Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

Pages: 276

Intended Audience: Teens

Genre: Survival, war, adventure

Notes for parents: Scenes of violence and some mature scenes.

The Back Cover

When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they’re leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic food shortage and a secret crush or two, everything goes as planned. But a week later they return home to find their houses empty and their pets starving. Something has gone wrong – horribly wrong. Before long, they realize the country has been invaded, and their entire town has been captured – including their families and all their friends.

Ellie and the other survivors face an impossible decision: They can flee for the mountains or surrender. Or they can fight.

What the Back Cover doesn’t tell you:

This is the first book in a seven part series set in Australia. (There’s a follow-up trilogy as well.)

What’s good?

This is a gripping, well-written, fast-paced adventure filled with tension, lots of action, some romance, and even humour. The characters are realistic and capable.Their rural upbringing makes their survival skills believable, while their youth makes it difficult for them to fully comprehend the seriousness of their situation. I enjoyed following these typical teens as they rose to the occasion – developing strategies, planning covert sabotage missions, taking responsibility, learning about consequences, living in jeopardy, being courageous…and deciding to stand and fight instead of run and hide, all without adult supervision.

The main character, Ellie, is a strong female heroine, supported by good secondary characters. While none of the teens are very fleshed out, this is the first of seven books so we’ll likely learn more about them throughout the series.

Best part: The nameless, faceless enemy. No time is wasted on the politics of explaining who the enemy is.

  

What’s not so good?

The start is a bit slow since we already know what they’ll be walking into when they leave the bush. The format of chronicling the events for history’s sake keeps parts of the story a bit dry. It often lacks emotion and sometimes feels downright awkward when Ellie includes personal thoughts that seem inappropriate for all to read. Some readers may be turned off by the Australian lingo, but a handy glossary is included at the beginning. Also, the lack of technology (this was written in 1993) may make the story feel dated at first, but once the action starts, all of that will be forgotten.

Worst part: The end! This is definitely not a stand-alone book. Reading this basically commits you to reading the other six!

Recommendations þþþþo

Several other reviews compared this to the Red Dawn movies. While the idea is similar, this story blows Red Dawn out of the water as far as I’m concerned! In fact, I would go so far as to say I enjoyed this more than The Hunger Games. The action and danger is riveting, the characters are cheer-worthy, the peril is believable, and the setting is gritty. Definitely recommended!

Marsden, John. Tomorrow When the War Began. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.