Thursday, June 23, 2011

Jellicoe Road

An egregious oversight almost happened!  But first some facts for your perusal:
  1. I have been reading a lot this spring & this lame excuse for summer so far.
  2. I haven't been keeping up with reviewing right after I've read something.
  3. I'm trying to catch up with what I've read.
  4. Moments ago I had the sneaking suspicion there was a book I had read a while back and hadn't reviewed.  So I went to my Shelfari list and.......BAM!
How could I forget the smoldering, swoony tension of Jellicoe Road?  My sincerest apologies to author Melina Marchetta!

Taylor Markham has never forgotten Jonah Griggs.  Nor has she forgotten that she was left by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven.  Three years after that Taylor attempted to run away from her boarding school only to be dragged back by a terrifying stranger.  Flash forward another three years - Taylor is a senior at the Jellicoe Boarding School.  She is now the leader of a secret student association that has an annual territory war with the school from the nearest town and the group of military cadets that camps near the school at the beginning of every school year.  Unfortunately for Taylor, Hannah, the closest thing she's had to a mother in six years, suddenly disappears just at the same time as Jonah Griggs reappears in her life.  Jonah is the leader of the cadets, but the last time Taylor saw him was when she tried to run away.

Memories of Taylor's swirl with memories of an unknown narrator and her current situation.  Personally, I found the mystery narrator parts incredibly confusing at first and it was a little hard to get going on the book.  However, I persevered and things started to make sense.  About half-way through the book I actually went back and read the opening part again and had the "ah ha!" moment. While Marchetta ratchets up love/hate relationship between Taylor and Jonah with just about every chapter, my favorite part was actually something very small and insignificant to the storyline.  But because this is my blog I'm going to share it.  At a karaoke night in Taylor's dorm a girl sings a song called "Not Pretty Enough," which most people outside of Australia (where the book is set) who also read YA books have probably never heard of.  This song is by a singer/songwriter named Kasey Chambers and I know every word!      

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