Book Review: On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

At First Sight: For the last six years, Taylor Markham has lived on the Jellicoe School, under the care of a woman named Hannah who picked her up after her mother abandoned her at a Seven-Eleven. Taylor has always been full of questions: about her mother's whereabouts and about her father, and about what role Hannah plays into it all.

But now she's seventeen, as far away from answers as ever, and with the responsibility of leading the boarders in the territory wars between them and the cadets and the townies. 

And then Hannah leaves under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a bad tempered cat and a manuscript telling the story of five kids who lived on the Jellicoe Road some twenty years before.

Without Hannah, Taylor is more lost than ever, and the fact that Jonah Griggs is back doesn't help matters at all. 

Second Glance: I've read Jellicoe Road before, I even reviewed it once before. But this time I decided to listen to the Audiobook of it when I came across the australian edition - something I hadn't done before - and while the story remained the same, it was a very different experience. 

I liked hearing the voices of Taylor, Jonah, Chaz and Raffy, and everyone else, I thought the narrator  - Rebecca Macauley - did a good job of it, making different voices for everyone and her guy-voices were pretty good. 

Also, I noticed stuff about the characters that I hadn't before, like that Taylor was a bit of a Drama Queen, something that I had never noticed before. 

On the down side, the musical transitions between chapters and between past and present were too long and they got kind of annoying after a while. 

Bottom Line: Jellicoe Road remains one of my favorite books ever and I liked the Audiobook, but I still think I like the reading experience a bit better. 

(for this edition/format)