Jellicoe Road

Melina Marchetta's 'Jellicoe Road' is a deeply emotional and intricate young adult novel about Taylor Markham, a seventeen-year-old who was abandoned by her mother at age eleven. Living at an Australian boarding school, Taylor struggles with her identity and past, especially when her closest adult, Hannah, vanishes. The story masterfully weaves together Taylor's present, including intense 'territory wars' with rival groups and a complicated relationship with Jonah Griggs, with a parallel narrative from Hannah's manuscript about five kids from eighteen years prior. This book is ideal for mature middle schoolers and high schoolers (ages 12-16) who appreciate complex characters, literary mysteries, and profound explorations of trauma, abandonment, identity, and the power of found family. Parents should be aware of themes including abandonment, violence, and mental health struggles, including a suicide attempt, which are handled with sensitivity and depth.

Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.