks for your questions. I've passed some of them on to Melina Marchetta and hopefully we'll be able to feature an interview with her at some point.

[leesa]

I just finished this book less then an hour ago and it spooked me. I cant help fight the idea that she got the basic geography and setting from my old boarding school. It was on the murrumbidgee river, out of town, there were only very few private houses around, it was a state school, it was near griffith (designed my burley griffith)

then the rumours, the hermit, the tunnel under one of the houses to the oval, ect ect the terrable phone reception!

it was just scarily familiar!!!

[lucy jellicoe]

it sounds really sad and last name is jellicoe and thats from my dads side of the family so part of my family was famous because of john jellicoe who went through the world 1 and 2 so its is very sad for me and my family because we didnt get to meet him and he lived for 50 years with a bullet in his lung and he sent the germans home instead of killing them all and i think he is a saviour to england

[Rachel]

I've read that book.
I live in Australia and it is my favourite book at the moment.
It is so compelling and sad, I cried whilst reading this.
the whole thing is just so wonderfully written that it comes together finally, although I had to be patient as I didn't quite understand a lot at the beginning.
all the same, it was a fantastic book and a great review.