On the Jellicoe Road Melina Marchetta
Penguin Australia
Taylor Markham has been at the school on the Jellicoe Road since she was six years old. It’s her turn to lead the students in the annual territory wars with the Townies and Cadets from a school in Sydney. But lost memories of her childhood, her mother and a man she hopes is her father distract her from the game. When her caregiver, Hannah, disappears, Taylor studies the stories Hannah left behind, looking for clues to her whereabouts. She forms unlikely alliances with territory rivals, and together they work to solve the mysteries behind many things that happened on the Jellicoe Road.
When I started reading this novel, I felt a bit lost. It seems like two stories are happening simultaneously, and it’s hard to figure out which parts of which stories are significant at first. I love Marchetta’s Lumatere series, so I really wanted to stick with this book. In reading other reviews, I found other readers who’d had similar experiences, so I kept reading. And it definitely paid off.
The stories do intersect, and so many things make sense once it’s clear how they fit together. I loved the elements of history sort of repeating itself among Taylor and her friends – it’s kind of the redeemed version of the other story. The characters are fantastic. The romantic tension is delicious. Really great stuff.
Language Content
Extreme profanity, mild to moderate frequency.
Sexual Content Kissing and references to sex. A couple of scenes briefly describe couples leading up to having sex. A couple times teens see each other in their underwear.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence Some kids fist-fighting. A fire destroys a house and two girls go missing. A shooting accident kills a boy (No description of his injuries.)
Callie spent most of her childhood believing her father is after her. She’s never been to school, never had any real friends. Anytime there’s a whiff of suspicion, her mother whisks them away to a new town, new trashy job, new sleazy boyfriend.
Then the truth comes in the form of an arrest warrant for her mom. In a blink, Callie finds herself living with her estranged dad, his new wife and their two small children, right smack in the middle of a large, loud, loving Greek family. For the first time, someone cares whether Callie comes or goes. She has friends, if she can crack the code on how to keep them. And she might even have her first real date!
The relationship between Callie and her dad is really moving. Here’s this man who hasn’t seen his daughter in so many years, who wants so badly to reconnect with her. Here’s this girl whose entire life has been turned upside down, who worries that accepting the father she didn’t know she had means betraying her mom, who’s sick and needs her more than anyone. That tug-of-war was so well-crafted and believable. There’s a lot of threads about reconciliation between estranged family members and the importance of family and community. Those were great themes and very well-executed.
While in the care of her mother, Callie was sexually abused by her mother’s live-in boyfriend. This leaves deep emotional scars. She starts hooking up (meeting to have sex with) guys as a young teenager, even though afterward she feels used and dirty. On one such quest, she lucks out and meets a guy who not only takes her to bed the first time they spend any time together, but also wants to build a relationship with her and cares very deeply for her, despite his playboy reputation.
This does show Callie learning to build trust and to experience sex within a safe, loving relationship, which is so healing. At the same time, I couldn’t help thinking that in real life, a girl can sleep with many, many guys hoping that the next day they’ll turn out to stick around. It’s probably not the best way to find a good guy. Conservative me couldn’t help wishing she’d found that he was a good guy first and built that trust first.
Besides that, though, I felt really connected with Callie’s emotional journey. I loved her demonstrative family, and the vividly described setting. It has more sexual content than books I’ve read by Sarah Dessen, but the strong heroine and deep emotional journey reminded me of her stories. If you’re a Dessen fan, you may want to check out this book.
Language Content
Extreme profanity, moderate frequency.
Sexual Content Callie becomes sexually active in her early teens. She briefly recounts those experiences as well as memories of childhood sexual abuse. The abuse memories are pretty intense. A boy kisses Callie later in the story and she immediately takes off her shirt. She meets another young man and has sex with him without knowing much more than his name. The descriptions of her encounters are fairly short and not super graphic, but there are some details given. Another couple engages in a pretty heavy make-out session on the couch, but few details are given.
Much of the sexual element in the story is really about Callie’s abuse and the process she experiences to learn how to have a healthy relationship with sex.
Spiritual Content Callie’s family attend a Greek Orthodox Church and encourage her to attend with them, but don’t pressure her. Callie really isn’t into the spiritual stuff.
Violence Callie witnesses a man smacking his adult son.
Drug Content
Callie’s mom hangs around some pretty unsavory bars and probably drinks too much. Callie and her friends drink alcohol. They are all under 21.
When an EF5 tornado rips through sixteen year-old Cori’s neighborhood, more than her house is reduced to rubble. Shocking truths about her family emerge in the aftermath. Her nemesis suffers amnesia and Cori can’t seem to get rid of her. Her best friend Slim becomes angry and reclusive. Everything is out of order, and for not-precisely-OCD Cori, this is a huge problem.
As a character, Cori is absolutely the believable high school princess. Davidson does a great job crafting this selfish yet somehow endearing heroine. Cori’s friends are great foils for her, too, often much more noble than she herself can be.
The story bears some cute references to The Wizard of Oz. Cori nicknames the tornado “the witch.” Her friends include Toni “Toto,” Leo (her cowardly lion) and Slim (her scarecrow and courageous buddy.)
Entertaining dialogue fills the scenes between Cori and her friends. Parental figures remain a bit awkward. There were a couple of places where issues between Cori and her parents were left hanging. She lies to them and later discovers they knew the truth, but there’s no confrontation about it at any point. Even when Cori finds out that they were aware of her deceit, it doesn’t seem to register with her. She also avoids contact with them to get money to pay an important debt, but seems to have no problem getting money for a prom dress immediately afterward. Not a big deal, but it definitely felt off.
I really enjoyed the way the author pulled threads from The Wizard of Oz into the story without trying to make it a retelling or getting carried away with the references. There were just enough to add zest. Like Dorothy, Cori learns the value of community and that family doesn’t always look the way one expects.
Language Content
No profanity.
Sexual Content One brief kiss.
Spiritual Content One of Cori’s neighbors is a devout Christian and prays openly in addition to telling Cori that she prays for her.
Violence The immediate aftermath of the tornado is a bit intense. Much of Cori’s neighborhood is destroyed, and many people are injured. Damage and injuries are briefly described.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The summer before his senior year, Cullen Witter’s sleepy Arkansas hometown implodes with changes. His cousin dies of a drug overdose. An extinct woodpecker is spotted by a smarmy nature enthusiast. And Cullen’s sensitive, insightful younger brother goes missing.
Woven through this summer tale of loss and love is another seemingly unrelated story about a missionary just returned from Ethiopia, his jaded college roommate and a girl who returns to Cullen’s town following a failed marriage. These threads loop together forming a story as unexpected as the sighting of a bird thought long-dead.
I found Cullen’s character to be alternately charming and obnoxious. His relationships with his family members and best friend were sweet and warming. Outside those treasured few he cared about, he seemed frustrated and judgmental. Protagonists should, of course, have flaws, but I was disappointed that he didn’t seem to grow beyond those in any sense. Cullen’s brother was probably my favorite character. He added brief insights into the things going on around him in this simple, organic way.
The parts of the story about the missionary and his experience were really interesting and always turned in a direction I wouldn’t have predicted. I liked the way Whaley would take familiar story elements (a Christian missionary, a small southern town) and spin them into something unexpected. This is a novel with some dark moments but also some real mystical beauty. This is, above all, a story about finding hope in the most unlikely places.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used moderately. Main character frequently refers to people on his nerves as an “ass-hat.” While at first this seemed different and maybe a bit clever, it was kind of overdone.
Sexual Content Brief references to sex. Cullen spends the night at a girl’s house and has sex with her – the event isn’t described. He does offer a short description of an intense sexual exchange with a girl along a riverbank.
Spiritual Content A bright-eyed missionary becomes frustrated when it turns out the bulk of his work is providing food for the needy rather than collecting salvation prayers. His partner tries to reassure him of the importance of feeding the hungry.
After coming upon a passage from the book of Enoch in the Ethiopian Orthodox bible, a seminary student believes angels would teach humans how to be like God if they hadn’t been stopped by the angel Gabriel.
Violence A young man dies by suicide by jumping from a bell tower. No details of the act or immediate aftermath. A kidnapped boy is held hostage by a violent, unpredictable man. Very few details of actual violence on the boy.
Drug Content
At the opening of the story, Cullen’s cousin dies of a drug overdose. He identifies his cousin’s body. Brief details given.
Edie has to be ready to run at any time. Even though it’s been years, he still chases them. She and her mom move again and again, trying to stay ahead of him, but somehow he always finds them. The most recent move takes them to London, where her mom grew up. It’s a foreign place to Edie, who struggles to grasp the slang and hide within the shelter of a clique of girls.
When her mother disappears, Edie has two choices: find Mom herself or trust the police, who may send her straight into the waiting arms of the man from which she’s been hiding. With the help of an unlikely ally, Edie charges into the unfamiliar streets of London, searching for clues about her mother’s disappearance.
The spectrum of characters in this story is broad and dynamic. Each one reads like there’s been a lot of thought put into development, and like he or she marches off scene to continue with an imagined life. Jermaine was definitely my favorite character. I liked the play of his bad-boy reputation against the kindness of his true character.
The plot is pretty simple, and Payne avoids some of the potential pitfalls of a young sleuth narrator. Edie’s decisions and experience seem pretty plausible for a teen would-be detective. It’s a pretty quick read. Though some plot elements are a bit predictable (like who’s after them and why they are running from him) there were other unexpected moments (which I won’t spoil) that added interest to the tale.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity and crude language used with mild frequency.
Sexual Content Brief kissing. Edie discusses her lack of experience with boys and tells an interested boy that she will not have sex with him. She worries about her reputation when he offers to let her stay with his family for a few days while she figures things out.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence Brief descriptions of domestic violence and an accident which claimed the lives of several children.
Drug Content
Brief reference to someone smoking marijuana in the street in London.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
On the run from a past she can’t bear to face, Clara retraces her the journey outlined in her father’s journal. Then a captivating, broken boy derails her. He sketches things he shouldn’t know. Images from memories she wants to forget. And she can’t let him out of her sight until she understands how he knows these things.
But following Elias means a trip into fantasy. The boy has two parts – the gentle Elias who soothes Clara’s fears and the rough, unpredictable one who lives in an imaginary world called Salem and a great evil to the east. As Clara falls ever deeper in love with Elias, she vows to follow his quest to the end, hoping it will unite the two versions of him.
I’m a huge fan of Friesen’s writing. Jerk, California pretty much blew me away, and I really enjoyed Aquifer as well.
This story, unlike the others, is written from a female point-of-view. Friesen does a great job bringing Clara to life – she’s spunky and fierce and knows how to manipulate people, but there’s a softer side of her, too, and Elias brings that out in her. There was one moment in which I was a little disappointed by Clara’s response. Something huge happens and she sort of calmly responds. I was waiting for the realization of the greatness of the loss she’s experienced, and I felt like that didn’t really come.
I really enjoyed the way that he brings Elias and Clara’s stories together. It wasn’t what I expected – it was far better. Much like Friesen’s debut, Jerk, California, the journey Clara and Elias take is spiced with interesting characters and events. This author has a great eye for character and for taking small moments and making them really memorable by delivering them via those unexpected bystanders to the story.
Language Content
None.
Sexual Content Brief kissing. It’s clear Clara is a sexually experienced girl (no details offered), and she offers herself to Elias, but he puts on the brakes pretty quickly.
Spiritual Content Clara has a lot of bitterness toward God. In a moment in which she feels she’s lost everything, she begins praying. Instead of the usual suffocating feeling of guilt about her past, a peace envelops her. She begins to pray with more confidence.
Violence None.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
