Twice Baked Thursday (3): Jellicoe Road

Twice Baked Thursday is an original weekly meme created here at Cardigans, Coffee and Bookmarks.  This feature was created because Randi and Becky, often read the same books and have very different opinions about them.  When we read the same book we do a joint review on it, showing both sides. Our reviews will "talk back" to one another, one reviewer writing in another color text. Please feel free to join us and link to our blog in your post, and also use the widget below to link your own double review to our page.

 Title: Jellicoe Road   

Author: Melina Marchetta

Genre: YA Contemporary Realism

Pages: 419

Source: Bought; Library 

Rating: 3 I'd friend this book on Facebook (Randi)

              4 I'd take this book for coffee! (Becky)

I thought I would love this book. I did love this book! I came out of it not unimpressed by the style of the writing, but not personally feeling a whole lot toward the book.  It took me about half the book to feel invested, but when I finally did click with Taylor and Griggs, I fell madly in love with them.

I never connected with Taylor as a character, I found her fascinating. I felt like she kept even the reader at arm’s length.  To me, her distance further emphasized her identity confusion.  That was what I enjoyed about her.  She was a puzzle even to us.  I can't even count how many characters I began to hate because they just prattled on about themselves. And honestly, after finding out what prompted her mother to take her to Jellicoe Road, I couldn’t understand how she wasn’t more broken; yes she blocked out those memories (and for good reason), but I don’t think that was properly addressed, either from the narrative or from Taylor’s point of view. It seemed like a footnote, which felt very “off” to me.  I thought Taylor's life was so confused and horrid that she was already as broken as she could be. And though I had some feelings of “WHOA MY GOSH!” during the exchanges between Jonah Griggs and Taylor YES, one of my favorite couples ever.  They felt like a better version of "Something like Normal" (OH, woman, you did NOT just go there!), I never felt invested in or that I really cared about their relationship. And that made me sad…I did cry at parts during the book, but I think I felt more for “the five” and their history than I did for any of the present characters. I agree a little bit with that.  I think if the author had run the stories as parallel and equal instead of having Taylor read about "the five" I would have enjoyed it more.  I wanted to know more about them.  I loved the idea of a secret club that built their own little world and their own rules, totally absorbed in each other.

I liked the story structure I thought it was complete madness, which switches from past memories of “the five” to Taylor’s POV, but it does take a while to figure out what in the heck is going on.  Not only that, but also the "five" just aren't developed enough to make me care.  The bits that follow them seem dream-like and vague. That part didn’t bother me because I knew they would tie together eventually; the revelations of how pieces fit together were kind of mind-blowing (and not in a bad way, just a “whoa! I get it now!” kind of thing). What did bother me was the pacing. Sometimes I felt like there was too much time spent in the past, or vice-versa, too much in the present, and I found myself getting bored. I was never bored, l, but it did take me a long time to digest what I'd read.  I found myself stopping and thinking about the book for half a day or a day after reading a few chapters. I honestly think, considering the overall story arc, that there could have been less about the war and more about Taylor, but that’s just me.  I agree that the war was not really central to the story and seemed ridiculous after they grew to be friends.  Marchetta definitely has a way with words, but the pacing was slow for me and I found myself getting distracted by things outside of the book, which doesn’t happen when I’m truly enjoying a book. It might happen more now that I've decided to throw myself against your window every time you try to read. (I just giggled at that!) I enjoyed the way the story unfolds as far as how everything from past and present relates, again, it was just slow for me.

Overall, not a book I’ll probably read again.  I most definitely will.  To me it seems like a story you can understand better the second time.