Review On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Synopsis: 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.

The moving, joyous and brilliantly compelling new novel from the best-selling, multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca.

Rating: 5/5 

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Drama, Contemporary

ADD TO GOODREADS 

My thoughts:

“From this distance everything is so bloody perfect.”

This will not be a proper review, because On the Jellicoe Road turned me into ruins. Quite possibly, my favorite book of the year, because it is so unique and so gut-wrenching and so enrapturing it deserves the title.

This book is not merely a reading experience; this book is a journey. One filled with two emotional plotlines, past and present, that overlap in places only to thread themselves together in a masterful and sad, yet agonizingly beautiful story.

This book is about finding yourself. About hating the world and cursing the universe for forcing you to exist when you're left abandoned by everyone else. About your whole life being a question mark. And about finally opening up to the world and embracing it to the fullest.

“Hold my hand because I might disappear.”

This book is about love, every kind of love. The one between siblings. The one that's so intense it's everything to you and leaves you dying when that love suddenly stops. The one that's as natural as breathing. The one that you try to bury beneath excuses. And about the love for life, for living, despite it continuously trying to shove you down.

“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 book is about the ugliness of humanity. About serial killers. About drug addiction. About neglected children. About pedophilia and child pornography. About goddamn cancer. About abuse. About suicide. About car accidents. About being parentless. About loss and about death.

“Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”

But, I believe, most importantly, this book is about friendships. I cannot find the words to describe how amazing the friendships portrayed in this novel are. They just filled me up with immense joy and plastered smiles on my face and gave me a sense of family. With their banter, their bromance, their love for mischief, their leadership, their honesty, their support for one another and their endless, boundless, eternal love.

Also, this book is about clever and magical storytelling. About how an author can enthrall you with some words on a page and make you cry like you lost someone dear to you. About how she can twist your heart and make you curse out loud for (fictional) live being so unfair. About how she can give you goosebumps and butterflies in your stomach and sighs and accelerated heartbeats.

And this book is about me and how I have fallen in love with its every single character. I love Taylor. I love Jonah. I love Santangelo. I love Raffy. I love Ben. I love Jessa. I love Trini. I even love Chloe P. and Richard and Sam. And I adore Webb and Narnie and Tate and Fitz and Jude. They were the backbone of this book, its essence, its soul.

And oh, Fitz, I just want to hug the poor precious boy.

And oh, Narnie, I just want to destroy her numbness.

And oh, Tate, I just want to hold her hand and be there for her.

And oh, Jude, I just want to save him from the heartache.

And oh, Webb, I just want to place him in the sky between the stars where he belongs because he is perfection.

After I finished reading at 5AM, I kept asking myself:

Why haven't I read this sooner? 
How much can a single person cry in one night? 
How much can you love a book? 
What to do with my life now? 

And so here I am, begging you to read this book if you haven't done so yet. Let it be a journey for you.

“You just have to belong. Long to be.”

I'll go back to my sobbing now, thank you.