nmelina's novels - on the jellicoe road



On the 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.

Taylor Markham is not a popular choice. She is erratic, has no people skills and never turns up to meetings. Not to mention the incident when she ran off in search of her mother and only got halfway there. But she's lived at Jellicoe School most of her life and as leader of the boarders that's her greatest asset. Especially now the cadets, led by the infamous Jonah Griggs, have arrived. The territory wars between the boarders, townies and cadets are about to recommence.

But Taylor has other things on her mind: a prayer tree, the hermit who whispered in her ear, and a vaguely familiar drawing in the local police station. Taylor wants to understand the mystery of her own past. But Hannah, the woman who found her, has suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but an unfinished manuscript about five kids whose lives entwined twenty years ago on the Jellicoe Road.


reviews

The Best Young Adult Books of 2008
Kirkus Review

"Melina Marchetta has a knack for writing stories that swallow you up and refuse to let you go until you’ve read every last word."
The Sydney Morning Herald

"...Time flashes forward...histories bleed together and two generations of friends bear uncanny resemblances to one another. Readers may feel dizzied and disoriented,but ...they will find themselves ensnared in the story's fascinating, intricate structure. A beautifully rendered mystery. "
Kirkus Starred, USA

"The Sydney author of Looking for Alibrandi has crafted another exquisite coming of age novel full of flesh and blood characters you'll have trouble dislogding from your thoughts long after the end..Marchetta proves herself a master storyteller."
Who Weekly, Book of the Week

"What she writes is always worth waiting for."
Viewpoint Magazine

"Suspenseful plotting, slowly unravelling mysteries, and generations of romance shape the absorbing novel."
Horn Book Review
"This is Marchetta’s most sophisticated novel; it opens cryptically and is imbued with subtle mystery that crisply unfolds in uncluttered, evocative prose."
Australian Literary Review
  
"The book uncompromisingly starts with the fragments unnconnected, leaving readers teased by a mystery they can't even begin to piece together even as they're enticed by the taut intensity of the atmosphere and Australian author Marchetta's impeccable, longstriding style"
BCCB Starred review

awards

2009 Michael L. Printz Award (YA Category)
2008 W.A. Young Readers Book (WAYRB) Award
(Older Readers)

shortlists

2009 Cybils 2008 Award
2007 Qld Premier's Literary Award (Young Adult Division)
2007 Australian Booksellers & Publishers Award (Young Adult Division)