On the Jellicoe Road in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Feb 27, 2009 stephanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: prize-winners, would-rec, young-adult, absolutely-must-read, 2009

i don't know exactly what to say.

i think perhaps i expected too much of this book, thanks to the reviews and my friends, but i actually didn't think the book was THAT slow started. that said, i realized something was going on very early - and so i started treating it like a mystery and was trying to figure it out.

i still don't really understand how what happened with webb happened. however, even though i figured some things out before it was "revealed" - like what hannah's manuscript was - i s ...more

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Sep 30, 2016 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, young-adult-fiction, australia

It has taken me some time to get around to this, but I had to ramp up the YA reading in advance of the new cohort of students starting our program soon, so I basically sat down and read 300 pages of this book on a Thursday night. The beginning of the book was really hard to follow because there were two stories going on and lots of characters that weren't really described much - just named. And you have to read 50 pages until you get to the second principal character. But getting there does help ...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Kate McCartney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: teen-fiction

I started reading Jellicoe Road about two weeks ago. I got through the first 122 pages. I was drawn in, I was curious and plotting out the characters. I was caught a little off guard at first in the two stories being told. So when I put the book down I kept thinking about it. I wasn't able to pick it up again until last night. I read from about 2:00 am until 5:30 am. I couldn't stop. I complete understand why it won the Printz this year. I loved this book. Sometimes after reading an especially m ...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, 2012, coming-of-age

On the Jellicoe Road is, quite possibly, one of the most complex young adult novels I've read to date. I will fully admit to feel frustrated and wanting to give up anywhere from 5 to 50 pages in - simply because the narration style, the back and forth, and the strange groupings of children had me confused. But then a story began to emerge and I was sucked in.

When that story hit me, I lived, breathed, and slept this book until it was done. My mind went into overtime working over the connections a ...more

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Aug 22, 2011 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult

This book was beautiful, in a dark, confusing, "wait for it" kind of way. Much like people who have been through the kind of things the characters in this book have been through. Reminded me of a line from a Sarah McLachlan song where she sings about a "beautiful f#@%ed up man". I felt like, gender aside, that was every character in this book. And yet they were so beautiful, as people, despite all those scars and issues. I loved the relationship that sprung up amongst the characters, both curren ...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, coming-of-age

from the NPR poll of great Young Adult fiction ...

2.5 stars

April has been a cruel month for me - of the ten novels I've read so far this month, nine have been disappointing. This book makes ten (out of eleven) disappointing reads this month.

So many five star reviews for this one! I really expected awesome things from this book. But I was completely confused by the whole concept of the boarding school, because it seems like the kids are completely unsupervised. Is this Lord of the Flies? Am I ju from the NPR poll of great Young Adult fiction ...

2.5 stars

April has been a cruel month for me - of the ten novels I've read so far this month, nine have been disappointing. This book makes ten (out of eleven) disappointing reads this month.

So many five star reviews for this one! I really expected awesome things from this book. But I was completely confused by the whole concept of the boarding school, because it seems like the kids are completely unsupervised. Is this Lord of the Flies? Am I just clueless because I grew up in USA suburbia? (probably) Second, I didn't like any of the main characters (I really didn't like Taylor), and that made it difficult for me to care about the actions. Third, I was annoyed at the amount of information that was intentionally withheld from me. And fourth, the concept of an annual territory war was boring and childish.

Here is some scintillating dialogue between Taylor (representing the Jellicoe School), Santangelo (representing the Townies) and Jonah (representing the Cadets):

“You promised us a negotiation about the Club House,” Santangelo says, still eyeing Jonah Griggs, but speaking to me.

“Negotiations are over,” I say flatly.

“You can’t do that.”

“Any which way, we’ve got the Club House and you can’t stop us from getting there,” Jonah Griggs says arrogantly.

“Watch me.”

“If we make a deal over the Club House, it will be profitable for all of us,” Santangelo says.

“Come within an inch of our property…”

“And what?” Jonah Griggs calls over to me.

“Unfortunately the state persists in using our school as a juvie centre when it suits them. We have arsonists.”

“So you’ll burn us down?” he says, feigning fear.

“No, but we will burn down every single building you own on our property. Beginning with the Club House.”

Now I have their attention.

The amount I care: 0%

(Admittedly, later in the book these territory wars are put into proper context and they became less annoying.)

I am always down for romance, so the romance bits appealed to me, but the territory wars were tedious and the "I know something but I'm not telling" mystery bits were grating.

Lots of reviews said that everything would come together in the second half, so I didn't give up. But I never grew to love it.

All the mystery about who was whom was all fairly clear to me early on (much earlier than it becomes clear to Taylor), which made the disjointed, nonlinear story-telling style even more annoying. There was no purpose to it, other than to add a needless layer of faux-mystery. I think this would have been stronger if it had been handed out directly instead of coyly slipping a little bit a little bit a little bit.

...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen

This was a really different book, but after I read it I realized how much more interesting it was to me then a lot of teen books. There's a lot of subplots that take place within the main story, but I think that it would be a great book to discuss and I'm glad it was chosen as the Printz winner this year. Part mystery, part romance, some action (territory wars)...I think a book a lot of teens would enjoy. ...more

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May 21, 2016 Lindsey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-reads

Amazing!

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Apr 11, 2013 Hannah added it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, for-class-masters

At the beginning, I was so not convinced. And then I was. I still did not LOVE this book as much as I would have liked to, but it was way better than the beginning had me believing.

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