Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Published: (originally in 2006 by Penguin Australia), this paperback edition March 9, 2010 by HarperTeen
Source: purchased from the bookstore

In this lyrical, absorbing, award-winning novel, nothing is as it seems, and every clue leads to more questions.

At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future. [goodreads]

This is a book that's been sitting on my shelf for almost three years.  Not kidding.  I bought it awhile ago, not having a clue who this author was, or even knowing anything about the story, and thought I'd give it a try.  I made it maybe a few chapters and felt completely lost and gave up.  Who is this lady? And who told her she could write?  I thought it was totally confusing and I should not waste another minute attempting to decipher it.  Back on the shelf it went.

Fast forward a year and I decide to give this author another try with Saving Francesca and then with The Piper's Son.  Woah.  Now I was completely aware of who she was, and immensely blown away by her writing.  Everyone kept telling me I needed to read Jellicoe Road, that it's amazing.  But I was also warned it's a book that takes awhile to push through.  You have to give it time to marinate into your bones, simmer awhile inside your soul, but keep pushing through.  I kept adding this book to my bookish resolutions, TWICE, to read it that year. But this fear kept creeping inside me, pushing it further back on the shelf.

Well, folks. It's finally happened.  I feel like I've just conquered a huge reading milestone in my life.

I've read Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.

And what a beautiful, majestic, breathtakingly heart ache of a story it is.

So what's the story about, you may be asking.  I know I questioned this myself before I read the book, and never got a true answer.  Something about a group of kids, on the Jellicoe Road, a tree, and a Jonah Griggs. But WHAT IS IT ABOUT?? I honestly don't think I can give the answers to that either.  It's a book you have to experience for yourself, and quite possibly go into it blindfolded.  Just know that it's a story so rich and pure with a plot that twists and turns, cultivating into the most beautiful ending your literary heart may ever experience.

Shut out your fears, jump off that fence, and read this book right now.  There is never going to be the "right time".  NOW is the right time.  Trust me when I say this, you're missing out on something extraordinary without knowing the beauty of this story.  Melina Marchetta already chiseled out a place inside my heart with the previous two novels I read by her, but now she's solidified a spot in my top honors of writers who can never be topped, no matter what.

I am so happy to have finally found my place among these Jellicoe Fans.  Better late than never, right?

***

Because this story is littered with so many beautiful words, I decided to make some art of my own, using photos I've taken to go along with Melina Marchetta's beautiful quotes.

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Published: March 1, 2010 by Penguin Australia
Received: bought ebook from Barnes & Noble

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death.

And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them. {taken from goodreads.com}

You know when you finish reading a book and you're on such a high from the words that just poured in to your head that you don't know what to do next??  That is how I feel after reading The Piper's Son.  I am in complete and utter awe.  I know I keep saying that no book has ever effected me the way this one did.  Well, this one effected me in such a powerful way that it's extremely difficult to put in to words my thoughts about it.  Melina Marchetta has a way with words.  She doesn't present her books as "issues" - she simply tells a story that's packed full of raw emotional characters.  They come across as real as you and I, becoming so believable that you almost feel like you know them.  I love when an author writes like that.  Their world becomes your own and you don't quite know what to do when that story ends.

The Piper's Son is a companion novel to Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta's previous novel.  This story is centered around Thomas Mackee and his life 5 years down the road.  The same group of friends are circulated through out the story, but we get a chance to see what their lives have become since they all went to St. Sebastians private school together.  Thomas Mackee always came across as the "bully" of the group, the one who had it all together, but if you looked close enough - just beyond the surface - you saw cracks that revealed his world was slowly falling a part.  He's gone off the deep end in the wake of his uncle's death, and in turn so has his family.  Just when things couldn't get any worse Thomas realizes that it's up to him to save his family and bring them back together.  It's not a simple task, though.  On top of his family drama, he is also battling with his regrets on how he treated Tara Finke, the one person who challenged him, yet loved him for who he really was.

The story is told in alternating voices between Thomas and his Aunt Georgie, for whom he goes to live with during the process of getting his life back on track.  Georgie's story is just as heart breaking.  She is trying to cope with the loss of her brother, the infidelity of her one true love Sam, and about to embark on becoming a mother for the first time.  She finds comfort in Thomas being around, and together the two of them lean on each other for support to get them through the roughest moments of their lives.  It's the relationships in this book that carried it to unbelievable heights.  I was blown away at how real each character came across.  There was no sugar coating.  It was raw and in your face, tell it like it is.  Melina Marchetta wrote these characters as if they were living, breathing souls living next door.  Their pain becomes your own pain; their joys becoming your smiles.

I took my time while reading this book, not because I was loosing interest, but because I did not want it to end.  I was frightened for Thomas and where his life was headed, yet I saw so much potential in this young boy that I wasn't quite ready to give up on him just yet.  I knew he had great things ahead of him, but it was going to take a huge slap in the face before he saw them.  I love when a book pulls you in and leaves you breathless.  The Piper's Son is beyond amazing.  Melina Marchetta is in a class all her own.  This story needs to be read by all.  I think I'll be giving it a second chance pretty soon - then perhaps a third, fourth, and so on...

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Published: March 31, 2003 by Knopf Books
Received: bought from Barnes & Noble

Francesca is stuck at St. Sebastian's, a boys' school that pretends it's coed by giving the girls their own bathroom. Her only female companions are an ultra-feminist, a rumored slut, and an an impossibly dorky accordion player. The boys are no better, from Thomas who specializes in musical burping to Will, the perpetually frowning, smug moron that Francesca can't seem to stop thinking about.

Then there's Francesca's mother, who always thinks she knows what's best for Francesca—until she is suddenly stricken with acute depression, leaving Francesca lost, alone, and without an inkling who she really is. Simultaneously humorous, poignant, and impossible to put down, this is the story of a girl who must summon the strength to save her family, her social life and—hardest of all—herself. {taken from goodreads.com}

Once I finished this book, my first reaction was -- WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!  Seriously.  If you have not been introduced to Melina Marchetta and the beauty of her writing, then I suggest you put down whatever book you're reading & grab this one RIGHT NOW.  I had heard such wonderful things about this author, and a part of me was ashamed for not reaching out to her sooner.  But now that I have, I am ever so grateful for it.

Francesca is starting her eleventh year at a new school, a predominantly all boys school.  Her parents, mostly her mother, felt that she needed to be challenged more so they uprooted her from her comfort zone & dropped her in to new surroundings.  Every thing about this new place, Francesca hates.  She liked her old friends, her old school, but most of all she relished in the ability to just seep in to the hallways and be lost every day.  She didn't have to impress anyone, she was already accepted.  Things at home have taken a turn for the worse, as well.  Francesca's mother refuses to get out of bed.  The once lively, heart beat of the family has now isolated herself to her bedroom.  As Francesca tries to remember the warning signs as to what could have possibly gone wrong to lead her mother to such a deep depression, she also struggles with her father who refuses to get help -- and in turn thinks that she will just "get better eventually".

This book took me by surprise; a very sweet surprise.  I was not expecting such a deep connection to be made.  The writing is what drew me in from the first few pages.  The story is being told through Francesca's eyes and immediately you are right there with her, among the uncertainty and uncomfortableness.  The relationships that she finds at her new school is what stood out the most for me.  To say that I am completely in love with the way it unfolded, is an understatement.  Here we have 4 girls, adolescent girls, trying to find their way among a sea of teenage boys.  The hormones are out of control!  At first every one's defense is up, but page by page their shells are pealed away and we start to see that just like Francesca they are all just trying to find their way.  It's a beauty full of so much raw emotion.

I felt that Melina Marchetta did a superb job of touching on the effects of what depression can do to a family.  It does not effect just one person, but every one else in their lives as well.  The brutal truth of not knowing how to help someone is always present, but I also appreciated the fact that it isn't wrapped up nicely in the end either.  Depression is a disease that can have a long road of recovery ahead of it.  One day at a time, one step at a time.  That is how Francesca tackles this beast.  Sometimes, even the strongest people need to lean on others for support.  And that's ok.  We all need saving at one time or another.  So do me a favor, pick up this book and let it consume you.  Relish in the beauty of Melina Marchetta's writing and then move on to her other books, as I am doing now.  This author creates more than just stories, they are pieces of art.  Art that effects your mind and heart.