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On the Jellicoe Road

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On the Jellicoe Road

By: Melina Marchetta
Narrated by: Rebecca Macauley
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About this listen

Taylor Markham is now a senior at the Jellicoe School, and has been made leader of the boarders. She is responsible for keeping the upper hand in the territory wars with the townies, and the cadets who camp on the edge of the school's property over summer.

She has to keep her students safe and the territories enforced and to deal with Jonah Griggs - the leader of the cadets and someone she'd rather forget. But what she needs to do, more than anything, is unravel the mystery of her past and find her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road six years before.

The only connection to her past, Hannah, the woman who found her, has now disappeared, too, and the only clue Taylor has about Hannah and her mother's past is a partially written manuscript about a group of five kids from the Jellicoe School, twenty years ago.

2009, AudioFile Earphones Award, Winner

2007, Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Book of the Year for Older Children, Short-listed

2007, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Young Adult Award, Short-listed

2009, The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Winner

©2006 Melina Marchetta By arrangement with Penguin Group (Australia) (P)2006 Bolinda Publishing Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Friendship Literature & Fiction Mysteries & Detectives Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Romance Romantic Suspense Thrillers & Suspense

Critic Reviews

"This roller coaster ride of a novel grabs you from the first sentence and doesn't let go." (Printz Award Committee Chair Mary Arnold)
"Taylor Markham, an Australian high school student, spends her senior year trying to make sense of her personal history in this well-crafted coming-of-age story. The plot builds smartly as connections are made and seemingly unrelated pieces slot into place. Rebecca Macauley guides and compels the listener as the narrative jumps back and forth in time and switches point of view. She's equally believable as kid and adult, as teen boy and teen girl, and she's especially adept at communicating the full, riotous range of teen emotion. The mood swings, from sarcastic to despairing to intimate to playful and back again, could have been overdone, but instead they feel authentic every step of the way." (AudioFile Magazine)
All stars
Most relevant
It’s not often I feel compelled to revisit a novel, but this book is so powerful I often feel the pull to enjoy the story once more. A young adult novel that lives up to the title of my favourite book in the world even 15 years after my first time reading. The audio performance is wonderful and emotional, I’ll tell anyone that will listen to read this book!

A childhood favourite visited

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I have never read a book more entertaining than On the Jellicoe Road. I have read and listened to this book over and over again and I will never get over the story. Every time you listen to it you notice another detail that ties the whole story together. The main story being told along side the out of order Manuscript leaves you guessing on every page.
The characters are so well developed, thought out and diverse that you can’t help but picture their faces, hear their voices and fall in love with every single one of them.
Rebecca Macauley reads the novel with the perfect amount of personality for each character, capturing the tone and attitude of every piece of dialog. It’s like she’s experiencing the moments Taylor Markham and the other participants of the territory wars experience.
Very well written, very well read, and very well received.

On the Jellicoe Road is the most detailed, enthralling and and well written book I have ever read!

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Good book. History replicates with a twist.
A lot of questions and searching, and people hiding the answers - WHY? I felt this was stretching it.
Although the timeline was pretty current, I felt the characters were not so much. They thought like people from an earlier era... 60's maybe. Ended very tidy... a bit too tidy for my taste. Overall, it was likeable and some laughs.
Narrator very good.

On the Jellico Road or revolving door?

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I first read this book as a teenager and although it was hard to get into at first, then I couldn’t put it down! The story is beautifully written and twines effectively between two tales of friends that by the end of the book you end up wishing you were part of them.
Now as an adult I’ve come back to this book over and over again and still get as much joy out of it as I did all those years ago. Excellent narration. Thank you Melina Marchetta for this beautiful story, can’t wait to read what you come up with next!

Reread over 4 times

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One of my favourite books ever. Have read it so many times, and yet I cry every time

Fantastic read!

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