On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It took a few chapters to feel part of this story, which I believe was intentional – the characters would want you to be on the outside looking in for a little bit. I couldn’t put it down after those first few chapters though, I was part of the Jellicoe Road war games.
The idea that a bunch of teenagers would wage a war around the town for the holidays was fun and gave the whole book a purpose that was always there.
I loved the idea of this story, and I thought the author did an amazing job of describing the area – the school, town and cadet camp. I could see all the boundaries, and I could feel the summer air. I loved that this story was set in a country town of Australia, but it didn’t have the usual dry Australian language to describe it – that was almost my favourite part.
The characters, wow. Every character had depth, a story, a part to play. Marchetta captured everything about being seventeen and having seen/lived trauma, and it was brilliant.
I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book (after the first few jarring chapters).
Ally Jane 