Tomorrow When the War Began

The movie has been out for a while, and before I watched it, I re-read the book. The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden has always fascinated me. I first read Tomorrow when the War Began in year ten as a class text. My teacher at the time had planned for the assignment after to be about writing the first chapter of the second book, I quite proudly raised my hand and stated that I had already finished the second book and I would be finished the third in a couple of days. I was suprised by this as I have tried to read other books by John Marsden and haven't liked them at all. As always the book is better that the movie and although the movie followed the book very closely, the descriptive writing in the book made the images in my head easy to come by. I love the fact that the eight teenagers in the story have no idea what they are doing and even though there are no soldier skills to speak of in the group, they do massive damage to the enemy. The story isn't so much about a war, but how the teenagers cope with a war in their very own backyard. The nationality of the enemy is not known, which makes them all the more frightening. The fact that they speak another language and they don't understand English very well, adds to this fear. The main character Ellie is probably my favourite; the group votes her in the be the person who writes down their journal as to what is happening to all of them. The description of what is happening is so vivid, you can close your eyes and envisage yourself right there with them. Ellie is the first of the group to kill one of the enemies and she has to deal with all of the emotions that happen after - she does get a little nasty too. The one thing that I was dissapointed about in the movie was that they decided to leave out the story that is told about the hermit that lived in the same place that the teenagers are living in now. A place called Hell. All in all, this book is the complete package - action packed and with a little bit of mystery and love mixed in. The book first book makes you want to read the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. If you do happen to make your way through all of these books, after then come the Ellie Chronicles. The Ellie Chronicles basically is the story of what happens, post war. There are some really bloody moments through all of the books so anyone who loves a bit of gore should definately give these books a go! As I said, the first of these book is Tomorrow when the War Began - and it is at the secondary school library now! Happy reading! Carrie