Froi of the Exiles is being released in the US today.
We are not going to review this novel today, however. As you would expect from true Marchetta fanatics, we have already read and reviewed it months ago, when the book first came out in October in Australia. You can read our musings in their variety here - Catie's (accompanied by some great music), Flannery's (with illustrations), and Tatiana's (with old-fashioned gushing).
Whatever our reactions to Froi of the Exiles were (and not all of them were uniformly positive), all three of us are still strong admirers of Melina Marchetta's talent.
What we want to dedicate today's Three Heads Are Better Than One (or Two) post to is talking about how we got to know Melina's works, how they affected our relationships with YA literature and what is that special something that brings us back to her books over and over again.
We are not going to review this novel today, however. As you would expect from true Marchetta fanatics, we have already read and reviewed it months ago, when the book first came out in October in Australia. You can read our musings in their variety here - Catie's (accompanied by some great music), Flannery's (with illustrations), and Tatiana's (with old-fashioned gushing).
Whatever our reactions to Froi of the Exiles were (and not all of them were uniformly positive), all three of us are still strong admirers of Melina Marchetta's talent.
What we want to dedicate today's Three Heads Are Better Than One (or Two) post to is talking about how we got to know Melina's works, how they affected our relationships with YA literature and what is that special something that brings us back to her books over and over again.
The first Marchetta book I read was Jellicoe Road. It was 2010 and this novel had just won Printz and I was entering a stage in my YA reading where I was not just reading any popular YA (it sounds so darn typical but I was brought to the YA community and Goodreads by, you guessed it, Twilight!, so you can imagine what I read immediately after that), but actively seeking out good YA fiction. I knew of Jellicoe Road, but I was not inspired to actually pick it up and read it until I saw a couple of reading progress updates from one of my Goodreads friends. They went something like this:
p. 200 of 420. This is so confusing. I don't understand what the hype is all about
p. 300 of 420. NOW I know what the hype is all about
p. 200 of 420. This is so confusing. I don't understand what the hype is all about
p. 300 of 420. NOW I know what the hype is all about
Of course, I HAD to read this mysterious book ASAP.
It was indeed confusing in the beginning, but I loved it. It was so heartfelt and tender and heartbreaking. I cried a lot too. But there was a specific scene that made me forever a Marchetta fan and that is almost imprinted in my mind. It is a sex scene between Taylor and Jonah.
"I sit up in the dark and after a moment I take off my singlet and I hear him taking off his T-shirt and we sit there, holding each other, kissing until our mouths are aching, and then we're pulling off the rest of our clothes and I'm under him and I feel as if I'm imprinted onto his body. Everything hurts, every single thing including the weight of him and I'm crying because it hurts and he's telling me he's sorry over and over again, and I figure that somewhere down the track we'll work out the right way doing this but I don't want to let go, because tonight I'm not looking for anything being part of him. Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything."
It gave me goose bumps. It struck me as so honest and so raw and unembellished. Just like all Marchetta's book are.
It was indeed confusing in the beginning, but I loved it. It was so heartfelt and tender and heartbreaking. I cried a lot too. But there was a specific scene that made me forever a Marchetta fan and that is almost imprinted in my mind. It is a sex scene between Taylor and Jonah.
"I sit up in the dark and after a moment I take off my singlet and I hear him taking off his T-shirt and we sit there, holding each other, kissing until our mouths are aching, and then we're pulling off the rest of our clothes and I'm under him and I feel as if I'm imprinted onto his body. Everything hurts, every single thing including the weight of him and I'm crying because it hurts and he's telling me he's sorry over and over again, and I figure that somewhere down the track we'll work out the right way doing this but I don't want to let go, because tonight I'm not looking for anything being part of him. Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything."
It gave me goose bumps. It struck me as so honest and so raw and unembellished. Just like all Marchetta's book are.
Like so many other wonderful authors, I learned about Melina Marchetta from a friend on Goodreads. Heidi and the lovely people at Young Adult for Adults were one of the very first groups of like-minded book fiends that I ever hung out with on the internet. (They’re a very welcoming group so stop by and say hello!) The first book of hers that caught my attention was Finnikin of the Rock. I’ve always loved young adult fantasy, so that was an easy draw for me. The U.S. cover, combined with an excellent blurb added up to what was essentially Catie Candy.
However, for as much as I've always loved young adult fantasies, I've avoided young adult contemporaries. For some reason, I had this idea in my head that young adult contemporaries could never be as deep or as dark or as complex as their adult counterparts. But everyone and her sister on Young Adult for Adults was raving about this other book called Jellicoe Road. So, when I went to my library with the express purpose of picking up Finnikin of the Rock and saw Jellicoe Road – a small, shiny volume covered in a huge red poppy – sitting innocently right next to it I thought, “hey why not?” And I had absolutely no idea what it was about.
I finished Finnikin of the Rock that day and thought…"that’s one of the best fantasies I’ve read in a long time.” It was great, but it didn't blow my mind. I gave it four stars. (spoiler alert: Froi of the Exiles DID in fact blow my mind.) Jellicoe Road continued to sit on my night stand, untouched, until I had finally renewed it for the last time, hogging it from the library like a jerk. I finally gave in one night right after I put the girls to bed, and unlike just about everyone else who seemed to find the beginning confusing and dense, I was hooked from page one.
“My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. I counted.”
I still get chills when I read that opening page! I stayed up well into that night, reading with stunned amazement, as just about every preconceived notion that I had about young adult contemporary novels was shattered. I read with a sense of doomed sadness as the identities of the characters in the flashbacks started to become clear. When Jonah revealed his reasons for taking the train that day, I cried. And when that ending dared to go further into Taylor’s abandonment and grief than I ever expected a young adult book to go, I knew that this book was going to get five stars.
“I stand up and walk towards her because my days of waiting for more are over. If I want more, I need to go and get it, demand it, take hold of it with all my might, and do the best I can with it.”
It’s the first young adult contemporary novel that I ever gave five stars to, but not the last. Thanks to Jellicoe Road, I expanded my horizons and found other contemporary young adult authors that I can’t believe I spent years without: Sara Zarr, Courtney Summers, Kirsty Eagar, Cath Crowley, and Steve Brezenoff. Melina Marchetta opened the doors into a world of literary greatness that I'd been missing, and I'll always be thankful for that.
However, for as much as I've always loved young adult fantasies, I've avoided young adult contemporaries. For some reason, I had this idea in my head that young adult contemporaries could never be as deep or as dark or as complex as their adult counterparts. But everyone and her sister on Young Adult for Adults was raving about this other book called Jellicoe Road. So, when I went to my library with the express purpose of picking up Finnikin of the Rock and saw Jellicoe Road – a small, shiny volume covered in a huge red poppy – sitting innocently right next to it I thought, “hey why not?” And I had absolutely no idea what it was about.
I finished Finnikin of the Rock that day and thought…"that’s one of the best fantasies I’ve read in a long time.” It was great, but it didn't blow my mind. I gave it four stars. (spoiler alert: Froi of the Exiles DID in fact blow my mind.) Jellicoe Road continued to sit on my night stand, untouched, until I had finally renewed it for the last time, hogging it from the library like a jerk. I finally gave in one night right after I put the girls to bed, and unlike just about everyone else who seemed to find the beginning confusing and dense, I was hooked from page one.
“My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. I counted.”
I still get chills when I read that opening page! I stayed up well into that night, reading with stunned amazement, as just about every preconceived notion that I had about young adult contemporary novels was shattered. I read with a sense of doomed sadness as the identities of the characters in the flashbacks started to become clear. When Jonah revealed his reasons for taking the train that day, I cried. And when that ending dared to go further into Taylor’s abandonment and grief than I ever expected a young adult book to go, I knew that this book was going to get five stars.
“I stand up and walk towards her because my days of waiting for more are over. If I want more, I need to go and get it, demand it, take hold of it with all my might, and do the best I can with it.”
It’s the first young adult contemporary novel that I ever gave five stars to, but not the last. Thanks to Jellicoe Road, I expanded my horizons and found other contemporary young adult authors that I can’t believe I spent years without: Sara Zarr, Courtney Summers, Kirsty Eagar, Cath Crowley, and Steve Brezenoff. Melina Marchetta opened the doors into a world of literary greatness that I'd been missing, and I'll always be thankful for that.
Saving Francesca was the first of Melina Marchetta's books that I read, and I read it in November of 2010. At that point, I was just starting to actually fully engage with readers on Goodreads as opposed to just cataloging my books and conversing with my real-life reading buddies. I'd seen the book in my feed once or twice but I can't say what actually made me pick it up. I do remember putting it on hold and taking it home. It had that contact paper on the outside and looked right grubby, actually, which is always a sign of awesomeness for me--it means that many people had read and enjoyed it before me. I read Saving Francesca from start to finish while I was holed up in my room, and it really started a love affair for me. I'm a huge fan of Marchetta's contemporary young adult novels for so many reasons but the number one reason is probably their emotional depth. In the land of young adult novels, so many books just skim the surface. We learn about what so and so is doing in school, how he or she is having relationship troubles, how they try to deal with what is going on in their present life. Don't misunderstand me, I think there is a large amount of this type of writing that is done well. However, this isn't what Marchetta writes and that is what makes her stand out for me. She writes about why things are happening now. While everyone else is scooping out a handful of dirt to plant a seedling, she is jumping in a 6-foot-deep trench and then filling it in as she goes. I think that is why my favorite books of hers are The Piper's Son (you must read Saving Francesca beforehand) and Jellicoe Road. (I won't beat a dead horse on that one. See my lovely cobloggers comments.) Each member of the Mackee/Finch family in The Piper's Son is struggling with something or somethings, and in every case there is more than one reason why they're having trouble with varying aspects of their present lives. It is an interesting avenue to explore--when nearly everyone is emotionally raw, how can they all get it back together?
While I am usually an upbeat, friendly person, I think I have a huge capacity for sadness. Many of my favorite books are ones that paint an accurate portrait of someone in despair or someone wondering what the purpose of life is. I listened to the audiobook of Looking for Alibrandi (which I absolutely recommend) and while I have so many favorite scenes from each of her books, I think the scene that affected me most was the moment Josie remembered the note John Barton had written during their meeting--and just the idea of her having his thoughts when he was in such a horrible emotional state. I don't even remember what he said, and it doesn't even matter. Just thinking about him makes my throat choke up a bit. I cannot say any more without spoiling something so I better just stop writing. Now I've gone and made myself want to reread all these books again.
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Have YOU discovered Melina Marchetta yet?
Happy US Release Day, Melina Marchetta!
From three of your biggest fans.
