11.14.2010 | By: Alisa Callos

Not to be Missed...

On the Jellicoe RoadOn the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta


My rating: 5 of 5 stars:

Goodreads blurb:

My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die.

‘I counted.

‘It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said.

‘We heard her almost straight away. In the other car, wedged into ours so deep that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. She told us her name was Tate and then she squeezed through the glass and the steel and climbed over her own dead – just to be with Webb and me; to give us her hand so we could clutch it with all our might. And then a kid called Fitz came riding by on a stolen bike and saved our lives.

‘Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?”

‘Did I wonder?

‘When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know?

‘Wonder dies.’



My take:
Not to be missed…whatever you do, keep reading. After a slow confusing start (a perfect mirror for the mind of our heroine, Taylor), this book takes you on an amazing journey.

Through friendship and death…“Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”

Abandonment and loss…”One day when I was eleven, my mother drove me out here and while I was in the toilets at the 7-Eleven on the Jellicoe Road, she drove off and left me there. It becomes one of those defining moments in your life, when your mother does that.”

Through war and gut wrenching fear…suicide and drug addiction, the reader is drawn down a path by a story that grabs hold and doesn’t let go until all is known and the way is clear.

Twisty and beautiful…the best kind of book.




View all my reviews

4 comments:

Star-Dreamer said...

Hello. :) My name's Nichole White and I'd just like to say that I'm really enjoying your blog. Thank you for posting! :D

Alisa Callos said...

Welcome Nichole...thanks for stopping by :)

Mary said...

Hi Alisa,

I love, love, loved "Jellico Road"
I came looking you up after Claire Rudolf Murphy gave me your card following our SCBWI Conference this fall in Spokane. I'm not sure if I met you, as I was preoccupied organizing things. However, it seems fate that I found you today when you are featuring one of my favorite books AND a one of my favorite recipes! Or something similar to the food I love. I still have a few of my tomatoes ripening on my window sill. A bit shrivels, but still better tasting than anything I can buy at the store in December.
Anyway...I am contacting you to see if you are interested in helping out with SCBWI activities. You sound very busy, but we have jobs large, small and tiny. :)

Alisa Callos said...

Hi Claire, Glad you found me. I enjoyed the SCBWI this fall...you guys did a great job. We could talk about those small and tiny jobs ;o)
All the best...
Alisa

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