Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date published: 2006
Type of book: Teen fiction (orphans, boarding school)
Pages: 419
I received this book from/at: Amazon.com
My interest in this book is: plot, author

Ideas expressed/message/plot: From book jacket: “ ‘What do you want from me?’ he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.” “Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn’t a lot of time for introspection. And while, Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.
In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.”

Favorite characters, quotes/lines: Taylor: she was a really interesting character and I really felt for her and wanted to find out what was going on with her past; Jonah: I was excited every time he came into the book… the tension between him and Taylor was amazing; Chaz (Santangelo): he was funny and deep at the same time; the kids from the past: I was seriously addicted to their story

When I finished this book I felt: I LOVE THIS BOOK! I usually can’t name a book as my favorite, but Jellicoe Road might be it. I have never been so excited and addicted to a book before. I read it in one sitting and was so into the book that I sobbed at the end. The characters, the plot, the emotion… everything about this book is AMAZING!

Other books to read by this author: Saving Francesca, Looking for Alibrandi, Finnikin of the Rock

I would recommend this book to: I am recommending this book to EVERYONE! I may even force them to read it. I’m not even kidding.