Book 17/30.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Initial review – February 2017.
Two words: Jonah Griggs
Updated review – May 2024.
I recently made the decision to reread a book from my library once every 10 books of my reading challenge because I own wayyy too many amazing books to only read them once. I am late with the first reread of my 2024 reading challenge but hey, better late than never 😅
I first read Jellicoe Road in February 2017 and fell head over heels for the MMC. So much so that in my initial Goodreads review all I had to say was “Two words: Jonah Griggs”. Lol. Safe to say Jonah is one of my OG book boyfriends and I was incredibly excited to find out if he still makes me swoon seven years later 😅
Jellicoe Road is a story centered around Taylor Markham, a girl who was abandoned by her mother as a young child and now resides in a boarding school for kids who are troubled, neglected or criminally inclined. Her closest friend and mentor is Hannah, a woman who lives on the edge of the school grounds. Taylor is elected as a leader in the territory war games played by her school with the Townies (locals from a tiny neighboring town) and Cadets (who spend several weeks a year in the Australian wilderness). She tries to balance this responsibility with her own worries about Hannah’s sudden disappearance and her belief that it is connected to her mother. On top of that, there is her relationship with Jonah Griggs, one of the Cadets and a boy from her past, who knows her a little too much for comfort. And who still makes me swoon seven years later 😍🥰
Jellicoe Road was a reread that I rated 4 stars when I first read it, but ended up rating it 3 stars this time around. Not because of the story, which I enjoyed and appreciated even more than I did seven years ago. There are some heavy themes (grief, addiction, suicide) in this emotionally-charged story, and Melina Marchetta handles them sooo well. I also liked the way the story was told in alternating perspectives set in both past and present which, at first, seem entirely unrelated but eventually show their connection as the mysteries of this plot unravel. And not because of the writing, which was simple but oh so powerful. Or because of the complex, well-developed, lovable characters who all felt so real. But because of the territory wars. Seven years later and I found them childish this time around 😅 which I suppose is a rather unfair reason to dock a star from a Young Adult novel, but it be like that sometimes 😅
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 