From this distance everything is so bloody perfect.
Reposting what I said a few days ago about the book on my own LJ, in a blatant attempt to kick off discussion.
For the past two days, I've been doing what I probably would have been doing even if it hadn't won the Printz- going back. Rereading. Processing. Figuring out how things fit together. And while I want to write things out, I really don't want to spoil people, because you can't talk about the story without talking about the whole story, and part of the magic is that second time where you go back and say "...Oh."
So if you haven't read Jellicoe Road yet, please don't read this post either.
And sure, I ignore that warning on other people's posts, but- no. Really. I have issues with books with suspense. They freak me out. I can't read them unless I know the ending. This book isn't like that. I wondered the end, but not in the way where I couldn't read it not knowing- more like it just put me more in the story than I had been. I figured things out as I went, and the great thing was how with one exception the things occurred to me within a few pages of Taylor figuring them out. I don't think it would have ruined the book to know all the things I did, but I do think it would make the first and second readings less magical.
You know what? I'm going to LJ-cut this, because I can't talk anymore without spoilers. I apologize for lack of clarity, but I couldn't have anyone read this over for me because it would spoil the book for them. WHICH IS JUST ONE OF THE MANY REASONS YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT.
*ahem*
When I try to describe this book, I keep mentioning round things: circles, spheres, cycles, pieces of wood with the corners sanded off- whatever. And I use two words frequently: "complete" and "whole". I've read a ton of books this year that I liked, many of which had an excellent beginning, middle, and end. They flowed together and the ending felt profound and good and right. But there's a difference between that and the way Jellicoe Road feels whole. Every page is necessary, because the first part fits with the last part and everything in between.
The way I read this, incidentally: I read the book front to back. Then I read just Hannah's novel. Then I read just not Hannah's novel. Then I read it all on its own. I wish I could get a computer copy of this book. I want to be able to search through it. I want to be able to make the connections faster than I can remember exactly where everything in the book is.
(I put together what I think is a roughly accurate chronology of the story, but I'm not sure about its accuracy. There's 419 pages and every single one means so much. In fact, just writing it down showed me more and more connections and- guys, I really do love this book a lot.)
I love Taylor as a character. She's hard and guarded and she's torn between what she needs from people and what she's willing to tell them she needs.
"What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More.
I love the parallels. I mean, I love the way the individual tragedies somehow dovetail into one amazing story with an ending which reinforces, more than anything, how important friendship is, but I also love how much, by mid-book, when the reader is realizing that Narnie's novel is part of her real life, a lot of the behavior is also reflected in Jonah the Cadet and Santangelo the Townie and Taylor and Raffaela and Ben at the school- Taylor, of course, taking the role her father took, as commander of her section. And yet although they're insanely competitive (and end up in jail at the beginning of the book), they also a happy ending which brings things back to the way the earlier generation had it. The divisions between the three groups are healed (helpfully by learning more about the earlier five), Santangelo ends up with Raffaela and Jonah with Taylor, and even the wounds of the past are healed. Tate is reunited with Taylor, Jude and Hannah get back together, and the house on Jellicoe Road finally does what it meant to: it holds the five of them and their families. I especially liked that it was still five of them, with Jessa and Taylor standing in for their respective fathers. I love that the parallel between Hannah and Taylor is brought to a peak where Taylor's "My mother took seventeen years to die. I counted." matches up with the first line.
The mystery, such as it is, ties together so nicely. The way that we learn about the Prayer Tree before we learn that it's the one Hannah wrote the bible verse on. The way they drive past the flowers after Taylor realizes they're the ones Jude replanted for Hannah and everyone.
I love how on first read I really thought this was realistic fiction and by the end I really don't think so. This book isn't full of coincidences. It feels like that at first, but it's much more than that, which I was surprised none of the reviews of the book I read mentioned. They identified it as coming of age or as mystery, but there's also a part that goes beyond that, which is the part that really made the book for me. It doesn't tie together neatly- there's not anything to tie. It's a moebius strip story. Because Fitz shot himself in front of Taylor, Griggs doesn't kill himself in front of her too. Because Griggs is with Taylor, and he gets the dream from his father, he is able to call the school and he and Taylor are brought home, and it turns out the serial killer killed two people in Yass and- everything fits together, you know? Nothing is extraneous. Everything makes everything else deeper. I didn't even connect the serial killer in Yass to Taylor's train ride til it was explicitly stated. Every little detail of what could have happened but didn't- it MATTERED, you know? It could have been coincidence, but it definitely feels like something greater was at work.
And the dreams, which let the dead help save the living. Griggs's dad, warning them to not go to Yass. Taylor telling Webb her name, which he in turn tells Tate. Things Taylor hears in her dreams from Webb and Fitz help them find Jessa and Chloe P, but they also help Fitz stop hating himself. Everyone finds some type of closure, whether or not they're alive.
Taylor losing Fitz and Webb in her dreams because her mother died- it's brutal and it's also perfect, because they're all together somewhere. And there's a family, kind of, cobbled together from Hannah and Jude and Taylor and Jessa. And they live in the house that Webb planned, and it's just- it's perfect and I keep going back to reread parts because it's perfect.
This isn't even taking account the language, which is really beautiful largely because there aren't passages that make me say "This is beautiful." It's understated and it all fits together and a lot of the best parts aren't even that amazing until you factor in the rest of the words on the 419 pages. It's natural and it's wonderful and there are lines I want to quote but I feel like they're not as amazing unless they have context. Maybe I'll post a list of quotes I like alongside my attempt at a chronology after some of you have read it and I don't need to worry about spoiling. Which you're all going to do soon, right? Even if your copy has the hideous sticker obscuring the front? Because you love me?
(Please?)
I was telling colorwheel that the problem I have with books is my assumption that if I like a book and it's objectively bad, everyone will judge me. So I don't want to admit how much I like it until someone else confirms that it's good. (I'm much better at telling people I disliked it and then being swayed to the other side, because I am happy to like more things but don't want to lose the magic of loving something.) And the great thing was the Printz was announced THE MORNING AFTER I FINISHED IT, so with this book I didn't have any of the time where I'm afraid to say I love it- I just got to really enjoy it right at the same time when it gets the most prestigious award for YA lit and everyone's trying to find it and no one can because no one thought this book would be worth it.
I really cannot express how much I love this book. And now I don't feel like I have to jutsify it. I just get to flail about what I love, and the Printz committee did the rest for me.
Incidentally, if anyone knows where I could find a searchable copy of this book, I'd be much obliged. I am completely willing to pay for an official PDF or whatever, but- dude, things are intertwined. I need to know how to search through it to find the scenes I want. Alternately, I am considering a colored post-it flag excavation, the way I did with Hunger Games. But, frankly, that tends to end in tears, often from whoever makes the little post-it flags. I am kind of thorough.
I can't stop turning this one over in my head, and it's hard to discuss with someone who hasn't read it.
Feel free to post anything relating to the book in this comm, obviously. If there was ever a book that needed to be dissected, this is it.
For the past two days, I've been doing what I probably would have been doing even if it hadn't won the Printz- going back. Rereading. Processing. Figuring out how things fit together. And while I want to write things out, I really don't want to spoil people, because you can't talk about the story without talking about the whole story, and part of the magic is that second time where you go back and say "...Oh."
So if you haven't read Jellicoe Road yet, please don't read this post either.
And sure, I ignore that warning on other people's posts, but- no. Really. I have issues with books with suspense. They freak me out. I can't read them unless I know the ending. This book isn't like that. I wondered the end, but not in the way where I couldn't read it not knowing- more like it just put me more in the story than I had been. I figured things out as I went, and the great thing was how with one exception the things occurred to me within a few pages of Taylor figuring them out. I don't think it would have ruined the book to know all the things I did, but I do think it would make the first and second readings less magical.
You know what? I'm going to LJ-cut this, because I can't talk anymore without spoilers. I apologize for lack of clarity, but I couldn't have anyone read this over for me because it would spoil the book for them. WHICH IS JUST ONE OF THE MANY REASONS YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT.
*ahem*
When I try to describe this book, I keep mentioning round things: circles, spheres, cycles, pieces of wood with the corners sanded off- whatever. And I use two words frequently: "complete" and "whole". I've read a ton of books this year that I liked, many of which had an excellent beginning, middle, and end. They flowed together and the ending felt profound and good and right. But there's a difference between that and the way Jellicoe Road feels whole. Every page is necessary, because the first part fits with the last part and everything in between.
The way I read this, incidentally: I read the book front to back. Then I read just Hannah's novel. Then I read just not Hannah's novel. Then I read it all on its own. I wish I could get a computer copy of this book. I want to be able to search through it. I want to be able to make the connections faster than I can remember exactly where everything in the book is.
(I put together what I think is a roughly accurate chronology of the story, but I'm not sure about its accuracy. There's 419 pages and every single one means so much. In fact, just writing it down showed me more and more connections and- guys, I really do love this book a lot.)
I love Taylor as a character. She's hard and guarded and she's torn between what she needs from people and what she's willing to tell them she needs.
"What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More.
I love the parallels. I mean, I love the way the individual tragedies somehow dovetail into one amazing story with an ending which reinforces, more than anything, how important friendship is, but I also love how much, by mid-book, when the reader is realizing that Narnie's novel is part of her real life, a lot of the behavior is also reflected in Jonah the Cadet and Santangelo the Townie and Taylor and Raffaela and Ben at the school- Taylor, of course, taking the role her father took, as commander of her section. And yet although they're insanely competitive (and end up in jail at the beginning of the book), they also a happy ending which brings things back to the way the earlier generation had it. The divisions between the three groups are healed (helpfully by learning more about the earlier five), Santangelo ends up with Raffaela and Jonah with Taylor, and even the wounds of the past are healed. Tate is reunited with Taylor, Jude and Hannah get back together, and the house on Jellicoe Road finally does what it meant to: it holds the five of them and their families. I especially liked that it was still five of them, with Jessa and Taylor standing in for their respective fathers. I love that the parallel between Hannah and Taylor is brought to a peak where Taylor's "My mother took seventeen years to die. I counted." matches up with the first line.
The mystery, such as it is, ties together so nicely. The way that we learn about the Prayer Tree before we learn that it's the one Hannah wrote the bible verse on. The way they drive past the flowers after Taylor realizes they're the ones Jude replanted for Hannah and everyone.
I love how on first read I really thought this was realistic fiction and by the end I really don't think so. This book isn't full of coincidences. It feels like that at first, but it's much more than that, which I was surprised none of the reviews of the book I read mentioned. They identified it as coming of age or as mystery, but there's also a part that goes beyond that, which is the part that really made the book for me. It doesn't tie together neatly- there's not anything to tie. It's a moebius strip story. Because Fitz shot himself in front of Taylor, Griggs doesn't kill himself in front of her too. Because Griggs is with Taylor, and he gets the dream from his father, he is able to call the school and he and Taylor are brought home, and it turns out the serial killer killed two people in Yass and- everything fits together, you know? Nothing is extraneous. Everything makes everything else deeper. I didn't even connect the serial killer in Yass to Taylor's train ride til it was explicitly stated. Every little detail of what could have happened but didn't- it MATTERED, you know? It could have been coincidence, but it definitely feels like something greater was at work.
And the dreams, which let the dead help save the living. Griggs's dad, warning them to not go to Yass. Taylor telling Webb her name, which he in turn tells Tate. Things Taylor hears in her dreams from Webb and Fitz help them find Jessa and Chloe P, but they also help Fitz stop hating himself. Everyone finds some type of closure, whether or not they're alive.
Taylor losing Fitz and Webb in her dreams because her mother died- it's brutal and it's also perfect, because they're all together somewhere. And there's a family, kind of, cobbled together from Hannah and Jude and Taylor and Jessa. And they live in the house that Webb planned, and it's just- it's perfect and I keep going back to reread parts because it's perfect.
This isn't even taking account the language, which is really beautiful largely because there aren't passages that make me say "This is beautiful." It's understated and it all fits together and a lot of the best parts aren't even that amazing until you factor in the rest of the words on the 419 pages. It's natural and it's wonderful and there are lines I want to quote but I feel like they're not as amazing unless they have context. Maybe I'll post a list of quotes I like alongside my attempt at a chronology after some of you have read it and I don't need to worry about spoiling. Which you're all going to do soon, right? Even if your copy has the hideous sticker obscuring the front? Because you love me?
(Please?)
I was telling colorwheel that the problem I have with books is my assumption that if I like a book and it's objectively bad, everyone will judge me. So I don't want to admit how much I like it until someone else confirms that it's good. (I'm much better at telling people I disliked it and then being swayed to the other side, because I am happy to like more things but don't want to lose the magic of loving something.) And the great thing was the Printz was announced THE MORNING AFTER I FINISHED IT, so with this book I didn't have any of the time where I'm afraid to say I love it- I just got to really enjoy it right at the same time when it gets the most prestigious award for YA lit and everyone's trying to find it and no one can because no one thought this book would be worth it.
I really cannot express how much I love this book. And now I don't feel like I have to jutsify it. I just get to flail about what I love, and the Printz committee did the rest for me.
Incidentally, if anyone knows where I could find a searchable copy of this book, I'd be much obliged. I am completely willing to pay for an official PDF or whatever, but- dude, things are intertwined. I need to know how to search through it to find the scenes I want. Alternately, I am considering a colored post-it flag excavation, the way I did with Hunger Games. But, frankly, that tends to end in tears, often from whoever makes the little post-it flags. I am kind of thorough.
I can't stop turning this one over in my head, and it's hard to discuss with someone who hasn't read it.
Feel free to post anything relating to the book in this comm, obviously. If there was ever a book that needed to be dissected, this is it.