My Book Boyfriend: A Tie Between Jonah Griggs and Jude Scanlon

My Book Boyfriend was a meme started by the Unread Reader---you can find out about it here.

Okay, so this might be slightly against the rules, but I seriously could not decide between two guys this week! And who might these two guys be? None other than Jonah Griggs and Jude Scanlon (both from Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta). If you saw my last review, you know that I cannot say enough good things about this book---or the guys! I absolutely loved how Jude was with Narnie and how Griggs was with Taylor. They both have such a tough exterior, but are really sweet inside!

Jonah Griggs

• is in year eleven
• leader of the Cadets
• has had a hard childhood
• "Jonah Griggs is a tank. His face is blunter, meaner than I remember. Hair cropped. Eyes cold. Arms folded. He has perfected the art of looking straight at someone while avoiding eye contact.  "

He stops and looks at me. "I'm here because of you. You're my priority. Your happiness, in some fucked way, is tuned in to mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don't think that will be happening in my lifetime.”

“Never," he tells me in a tone full of ice, "underestimate who or what I care for.” 

“What's with what you're wearing?" Griggs asks while we stand outside waiting for the others.
"It's pretty hideous, isn't it?" I say.
"Don't force me to look at it," he says. "It's see-through."
That kills conversation for a couple of seconds.” 


He shakes his head and, although it's dark, I can tell he's crying.
 "What are you thinking?" I whisper after a while.
"That you deserve romance," he says.  


Jude Scanlon

• was a cadet
• is a realist
• had an "indifferent" childhood
• has been in love with Narnie for years 

The next year, as the Cadet buses drove into Jellicoe, Jude was desperate for a sign. A sign that would tell him that things would be the same as the year before. He'd spent most of the year wondering about them. Had they fallen out of love with each one another? Did Narnie still have that half-dead look? Had Fitz got himself into trouble? Had they outgrown him?

"Who are they?" the Cadet sitting next to him asked.
Jude looked at Webb's face, the grin stretching from ear to ear.
"They're my best friends. I'm going to know them until the day I die."

Over the years, he'd had a fair idea of what had happened that night on the Jellicoe Road and sometimes he hated himself for wanting to be part of something so tragic. He wanted to be the hero riding by on a stolen bike. He wanted to be the one carrying their parents and Tate's sister out of the cars. He wanted to belong to them. With them he found solace.