My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted. It happened on the Jellicoe Road. 
 This is one of my all time favourite books, I literally read it and re-read it over and over again, from cover to cover without getting bored with it. How someone could get bored with this book is completely beyond me. 
 The first time I read this book I borrowed it from the library and I did not want to give it back. Literally. Like, I would have had it out for at least two months before I had to take it back, but not before I did something completely geeky: I started to type it out because I hadn't been able to find it in stores before that. 
 Literally. I sat there dilligently typing out each and every single word in this book simply because I wanted to be able to read it over and over again and I knew that I had to take it back to the library. The funny thing was that I really didn't get any further than when Taylor goes to see the Principle because Hannah was missing. And I mean 
 no one 
 leaves unfinished houses. It just doesn't happen. 
 But it happened. 
 Anyway - back to what I was saying - I eventually managed to get this book, and I wouldn't have cared if it had cost me $50 or more I would have bought it (it only cost $20 but hardly the point) this book is everything. Literally everything. 
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 Lemme start of by talking about Taylor. Taylor is one of the best characters that has ever been written - or so I feel. I may be bias, don't judge me I love this book - but she is! She is flawed in so many ways and I absolutely feel for her. She has vague recollections of happiness on the shoulders of a giant when she was little and she remembers feeling happy. There are teensy flashbacks of times before her mother went a little nuts because of drugs when she remembers that she loved her, that she always loved her. Even when she remembers the shit that she did to her. The shit that happened. She dropped her off at the 711 for the sake of Merlin's baggy trousers! Who does that to your own child? I was so mad at her when I found that out. Not Taylor - but her mother. Of course it goes along with the story, because if she hadn't done that, then the story wouldn't really be any good would it? Taylor is the sort of person that I want to be friends with, simply because she is so unassuming of so many different things. She may come across as moody and indifferent, but there is a side of her that no one really understands. That's why I like her. And then of course there is the fact that she has all these witty one-liners that I myself have started to use. Taylor Markham is one of those truly unforgettable characters. 
 Jonah Griggs. How do I even begin to describe Jonah Griggs. He comes off as this tough as nails shit from the Cadets who wouldn't hesitate to throw a punch but you know what comes across for me when I read the book? How much he cares. He would do anything, literally anything to protect his family. Absolutely anything. Not only will he do anything to protect them, but he will also do anything to protect Taylor. There is this fierce love story that develops between the two of them that isn't like in other books, because it isn't over the top. They don't completely shut everyone out of their little bubble. I like Griggs because he manages to put things aside and help Taylor when she needs it. When she's having an asthma attack in the gaol, what does he do? He tells her to breathe. Tells her that she needs to just keep trying to breathe. He has a go at Santangelo because he keeps telling her things that make her lose all concept of breathing. Jonah isn't without flaws which I think is why I like him so much. No one is perfect. You can be perfect for someone and perfect in the eyes of someone, but he is neither. 
 Chaz and Raffy. Going to have to do these two in here together, because there is so much more that I want to say. I like these two. I wish that they would get their shit together. Wordlessly they convey so much between them, their past makes them even better but there is the distance that you can feel closing between the two of them as the book goes on. I love it. Chaz isn't really a bully, and Raffy is more than just a sweetheart. They have history - you can read it between the lines but when it all comes out, there is something sweet about it all. You can't be mad at either of them, you just have to love them and keep loving them. There is nothing else that can be done. Though, sometimes Raffy got on my nerves, I liked the fact that she was basically the complete opposite of Taylor. It was something that she needs in her life though, someone that will tell her in the nicest way possible that she needs to check her baggage with "I-Don't-Give-A-Shit-Airline" and that is what she does. Sometimes I feel sorry for Chaz, because he's further away from the action, but the closer the four of them become the more you can actually feel the bonds of a real friendship forming. 
 Narnie. Tate. Webb. Fitz. Jude. 
 Five names. Five people. Five lives. 
 Probably one of the things that I love most of all about this book is that the story that Hannah is writing about these five stands out so clearly to me that it isn't even funny. You have to feel for Narnie, Webb and Tate. They lost not only their parents but Tate lost her sister and they became inseparable. It was no wonder that Tate and Webb fell in love. That Narnie suffered from depression. She actually saw more than Webb and she protected him because she loved him, because she could not stand the thought of him losing that shining beacon of light. The love of a sister for her brother was so clear and concise that I just wanted to rip them from the pages and love them. Okay, okay, okay. That's a little extreme. 
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 I didn't like Jude at times, I don't know why, maybe because he pissed me right off. Sometimes it seemed like he didn't understand that Narnie needed her space but that she would come back to him. Sometimes he went ahead and did things like a bull at a gate without thinking them through properly, but throughout it all, he stood by them. Every second. Every minute. He loved them all fiercely. Just like Fitz. He loved them too, even though neither of them were able to understand the exact way that the others were feeling, they were still there for them every step of the way. 
 Taylor goes looking for Hannah because she knows that if she finds Hannah it will lead her to her mother, but what she finds is so much more. Taylor's story is one of self-discovery that is completely different to any other, and I think that is one of the things that stands out for me more than anything else. She's finding a place where she belongs, where she longs to be. She finds friends, love, family and more importantly herself. 
 This book was given a five star rating not because of the characters, but because this is one of those books that I truly love. One that I want to pick up at least three times a year, sometimes more. So many haunting quotes. So many haunting moments. This book still hooks me every damn time I read it - and I've read it a lot.