Book review
This is a phenomenal series… so good that I read all ten books in two weeks. I just gobbled them up. Warning – there are some (minimal) spoilers ahead.
I will try to describe why you should read the books – because they really are amazing and I want to spread the word – without giving too much away.
A group of country kids talk their parents into letting them go camping in the mountains near the town they live in during the school holidays. With some effort and fast talking, Ellie the narrator and her best friend Corrie enlist Homer, Robin, Fi, Lee and Kevin for the great adventure.
After parking the Landrover at Taylor’s Stitch they set out on a grueling trek and lots a sweat and tears later they discover a hidden glade in the depths of an area known as Hell. It’s doubtful that anyone else knows about this place because it is so well hidden and almost impossible to get to. They camp out there for five days and then return to Ellie’s farm where they find her parents missing and the dogs have starved to death. Next they go to Homers farm and find the same situation there. They know something is very wrong but what? They drive to Corries home next, she lives on the outskirts of town and her family is missing too. They wait till dark and sneak into town where they separate to try and find out what’s going on. That’s when they discover Australia has been invaded and their families are being kept prisoner at the showgrounds. They scarper back to the mountains (after quite a bit of action)but then return to create a bit of havoc, dodging bullets and fighting for their lives.
By the end of the first book, not all the original group remains intact and a new member joins them.
This series is one hell of a ride. It’s categorised as teen fiction but it doesnt hold back. As time goes on this group of pretty nice teenage rural kids learn the art of guerilla warfare – it’s kill or be killed, they learn to rely on instinct,ingenuity, guts and determination in order to bring about the turn of the war while striving to maintain their humanity. It wasn’t too teeny for me and I am well entrenched in adulthood.
The author, John Marsden touches on the psychological dynamics of survival in warfare, how they deal mentally with the things they’ve done and how that changes as time goes on. How the enormity of their actions affect they way the interact. This group of kids sometimes despise each other, keep a lot to themselves but at the same time they love and trust and need each other more than they will likely ever love and trust and need anyone outside the group.
Ellie’s voice is bluntly honest, realistic, contemplative, fair and refreshingly down to earth. BUT there are times when she is so contemplative, like during a vital moment when the shit is hitting the fan that you want to scream ‘shut up and get on with the story’ – and I’m talking pages and pages of contemplation – it can be so frustrating that you end up speed reading or jumping pages altogether so you can get back to the action.
There are other times when her brand of contemplation is just pure gold. Funny thoughts or one liners that had me chuckling for minutes before I picked up on the story again. Things like further along in the series they save a group of kids that they call the ‘ferals’. These kids show no gratitude but Ellie and her mates steer these starving, half dead kids towards the only place they will be safe for the rest of the war – she talks about 5 year old Natalie, ‘she was the one who would have irritated me the most, if I were Homer (Homer turned from sexist male chauvinist to Uncle Buck overnight); Anyway she irritated me. She wanted attention all day long. The moment she wasn’t getting it she started whingeing. That thin little voice wailing across whatever clearing we were camped in at the time got on my nerves faster than anything. Worse than fingernails down a galvanised iron roof. If I ever had kids, I vowed, whingeing would be the one totally illegal activity. Any kid who whinged would be sold off to Mr Rodd to be trained as a sheep muleser.’
A quick funny was this -‘they stared at him like he had three heads and a bright blue bum.’
… and here’s a clever – ‘But Gavin is too young!
… You know how adults are always going on about having an inner child?… Well he has an inner adult.’
And great stuff like this, ‘If peace ever comes back I’m making a vow: I’ll design myself special glasses. They’ll block out whether people are fat or thin or beautiful or weird-looking, whether they have pimples or birthmarks or different coloured skin. They’ll do everything suffering’s done for us, but without the pain. I’m going to wear those glasses for the rest of my life. In the meantime there’s a war still raging, kids outside my tent whingeing and less than half an hour before I go up to Taylors Stitch to take over sentry from Fi…’
Even after the war is over, it’s not over. The enemy gets to occupy half of Australia in the peace agreement and there is a secret teen organisation that jumps the border to rescue prisoners of war whose existence has been denied or covered up – and lots more but I wont spoil it for you.
There are seven books in the ‘Tomorrow’ series and then another three called the ‘Ellie Chronicles’. I have inhaled them like food or air or both. If you are looking for the next big book crush then this is the one for you. You will be in awe of Ellie, Homer, Lee and Fi (not that they are the only ones left) and when it ends you’ll be wishing you could start anew so you can live it all again fresh and new.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
- Goodreads rating – 4.04
- REVIEW – Paulette