Melina Marchetta: Jellicoe Road

I liked Marchetta’s other novels, Saving Franceca and Looking for Alibrandi. I’m mostly disappointed in this book. Conceptually, I did like how the tone resolves itself as the story progresses from sinister intensity to benign hopefulness- it just didn’t turnout that great. There are two stories in Jellicoe Road, a fairy tale like memoir and the main narrative which takes place twenty years later. For the first fifty pages I couldn’t figure out what was happening. In the beginning it was all about some spooky underground society and a turf war, but really it was just a bunch of bored kids taking themselves too seriously. The main narrative centers on Taylor and the mystery about her mother. Taylor’s character didn’t work for me. She’s rude, unstable, guarded and everyone likes her (with one exception). I have a hard time believing that she has such a loyal support network, since antisocial people are generally alone. Still she's a whole character, you know tough vulnerable generous sympathetic. It's just not obvious at first... I guess in this book nothing is what it seems, yet it’s all predictable. One thing for sure is that Marchetta gets the teen drama and intensity right. This one book just isn’t my favourite.

There is a happy ending too, if you’re interested. Although the book does deal a little with streetlife, and mentions some gritty stuff. Also there is sex in this book.