Jellicoe Road is actually two stories that are intertwined into one. The story begins with Taylor Markham. She is a young spirited 17 year old girl who lives at the Academy on Jellicoe Road in Australia, who would rather be by herself than with her own house, but her best friend Raffela refuses to allow that. She was abandoned by her mother at the age of 11 and soon picked up by a woman named Hannah who takes her to the school. She is now the head of her house and also becomes the Head the school in the territory wars between the campus students, cadets (who come to the school for a few months out of the year for education purposes) and the townies (students who live off campus). At times the War can get pretty hostile. It doesn't help matters that the leader of the cadets has a history with Taylor. At the age of 14, Taylor ran away from school in search of her mother. At the train station, she runs into Jonah Griggs, and together they run away. But before they get to Sydney, Griggs calls his school and they are soon picked up by the Brigadier, the overseer of the Cadets. This year, the townies are lead by Chaz Santangelo, who seems to have a history with Raffela. Although at first, all anyone can think about is the War, the leaders soon develop a friendship (although at times rocky) with each other. They soon begin to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Hannah and Taylor's past. The students, particular a smaller girl named Jessa, is obsessed with a serial killer who has been in the area for the past 11 years. Not only does Taylor have to deal with a troubled past (her mother left and the local hermit, killed himself right in front of her), but she now also has to contend with her growing feelings for Jonah Griggs. Throughout the story, we get glimpses of five friends who previously lived on the campus at Jellicoe Road and their significance in Taylor's life. Soon we begin to see all the pieces come together and see how everything becomes connected.
The story of Jellicoe Road is a rather complicated and complex one. I wish I could have been able to go through all the details possible, but the shear enormity of the book did not permit me to do so. I'm not going to lie, the first 200 hundred pages of the book can be extremely confusing. I would have to re-read certain sections in order to try and understand what was going on. I wish that the story had given a little bit of background to the school and the territory wars in the beginning. Maybe then it wouldn't have been so confusing. However, once the pieces start to come together, the book is actually very good. Knowing the story now, makes it much easier to read again and fully appreciate everything. The small twists and turns make the book intriguing and keep the reader interested. It was particularly nice to see a main character that had a lot of problems, but rather than hide or become completely messed up from them, dealt with them appropriately. She was not at all perfect (like secluding herself and being mean at times), but she did eventually realize that the people around her were life family and that she needed them as much as they needed her. It was extremely wonderful to see how she and Jonah played off each other. Through out the whole book, you simply want them to start dating, but it's their little fights and random understanding of each other that make them special and different. The book really focuses on the internal struggle of an abandoned child and how they try to find their place in the world or at least somewhere to belong. While a majority of the book is meant to be serious, it is also interlaced with comedy. The random quips from a teen perspective as well as the dry sarcastic remarks, help to lighten the book and keep the reader going. All in all, the book was great. Getting through the first time can be tough, but once read again, it becomes a fantastic favorite.
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