There's a reason why books like Twilight don't receive those. They don't give those to just any book, and when you factor in excellence . . . well, a lot of titles just don't make the cut. But it is clear to me why Melina Marchetta's third tribute to YA literature received a Printz award back in 2009. It is because it is excellent, to the very meaning of the word.

If all YA contemporary writers wrote like Marchetta, I doubt I'd play in any other genre playground very often. She writes these beaut More...

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 - Jesus, did you?" This quote belongs to Stephen King, but it describes the soul of Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road perfectly.



Jellicoe Road is the story of friendships that form your world, friendships so wonderful that it's easy to fall to pieces when they break. It is the story of abandonment and loss and learning to deal with it. It is the story of love, intense to the extreme with the generous helping of teen angst. In shor More...

As seen on The Readventurer

I don't often give books 5-star ratings. Normally these are the books that either horrify me (Unwind, The Handmaid's Tale) or delight me with superb writing (The Queen of Attolia, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks) or awe me with imaginative world building (The Left Hand of Darkness) or make me cry (Before I Die). Jellicoe Road definitely falls into this last "made-me-weep" category.

Jellicoe Road is the location of a boarding school for kids that are oft More...

God. This book.

-----


Note: I’m not sure where the words ‘On the’ went… I’m assuming it’s different for the British version and not that I have a defective copy.
Also… while I’m Note-ing: This review will be a lot shorter than other reviews because this book is best read knowing nothing about it.

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Breathtaking. I need to listen to the masses more.

High Points.
JONAH GRIGGS. Sorry, had to get that out there. Taylor Markham= New Soul Sister. Australia. Mystery! Nostalgia. C More...

Simply incredible. I cried way too much, but it was so worth it. Will review tomorrow when I can wrap my head around what to write.

*moves ahead a day in time*

After sleeping on it, I'm still struggling with how to write a proper review. There are some books which are virtually impossible to explain, and this is one of them. The GR book summary gives no indication what the book is really about, and truth be told, I'm not sure you'd want to know what the book is about before reading it.

The first 15 More...

5+ Stars! Gorgeous...

Books like this make me realize just how insignificant words become when attempting to convey raw emotion. On the Jellicoe Road is more than just a book; it is a hauntingly beautiful journey towards an unexpected destination where tragedy and despair become the bridges to the greatest of friendships.

And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die.

This story is told in alternating perspectives of both the past and present which, at fi More...

Every Filipino who loves his country must read this book.

Reason: On April 13, 2012, North Korea's long-range rocket launched, failed. Reuters is now saying that, embarrassed by rocket crash, North Korea may now be thinking of trying nuclear test.

Check the path and the trajectory plan of that failed rocket launch:

Do you see that tail-end of the yellow line? That's Luzon, the biggest island in the Philippines. That's where Manila is. That's where I live!

But why should we read this book?

Here's wh More...

I’m at a loss for words. This book has made me cry and laugh out loud. It has made me fall in love with its characters, no matter how small their role. It is a book that I’m not likely to forget at any time.

Jellicoe Road deals with death and loss, with abandonment, drug-addiction and suicide. Each character has her or his own terrible past to come to terms with, and sometimes I wondered: How do these people manage to live on when even I almost can’t cope with what they’ve been through?
But abov More...

A lot of people think that Henry David Thoreau* went to Walden to live a solitary life. I felt like that until I actually went to Walden Pond. Imagine my surprise when some friends and I decided to go for a hike, go for a swim and check out the scenery--we left Boston around 9...and we got there by 9:30. Yeah right, HDT, I could live deliberately in the woods, too, if I knew my transcendentalist cronies would bring me a Cinnabon and some pumpkin ale once in awhile.** Nevertheless, Thoreau’s idea More...

“He’s the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and it’s not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It’s the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he’s saying, ‘Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?’”

Sometimes, guys, simply reading a book once is not enough.

You find that reading it a second time offers you a whole other reading exper More...

GAZILLION STARS.

179 books. And this is just the second one.
I cried. For the second time ever.

I can't write a review for this. No, I can't because its one of those books that you can say nothing about.

Not only because you're overwhelmed by the story but also because you can only understand the riveting milieu of it if you read it.

But I couldn't just leave this blank because that would be callous and cruel of me.

So I challenge that if I'm able to convince myself with my review ( and that my frie More...

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

My reading of this book took me sixteen hours to finish.

I counted, of course.

It started last month. One of the busiest months I ever had where I’d become a walking robot because of the workloads I had. I was eager to read this book because most of my bookish friends raved about it, and I’m glad I was able to start reading with this book. I remember asking, “What is waiting for me ahead of this story?”, and they said, “Rollie, my friend, when you go there, you’ll see,” and that w More...

There's a monster in my mirror with puffy bloodshot eyes because she stayed up most of the night, crying and reading On the Jellicoe Road. But it was worth it.

Melina Marchetta never fails to remind me why she is one of my favourite authors and, in my opinion, this is the best of her books I've read so far. It's very difficult to put into words how I feel about On the Jellicoe Road, all I can say is that my heart has been ripped out and shredded, my throat has sealed up with emotion and when I f More...

I'm suddenly questioning if Angelfall really was the best YA book I've ever read.

How in the world am I supposed to come up with a review worthy of this...masterpiece? It's not even a book. It's a fucking masterpiece. Any review I come up with will never do it justice. Ever.

Excuse me while I repeatedly stab myself for not reading it sooner.

You gut me, Marchetta. Absolutely gut me.

5 Stars! - Also reviewed at: Lady Jayne's Reading Den

I absolutely LOVED this book! Using a sentence from the book that sums up this story, for me: "I remember love." Too simple? It's powerful, multi-faceted and complex, actually, just like love... and life... is. I was swept away on the journey with Taylor and the others, and I cried for what they lost and found. In the end, out of the tragedies and hardships of life, I was left with a feeling of love, hope and wonder, that I, along with the cha More...

I'm still on vacation with limited access to the internet so I have to make this quick. To be honest, I spent the majority of this book thinking, "this is a good book, but it's not that good" because I knew exactly what was going on. The "mystery" was never a mystery for me but I kept reading, waiting patiently for this book to blow me away--because I knew it would, eventually, based on all the four and five-star reviews given by trusted Goodreaders (namely Reviewer X, Tatiana and April).

And, y More...

"What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More…

Well, it’s been over twelve hours and I still don’t know how to start to review this book. I thought I gave myself enough time for a better perspective and drier eyes, but hot DAMN I’m crying again! I don’t like to cry, and I don’t do it very often because I can’t stand how it feels. But would I trade the emotional experience of this book for steadier breathes and calmer emotions? Not a chance More...

Oh, this is a hard book to review and I know that I won't make it justice so I won't even try that much.
One word: awesome!



Why?
Because it is so complex and beautiful, and the characters are amazing and smart and funny, and the drama is not overwhelming, and the story makes you laugh and shudder (and some say that they even cried), and you say 'wow' a lot of times, and when you think that you have it all figured out something changes drastically, and your head is spinning around from so much inf More...

Originally posted here.

Why? Why did I read this just now? I bought my copy a long time ago upon recommendation of people I thought my friends. If said people are real friends, they wouldn’t just recommend it, they should have tied me in a chair and forced me to read this. I reckon they don’t have to tie me in that chair too long because it only took a couple of pages before I fell in love with this amazing book. I frequently tell people that if only I could I would marry Paper Towns, but that ha More...

Review posted at: Ja čitam, a ti?


If I had to pick a book I mentioned the most, this one would win the title, for sure. Truth to be told I have never wrote a review for it so I promised myself one thing and it was to write a nice review for this book. I'll fail that's not a question but I'll try. It's something I guess. So here comes, well - nothing.

There are certain books that have a wonderful story and they spin your mind, and of course there are these with the most amazing writing, they also More...

Let me start with what's important: I want a Griggs. I know this akin to saying the protagonist is "hawt," and does nothing for a "critical" review. BUT I'm not being critical right now. (view spoiler)[This is all envy speaking. When Taylor said she was happy because she had an aunt and a Griggs.. in my heart of hearts, I was going, “I want a Griggs of my own too!”

My favorite moment is when Griggs goes off, “I’m here because of you. You’re my priority. Your happiness, in some fucked up way, is tuned in to min (hide spoiler)] More...

Original post at One More Page

I'm a little bit OC when it comes to my reviewing order, and it's not often that I skip over some books I need to review first to write one for another. Usually doing that means one of the following: I am in a hurry to post a review for the book for a deadline (doesn't usually happen), or I love the book so much that I just have to write a review about it immediately.

Such is Jellicoe Road, my second Melina Marchetta book. Ever since I finished and enjoyed Saving Fra More...

5.5 stars!

After reading “Saving Francesca” and hearing so many good reviews on this book, I had decided to pick up another one of Melina Marchetta’s young adult novels and I came across “Jellicoe Road” (some versions it is called On the Jellicoe Road). “Jellicoe Road” is a Printz Award winning book and I was absolutely blown away by how emotional and exciting this novel really is!

Taylor Markham was eleven years old when she was abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road. Now seventeen years old, More...

Okay, SO. Just last night, I completed a novel by Australian author Melina Marchetta called On the Jellicoe Road... And WOW. Where do I even begin with this one?!

It is not often that I come accross books that have me so captivated and entranced that I'm literally gripping onto every word on the page as though my life depends on it. But this one did. In fact, it did so much more than just that.

Jellicoe Road is the story of Taylor Lily Markham, a 17 year old girl who attends the boarding school on More...

Everyone wants to discover life-changing things, whether they come in the form of events, people, paintings, or books. If you’re lucky, you will experience these encounters more than once.

I was lucky. I read JELLICOE ROAD. This extraordinary book changed my life, and maybe it will change yours, too.

To tell the truth, JELLICOE ROAD kind of ruins you temporarily for all other books. For several days after I finished this book, I wandered around in a daze. I picked up books, halfheartedly read the More...

i have got to stop being surprised when teen fiction is good. printz-award winning fiction (you know, the award for literary teen fiction that all the grown-ups read and say "this is for teens??"). australian teen fiction. complicated, multi-layered teen fiction.

this book is all of the above, and it is remarkable.

it has sex and drugs and rock and roll, it has violence and terrible crimes, it has shock and awe and guilt and terrible secrets and it opens with a death. this is my kind of teen ficti More...

4.5 STARS



There's this little part in the GR book page that enumerates the accolades the book has received and the ones Jellicoe got look too legit to quit (sorry, couldn't help myself). Then you factor in the glowing reviews that ratchets up the expectations from great to impossible to meet. It can't really be THAT good, right?

Melina Marchetta will beg to disagree.

I'm not going to natter about the first few chapters making no sense because it absolutely didn't. But you won't be left floating i More...

UPDATE:
Reread, May 2012
and still 5 stars :)

*****

I highly recommend Jellicoe Road.

*****

“What do you want from me?” he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.

CONVINCING. REVEALING. BRILLIANT.

i was not entirely convinced by the book blurb (but i still read it anyway, since my GR friends insisted Jellicoe Road is really good). halfway through it revealed to me that yes, so maybe Jellicoe Road is award-winning. finishing & closing the book made me realized that M More...

Some books, you just can't describe. Some books, you just have to tell people to read, if they want to know. This is a book like that.

I had no idea what was going on for the first, oh, 150 pages? When I hit page 100 and I still wasn't into it, I thought about how some people have a 100 page rule--read the first one hundred pages of a book, and if you still don't like it, you can put it down. I actually considered putting Jellicoe Road down.

I didn't, though, because I had to have something to r More...