So much love for this amazingly compelling story set in Rural Australia in the harshest of years going through The Great Depression and War. Jessicas strength enduring her manipulative and conniving mother and sister truly is uplifting, and so emotionally engaging. I have never felt so much for one character and what she had to go through in her life. And to have kept the secret of the father of her child until her last moments.

Quite possibly the longest book Ive read but was not disappointed. And to hear it was based on actual events, just wow! A must read.

A really good read!

Thankfully the diversity of character in people makes such great material for stories. Another great book.

I have five large problems with this book.

Firstly, I don't like the prose. Like, it literally reminds me of stuff I write, which I hate.

Secondly, the narration. The narration at one point says something like "and this plotline will echo through for the next fifty years", and you look at how much of the book is left and you go "okay, so there'll be some time skips but this gets followed up on". And the answer is just... no, it does not.

Thirdly, it compares very unfavourably with Vanity Fair. Seriously I'm so tempted to just write this off as "Australian Bush hurt/suffering AU of Vanity Fair". It's extremely reductive and it ignores so much of the book and, yet, it steel feels like the best way of describing it.

Fourthly, the last hundred or so pages are just basically tacked on. It has literally nothing to do with the rest of the book in any way. It's like Bryce Courtenay wanted to write a sequel to the original story but then decided "why bother?" and submitted both manuscripts to the publisher as one novel. This actually reminds me enormously of a fanfic I actually rather like.

Fifthly, the last one hundred pages are, in addition to feeling tacked on, just so cringe. The plot seems so cliched, the prose is worse than ever, there's no sense of context (which is a bafflingly decision given the subject matter) and just everything about Courtenay handles the court cases (which is all that's happening here) is so hamfisted.

I can't believe how popular this book is, because I can't believe it was published. It is truly awful.

A masterpiece.

A beautiful friend leant me this book to read, I had absolutely no idea what I was in for.. I honestly don’t know how I am going to put my thoughts and feelings about this book into words. Firstly I have to say that Jessica would have to be one of the most incredible books I have ever read, and I truly believe maybe, even ever written! The incredible descriptions of the landscape and people pulled me so far into the book I believed I was there experiencing everything. Chapters were written in a way that flowed in and out of different times and characters so effortlessly, that read so naturally, I’ve never experienced flow like that in a book before. As much as I loved the book, I also despise it. The heartbreak and heartache and agony is next level. I craved a happy ending, a happy chapter, a silver lining, a brief relief, a small break.. Jessica’s life is unimaginable. Yes Jessica is a fictional character but my gosh I felt real feelings for this girl and this book. A little about the story.. Jessica is a young girl, a strong willed girl who can work as hard as any man, maybe even the apple of her Dads eye, definitely not her Mums that’s for sure. As Jessica gets older she makes new friends, she loses some friends, she discovers some of her family don’t have her best interests at heart, she is pushed to breaking point time and time again. Jessica is sent on a roller coaster called life living in outback Australia in 1914 and experiences more loss in her lifetime then anyone deserves, but she continues on somehow. I know I’ve used the word ‘incredible’ too many times but if you want to read a true classic from an incredible author you need to read Jessica.

I read this after watching the mini-series on TV. I'm not usually one for any of this "Australian drama", anything with an outback setting and what not, but this book was just amazing.

I could not put it down. I read it again as soon as I was finished, I loved it that much. I cried at the end both times.

It's not my normal type of book by any stretch, but I'd still recommend it to everyone. Just a really great book.

3.5 stars. This was a mixed bag for me. Let's do pros and cons.

Pros:
-For many stretches of the book, the writing flowed so well that I found myself reading more pages than I intended before bed. This was especially true during the scenes with a lot of action or a lot of dialogue.
-Jessica is a well-written example of an indomitable spirit. Her life is a series of tragedies without a lot of redemption — that is, there are wrongs that are never righted and people who die who deserved to live longer than they did. And yet, in the small areas where she has some say in what happens, she fights for justice for the people in her life.
-While some characters tend toward caricature (Jack on the positive side and Hester on the negative), some are more complex, like Richard Runche and Joe. And some are just lovely, like Solly.
-There are three legal battles that happen over the course of this book. I personally enjoyed seeing how the arguments were laid out and how smart and cunning people attempted to outmaneuver each other.
-In a book over 600 pages, there's something satisfying in a remark from the early pages coming back to bite (pun intended) in the last pages of the novel.

Cons:
-The bleakness was a bit much for me. Even while Jessica fought for Billy and Mary, everything in her own life fell to pieces and just kept getting worse. I get that Hester was clever, but the number of things that worked out in her favor with no obstacles was a bit ridiculous.
-Why was the identity of Jessica's baby's father kept a big mystery? Obvious it was Jack. Who else would it be? And why did she keep saying she'd promised not to tell the father's identity when Jack didn't even know she was pregnant? Promised how, when? Why did she keep her pregnancy from Jack? All of that served to add suspense to the plot for no good reason.
-Runche specifically tells Jessica there is nothing legally keeping her from pursuing custody of her son. So why doesn't she attempt it, after putting in so much effort to get Mary her children back? I could understand letting it go if she were involved in Joey's life as his aunt and didn't feel the need to create contention by formally contesting his parentage. But she was literally forbidden to see him. That wasn't worth contesting?
-It's treated as far-fetched that Meg could have gotten pregnant after being with Jack one time, but isn't that exactly what happened with Jessica? It would have been more believable if Jack and Jessica had been hooking up out in the fields on the regular prior to him going off to war.

I don't regret reading this, but it was a bit too much of a soap opera for me to recommend widely. I'm still interested in reading Courtenay's The Power of One.

It’s been decades since I’ve read a Bryce Courtney book. This is such a great story with realistic characters you either want to know or want to slap. A sweeping Australian saga has to be one of my favourite kind of books to read.

This devolves into a bit of a soap opera, but it was another attempt to learn more about the land down under.

Another excellent novel by Bryce Courtenay, which covers the hardship of subsistence farming in rural NSW at the turn of last century with the heroine being a girl who helps her father of their small farm and dresses in male attire.
Jessica is a fair-dinkum true-blue Aussie outback sheila who has a stubborn streak and don't take shit from nobody.
She can do all the work a man can, and is an exceptional shot and horse rider.
Jessica also has her heart in the right place and takes on the cause of others who can't defend themselves.
The story portrays the hardships of life on the land, the treatment of Aboriginals, and also covers the 'Stolen Children' and the way them and their parents were treated by the state.
A truly wonderful book that is also heart-wrenching, even more so as it's based on an actual person though set in fiction.
A must-read for every Bryce Courtenay fan.

Favorite book I’ve read in a long time. Completely captivated by the story, couldn’t put it down until I reached the end, and then cried when it was over! Beautiful writing, and very educational as well. Can’t wait to read others by this author.