Recent Reads, 15/40: Jellicoe Road

Fun fact: I stayed up until 4 am Tuesday finishing this book. I was exhausted, but I knew I could do it.
Do I regret it? A little, because I hate staying up late/sleeping in late and missing time I could spend on my day off not sleeping…but, whatever. Worth itttttt.

Okay, so Jellicoe Road (which also goes by On the Jellicoe Road, according to Goodreads) was book 15 of this year.
I had never heard of it, but a friend of a friend (or a friend of mine who I’ve only met a couple of times but feel comfortable talking to because that’s what social media does…crazy world today, eh?) had suggested it on a book group page on Facebook. It was on sale and the description was intriguing enough that I went for it.

Jellicoe Road is the story of Taylor Markham, a seventeen-year-old girl who was abandoned by her mother and brought to the Jellicoe School by a woman named Hannah, who provides the only adult interaction she has. When Hannah suddenly disappears, Taylor finds herself faced with piecing together her past, trying to find where Hannah could’ve gone, and dealing with the territory wars between the Jellicoe students, the Townies, and the Cadets who train nearby.

There’s a lot that goes on in the story, and I feel like the more I say, the more I’ll give away. When I first started, I was super confused and felt it was a bit slow. I looked through some spoiler-free reviews on Goodreads and was relieved to see someone say that pushing through is totally worth it. I completely agree. It is an intense and emotional book…I was close to tears around the end but I was also exhausted. Pretty sure I would’ve really shed some tears had I not been up so late. Taylor Markham’s life has been…rough. But one of the great things about life is that, sometimes when all is lost, you finally find what you’re looking for.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend pushing through to read it.
It should be mentioned that it won the Michael L. Printz award, in good company with some awesome past and future winners and nominees.

P.S. I’m really glad I had the Kindle edition. The book is Australian, and I needed the dictionary quite frequently for some of their slang terms. I always seem to luck out with the books I read on Kindle.