Melina Marchetta’s novel Jellicoe Road will kill you dead, in a good way, but you only get to read it unspoiled ONCE, so please I am begging you, read it before you listen to this! I will ruin everything for you. This is one of the best books there is. Go read it now. Hup hup. Okay!

Jellicoe Road is the story of Taylor Markham trying to fix her past and her present, her family and her friends, which are all in such a truly tragic disaster that it’s almost unbearable. The plot sounds like a lot of YA, but it’s so much more operatic and fraught and a real tragedy a lot of different ways. She solves the mysteries, fights through the relationships, finds her lost mother and brings her home, resolves some roadblocks for others she cares about, saves two kids from a tunnel, has a meeting of the minds with a fantastic boyfriend, and fights her way to a new family.

It’s so much. And the book is full of mysteries from the past that she has to figure out.

If I could figure out how Marchetta writes such brilliant characters that we care so much about, I’d really have something. I think I got part of the way there at least in this discussion.

Other texts mentioned: The Esker Road, I Am the Cheese, Leverage: Redemption, The Prydain Chronicles, probably others.

It’s such high tragedy with a relatively happy ending. It’s exactly how I want my books to be. Only less confusing. This is a much harder puzzle to solve than the things I write.

It’s funny to be so impressed by a book I’ve read multiple times before, but I really am. The more I analyze it, the better I like it and the more impressed I am.

Highest recommendation. Go get it.