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lisa_bee88 's review for:
On the Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta
3.5 stars
This is a tricky book to review. I haven't actually read a Melina Marchetta since Looking for Alibrandi in Highschool. I loved Looking for Alibrandi. It got me through many difficult, angsty 16 year old times. Had I read Jellicoe Road in High School, I feel I would have loved it just as much.
Because the thing is - Taylor is a really great main character. She's a rough around the edges, but damaged, needy girl who is able to pull out her strength when she needs it. All she realls wants is to love and be loved. The story is centred around Taylor's search for her mentor, Hannah, who has disappeared in the middle of the night to "care for a friend". Taylor has reason to believe that isn't true and is concerned for Hannah's safety.
In the middle of the search for Hannah is the "war" - the school is divided up into various factions, and they have battled for years, distributing various areas of the school to the diffrent factions based on the outcomes of strategy and negotiation. People from other factions aren't really supposed to be friends, but there is definitely some emotion going on between Taylor and Jonah Griggs (who may I add, is a bit yummy.)
As well as all of these concepts, the chapters are interspersed with the manuscript that Hannah is writing about 5 friends on the Jellicoe Road. And these 5 friends are starting to feel awfully familiar to Taylor.
Right so - Marchetta certainly knows how to write a believeable love story. I loved Josie & Jacob in looking for Alibrandi, and I certainly loved Taylor Markham and Jonah Griggs. There is something so raw and real about them. It isn't all sunshine and lollipops - they are both seriously flawed characters who manage to bring out the best in each other.
I read the book fairly quickly, because it was certainly very readable. There were a few times when I scratched my head and flicked back a few pages because I felt I had missed something, but it all came together in the end. As far as the story goes, it was pretty good. Not amazing, but I would certainly prefer to see teenagers reading this over something like Twilight.
This is a tricky book to review. I haven't actually read a Melina Marchetta since Looking for Alibrandi in Highschool. I loved Looking for Alibrandi. It got me through many difficult, angsty 16 year old times. Had I read Jellicoe Road in High School, I feel I would have loved it just as much.
Because the thing is - Taylor is a really great main character. She's a rough around the edges, but damaged, needy girl who is able to pull out her strength when she needs it. All she realls wants is to love and be loved. The story is centred around Taylor's search for her mentor, Hannah, who has disappeared in the middle of the night to "care for a friend". Taylor has reason to believe that isn't true and is concerned for Hannah's safety.
In the middle of the search for Hannah is the "war" - the school is divided up into various factions, and they have battled for years, distributing various areas of the school to the diffrent factions based on the outcomes of strategy and negotiation. People from other factions aren't really supposed to be friends, but there is definitely some emotion going on between Taylor and Jonah Griggs (who may I add, is a bit yummy.)
As well as all of these concepts, the chapters are interspersed with the manuscript that Hannah is writing about 5 friends on the Jellicoe Road. And these 5 friends are starting to feel awfully familiar to Taylor.
Right so - Marchetta certainly knows how to write a believeable love story. I loved Josie & Jacob in looking for Alibrandi, and I certainly loved Taylor Markham and Jonah Griggs. There is something so raw and real about them. It isn't all sunshine and lollipops - they are both seriously flawed characters who manage to bring out the best in each other.
I read the book fairly quickly, because it was certainly very readable. There were a few times when I scratched my head and flicked back a few pages because I felt I had missed something, but it all came together in the end. As far as the story goes, it was pretty good. Not amazing, but I would certainly prefer to see teenagers reading this over something like Twilight.