Tomorrow
When The War Began by John Marsden is a YA/Thriller set in a small town in
Australia, originally published in 1993. The latest version of the book was
published on 31 March 2011. The ISBN is 0857387332.
PLOT
The first book in a million-selling series. Now a major film.
The astonishing adventure begins... Seventeen-year-old Ellie Linton wants one
final adventure with her friends before the school holidays are over. Packed in
Ellie's parents' Land Rover, they drive to a famously beautiful camp in the
hills. Returning to their home town of Wirrawee, the seven teenagers realize
that something is seriously wrong. Their world has changed forever. Would you
give up everything? Would you fight? Would you sacrifice life itself? Tomorrow
When the War Began asks the questions you may one day have to answer.
WHY I BOUGHT IT
I first started looking around at Tomorrow When The War Began
I think a little after I watched the Red Dawn remake (pretty good film) and I
saw parallels and thought that a book series around similar themes would be
interesting. Also the series is HUGE in Australia and after Ranger’s Apprentice
it is always worth taking note of things like that.
WHAT I THOUGHT
I can see why this book and series spent so much time at the
top of the Australian book charts. The book has a slow start but given that
this is a series this is to be expected and my patience was rewarded with an
interesting cast of characters plus the slow build helps with getting used the
phraseology (it took me a concerning amount of time to realise what a chook
was).
The characters are great, we follow the adventures of the
kids through the eyes of Ellie and she is a great fully realised character with
strengths and weaknesses she feels a lot more real than a lot of protagonists
from books published 15 years later.
You see the emotions of the kids as their world crumbles
around them and you can feel their pain and confusion and it generates quite a
sense of fear. It feels like that could happen given the background of the kids
and the luck of having their hideaway which is nearly impossible to find.
This is the first in a series but it stands up well as a single
book though I defy you to try and stop just at the one. Tomorrow When The War
Began reminds me of all the best parts of books like the Hardy Boys mixed in
with Old Time Radio style serial adventures. So if you want a adventure with a
decent sense of realism with consequences for heroic actions then check this
out you won’t be disappointed.
2 comments:
This book sounds awesome!! Yet it raises the questions of why hadn't I heard about this book before? and we hadn't anyone told me it is now a movie?!
I will be sure to check this one out thank you Shaft!
I think the reason that people have not heard about this is the age of the book, it is 20 years old after all. The reason you have not heard of the movie is that it was an Australian production not an American one, I'm going to check it out later this week and I might do a review.
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