{Audiobook} Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Narrator: Rebecca Macauley
Series: n/a
Length:  8 hrs 53 mins
Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Publication Date: February 9th, 2009
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

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.

A long time ago, I read Finnikin of the Rock. What a great book!  (side note, I really need to read the books following that one). I've always been curious about On the Jellicoe Road, and Jen recommended the audio version, so I gave it a try.

If I were to have rated this book about an hour into the audio, it probably would have gotten 2 stars. If that. I did not like this story in the beginning. I was confused as hell. I didn't understand what this whole townie, cadet war thing was about. I mean really? And then there were little flash backs to the past in the beginning of each chapter, and they made no sense either. I was a mess. Then Carla saw my goodreads status on Twitter and assured me that everything will come together in the end.

She was so right. I would give Jellicoe Road 20 stars if I could. I mean, it's just perfection! I know that I will have to go back and re-listen, now that I know what was going on.

I wish there was a perfect way to describe this book without ruining it, but there isn't. I'm so glad I started out confused and unsure, because it made it even better when I started to pick up on everything. So I'm not going to say anything really about the story. You just need to experience it for yourself.

I was so close to finishing this one at work last week but I just knew that would be a bad idea. Thank goodness I waited until my ride home, because I cried the whole commute. lol. Not all sad tears, some happy, but wow, this book choked me up. I never would have guessed it would effect me that way, after disliking it early on.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. I will tell you that it's a story about friendship, and it will just melt and break your heart. :)

About the author:

Melina Marchetta was born in Sydney Australia. Her first novel, Looking For Alib awarded the Children's Book Council of Australia award in 1993 and her second novel, Saving Francesca won the same award in 2004. Looking For Alibrandi was made into a major film in 2000 and won the Australian Film Institute Award for best Film and best adapted screen play, also written by the author. On the Jellicoe Road was released in 2006 and won the WAYRBA voted by teenagers in Western Australia in 2008. It also won the US Printz Medal in 2009 for excellence in YA literature. This was followed up by Finnikin of the Rock in 2008 which won the Aurealis Award for YA fantasy, The Piper's Son in 2010 which was shortlisted for the Qld Premier's Lit Award, NSW Premier's Lit Award, Prime Minister's Literary Awards, CBC awards and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her follow up to Finnikin, Froi of the Exiles will be released in Australia in October and the US in March 2012.

Find Melina:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads