jellicoeroadTitle: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Teen

Summary:
Abandoned at a young age by her mother Taylor Markham is put in the care of Hannah, a woman she’d not previously known. Left to grow up in a house that has yet to be completely constructed the young girl is now seventeen and attending a local Australian boarding school.

Sounds pretty normal right? Well, this school isn’t your ordinary institution. It’s not filled with significant amounts of snotty rich kids whose parents shipped them away. This school is attended by kids some would consider misfits, a good portion are local townies, and ultimately a ration of children are the typical good students looking for an education. School being what it is this means that all of these students are immediately judged by their peers and placed within a caste system. In this hierarchy of houses and ruling parties each has a distinct leader who in turn has a “seat” at the table as it were. No, this is not the student government table, mind you; it’s the beginnings of the mice running the cheese factory.

What’s more, there are more than a few outside forces afoot. The cadets have arrived for their yearly training exercise that means scads of military boys and their superior officers are flanking the school grounds. Then there are the local townies whose constant presence around Jellicoe Road and it’s surrounding landscape has made for a somewhat adversarial relationship even more tenuous. It is the resulting posturing and politics both on campus and off that feeds the flames of the continuing turf war between the three groups.

Opinion:
Showcasing the struggle between classes Marchetta has created a population rich in dysfunction. Children and adults alike are given deep history so wonderfully interwoven it was difficult to discern where relationships stand early on. It is, however, in this tight fabric where the reader may find some short-lived difficulty. Discerning who was what to each other was muddied by the introduction of too many characters at the outset. Recognizing the need to do so only came later in the story as the use of strategically placed flashbacks made relationships clearer over time. That issue aside, once a reader is able to distinguish the branches of the family trees the story is quite compelling and truly heartbreaking.

Marchetta takes on the subject of abandonment with sensitivity and realism showing it from multiple viewpoints until a believable resolution is arrived at. Taylor’s abandonment and subsequent caretaking by Hannah turns her into a young woman with outward facing anger, but yet with her friends and Jonah readers are still given glimpses of the overwhelming inadequacy and ultimately the longing to be part of something larger than herself that soften the hard edges.

The relationships the author has built from both age-sets add immeasurable value to the overarching story. Taylor and Jonah’s teenage love story is shaped not only by mutually troubled childhoods but is further influenced by interactions the adults in their lives have had. Despite any difficulty either had the budding romance between them was as tender as first love can be. Tentative and protective both were cautious with their hearts until their desire finally won out and took over. It was here in the story that the reader was shown the most progression.

This was not a light and fluffy read it was fraught with angst and rebellion but was so well written that even in the darkest times the reader was transported into an emotionally charged and enthralling landscape. I encourage young and old to add Jellicoe Road to their library.