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karen's Reviews > Jellicoe Road
Jellicoe Road
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i have got to stop being surprised when teen fiction is good. printz-award winning fiction (you know, the award for literary teen fiction that all the grown-ups read and say "this is for teens??"). australian teen fiction. complicated, multi-layered teen fiction.
this book is all of the above, and it is remarkable.
it has sex and drugs and rock and roll, it has violence and terrible crimes, it has shock and awe and guilt and terrible secrets and it opens with a death. this is my kind of teen fiction. it is mostly about loss and being lost, and being so close to redemption but frustratingly denied. it is about the teen-girl default position of lashing out like a wild animal and of the deepest regrets.
it howls.
it is astonishing - jellicoe road is sophisticated both in its subject matter and the way in which the story is told. it actually took me a little while to get into the swing of things - whose story is italicized? what is their relationship to the rest of the story?? but it was a good kind of lost - the kind of lost where you are in an interesting part of town with attractive people and cute little knickknack shops, not the kind of lost where you are late to a job interview in the wrong goddamned borough.
and toward the middle, the plot became a little predictable, but that didn't even matter, because by that point i was so enmeshed in these characters' lives - i just wanted everything to work out for them, even though i knew this was not going to be the kind of book with a tidy-sweet ending.
she created powerfully three-dimensional characters that i cared about and hated to close the book on. truly - it has been a while since i have fought sleep. i love sleep - i neeeed sleep. but i forced myself awake to keep reading this, and when i finally had to give in, it was with the deepest resentment.
this is a rich and emotionally complicated tale, and when i go to that panel next week, i may have to throw myself on her a little bit and beg her to take me with her and tell me bedtime stories every night.
for posterity, i will announce here that i did not cry. but this is definitely a crying-type of book for those of you that way inclined. i got that throat-thing that happens before a good cry, which is unusual enough for me, but i expect you people will cry like when a puppy dies on your birthday.
and you will love every minute of it.
(view spoiler)
come to my blog!
this book is all of the above, and it is remarkable.
it has sex and drugs and rock and roll, it has violence and terrible crimes, it has shock and awe and guilt and terrible secrets and it opens with a death. this is my kind of teen fiction. it is mostly about loss and being lost, and being so close to redemption but frustratingly denied. it is about the teen-girl default position of lashing out like a wild animal and of the deepest regrets.
it howls.
it is astonishing - jellicoe road is sophisticated both in its subject matter and the way in which the story is told. it actually took me a little while to get into the swing of things - whose story is italicized? what is their relationship to the rest of the story?? but it was a good kind of lost - the kind of lost where you are in an interesting part of town with attractive people and cute little knickknack shops, not the kind of lost where you are late to a job interview in the wrong goddamned borough.
and toward the middle, the plot became a little predictable, but that didn't even matter, because by that point i was so enmeshed in these characters' lives - i just wanted everything to work out for them, even though i knew this was not going to be the kind of book with a tidy-sweet ending.
she created powerfully three-dimensional characters that i cared about and hated to close the book on. truly - it has been a while since i have fought sleep. i love sleep - i neeeed sleep. but i forced myself awake to keep reading this, and when i finally had to give in, it was with the deepest resentment.
this is a rich and emotionally complicated tale, and when i go to that panel next week, i may have to throw myself on her a little bit and beg her to take me with her and tell me bedtime stories every night.
for posterity, i will announce here that i did not cry. but this is definitely a crying-type of book for those of you that way inclined. i got that throat-thing that happens before a good cry, which is unusual enough for me, but i expect you people will cry like when a puppy dies on your birthday.
and you will love every minute of it.
(view spoiler)
come to my blog!
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Reading Progress
February 28, 2011
–
Started Reading
February 28, 2011
– Shelved
March 1, 2011
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 54 (54 new)
message 1:
by
Mariel
(new)
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 28, 2011 03:28PM
yay Melina!
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Oh crap, I hope you like this one. How could you not?
I just added this to my Aussie to-read list. Looking forward to a review!
i am almost finished! it is so freaking good!! i keep wanting to save it, but i keep just reading more!!
This thread needs cookies too.
I had some cookies today. Dutch chocolate.
yum :)
ha! i have to write the review for stu's book first. then i can write this one. but first i have to do some other work... but i will be sure to write a glowing review, i promise. with cookies.
I love this book so much!!!
Has a book ever made you cry? If so, what book(s)? Curious!
not many - i have a bookshelf for all the ones that did it:http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...
one of them was with tears of laughter, so i don't know if it counts.... and two were when i was little. so, i guess only Mother, Come Home.
but it was a bad one.
great book.
bad crying.
Thanks, karen. I've probably welled-up for somewhere around 15 books, but actually had full out tears from maybe 5?The Brothers Karamazov; The End of the Affair; A Farewell to Arms; Last Night in Twisted River; one or two others.
i should read more graham greene.i would like to cry over books more frequently...
I don't cry. I lose sleep. (don't look at my itsrainingimchoppingonions shelf. I really am chopping onions in the rain!)
so i guess i should read this, eh karen?
Bill wrote: "so i guess i should read this, eh karen?"i dunno, are you going to cryyyy???
A friend of mine was dying. That's right- dying!
karen wrote: "Bill wrote: "so i guess i should read this, eh karen?"i dunno, are you going to cryyyy???"
i don't know....i might. although movies get me more than books. i'm a real softie though.
then i say read it!! i wanna read your tearful review of it!
Mariel wrote: "A friend of mine was dying. That's right- dying!"I'm not weeping 'cause you won't be here to hold my hand; for your information, there's an inflammation in my tear gland.
My eyes are just sweating.
Lol, Tommy, you're really whoring these books out! Good job!
*Hides* They're on hold at the library! I'll be reading them soon!
tommy is a brute with the teen fiction
Yes, she is that saucy minx. Which I'm totally okay with but I'm still recovering from last time she had her wicked way with me.
Tommy, you're making me blush, darling.
I'm sorry our passionate love affair is making you uncomfortable, Karen. We'll take it somewhere else!
hahaha no, i just pictured tomato-jizz and it made me a little queasy
I'm with you on Jude. Totally have a crush on him.
this is definitely a crying-type of book for those of you that way inclined. i got that throat-thing that happens before a good cry, which is unusual enough for me, but i expect you people will cry like when a puppy dies on your birthday.and you will love every minute of it.
Awesome. I've been hearing good things about this and this may have just bumped it up to the top of my list. I cry often (and effectively) at books, movies, TV shows, music, etc. and I do indeed enjoy it.
Great review! About to start this one!
I really wish that this book would have made me cry. I cry at books, but this one just did not do it for me. I felt like an intruder into a world filled with really alien emotions. I wanted to relate, but it never came. I liked the book. I did, but in the end I returned to the world I know and didn't carry a piece of the book with me. I swear I had to have missed something, so many people cried.
did you read piper's son? i did not cry at this one, but i sobbed through that one!
I have not read that one, yet. I will give it a shot. That was actually the book I was looking for when I went to the bookstore. They were sold out of it, but had Jellicoe Road so I settled. I really hope it is a different experience.
they are both excellent books, but piper's son hit me hard, and i so rarely cry at books, i was thrilled.
See, they you are! Almost every time I look up an interesting book, you are there, reviewing it! A lot of the ones I look up with your pic and review are either 4 or 5 star ratings. Well, looks like I'll be requesting this one from my local library! Glad to be following your reviews now!
oh, i hope you like this one - but most people do; it's that good!
I picked it up yesterday at my local library and will start it today!
Awesome review Karen!!! I really loved this book too!
thanks! i think it's time for a re-read!
karen wrote: "thanks! i think it's time for a re-read!"You're welcome! I think I might re-read this book down the line!
Love your review. This is the type of book that I think begs for a re-read. The confusing beginning would probably blow your mind when you read it again with all your knowledge and understanding. I didn't have it in me to read it again right after finishing (even though I wanted to) but I skimmed it a bit and was shocked at the little hints doled out.
The beginning is so confusing. I m on the fourth chapter, but totally confused with the characters and their POV. I have a doubt, Narnie and Taylor are two different persons? or the same? please comment, I so wanna read this book, so this little spoiler won't affect me.
