Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Challenges: 

Around the Year in 52 Books: A book with a dual timeline

I’ve read a few books of Marchetta’s by now and all the rest of them got 3 stars out of 5. Books get 3 stars when I don’t actively hate them, so all of her books have been “fine” so far. But this one blew it out of the water!

We follow Taylor, a young girl who lives at a boarding school mainly for young people who don’t have anywhere else to go. She tries to stay out of life and just get on with her existence, but when she is elected the leader of the entire underground network of the school she is forced to care. The students at the school have a war going on during the months when cadets come to stay for their outdoor training camp. Kids from the town join in and the 3 factions conduct a war strictly guided by the rulebook that has been passed down over the years. To be honest I was surprised at how vicious this war was and how it could take place without any of the adults knowing about it. But it was sort of explained, at least partly, and by the end I was willing to forgive such minor details. 

Interspersed with Taylor’s story is another story about a group of kids in the same area. We slowly find out who these kids are and how they are connected to Taylor’s part of the tale. At first I found this bit a little confusing because there were a lot of people to keep track of to begin with and then this POV added a bunch more. But once you get to know all the people they all stand out. 

Reading this book was a bit laborious at first, but when I got to know all the characters I just wanted to be friends with every single one of them and give them all a hug. I loved the dynamics of the groups and figuring it all out. In a Dickensian twist everyone turned out to be connected somehow or other to everyone else, so that was intriguing, although sometimes it was spelt out a little forcefully, when one characters had an epiphany about these connections. It was like the author wanted to be absolutely sure we understood, but the writing was so good, that I didn’t feel in doubt, so that often felt a little unnecessary to me. But that is a minor flaw and I’d rather be told straight up than not quite understand. I just felt like Marchetta’s writing didn’t really need that last push of spelling it out for the reader. 

But again, I’d rather not feel like I’m not understanding something, so in my book that is another minor flaw. Marchetta had me so involved in these characters and their fate that I didn’t really care about the few minor problems, and I gave this book 5 stars out of 5. I would definitely recommend it to just about anyone.