It’s funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that’s why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love.
Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
First Published: 2006
My Rating: 3 of 5 stars (average rating on Goodreads: 4.16)
I would recommend this book to: Anyone who enjoyed We Were Liars.
The Beginning: My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.
Taylor Makham is abandoned by her mother at the age of 11 and goes to live on a boarding school. When she’s 17, her ‘substitute mother’ disappears. Taylor goes on a quest to find the missing adults in her life. At the same time, she has to lead an underground war against her biggest enemy – who she has a crush on.
I had been warned that Jellicoe Road was confusing at first, but would then be extremely good once you figure things out. I guess I had expected more after this description. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, though. I liked reading about Taylor and how she would gradually put the pieces of the missing-parents-puzzle together. And the love story was very sweet and touching.
I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I’m thinking.
But the territorial war in the underground community seemed downright silly to me. I wanted to scream ‘GET A LIFE’ at these kids. And this took up a huge part of the book. I understand why this book is appealing to some. It’s not bad at all, it just wasn’t for me.
Here’s my favorite quote:
According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I’ll thank him for the advice.