Titles:
Tomorrow, When the War Began
The Dead of Night
A Killing Frost
Author: John Marsden [website]
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Purchased
Parental Warning: war, physical violence, emotional abuse, language, sexuality

“She picked up the phone and handed it to me.  I turned it to ‘Talk’ and started pressing numbers, then realised that I’d heard no dial tome.  I held it closer to my ear.  There was nothing.  I felt a new kind of fear now; a kind of fear I hadn’t even known about before.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Book 1 –
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.

Book 2 –
A few months after the first fighter jets landed in their own backyard, Ellie and her five terrified but defiant friends struggle to survive amid a baffling conflict.  Their families are unreachable; the mountains are now their home.

When two of them fall behind enemy lines, Ellie knows what must happen next:  a rescue mission.  Homer, the strongest and most unpredictable among them , is the one to take charge.  While others have their doubts about his abilities, Homer has no choice but to prove them wrong — or risk losing everything to the enemy.

Book 3 -
The anything-to-survive- existence of Ellie and her friends has sharpened their senses and emboldened their plans.  They aren’t merely on the defensive anymore — they’re also fighting back.  Their strategy?  Attack the enemy not just on land, but also on water.  If they have any hope of sabotaging the formidable containership at Cobbler’s Bay, then they’ll need stealth…and one very big explosion.

And if they fail, they may face a whole new kind of terror — imprisonment.

Opinion:
What’s not to love about these books?  Honestly, I have to admit going into the first I was a bit worried that the theme of war was going to make it an incredibly difficult read for me.  I’ve never been prone to enjoying books that center themselves around the ravages of war and it’s aftermath, but these books have treated the subject with such realism and clarity that I immediately learned that there wasn’t anything to worry about.  Marsden has a way of showcasing the events surrounding both the invasion and occupation that don’t focus specifically on violence.  Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely explosions, mistreatment of towns people, and all the types of nefarious activity that one would expect from occupying forces but it is in no way glorified.  It is neither excessive nor present in the story just for the sake of being there.  These elements are central characters in themselves but are the foundation upon which the larger whole is built upon and around.

I’ll say it again, even at the risk of sounding a bit fangirlish, Marsden is a superior story teller.  He paints such a vivid portrait of what it is like for the children of war that I was instantly absorbed into their lives.  I was rooting for Ellie and Homer, their friends and families.  Though I was not naive enough to think all would be well and the end of each book would tie everything up in a nice pretty package I do think Marsden did a wonderful job of threading the events so that there was a level of satisfaction with the end of one book while still leaving the door open enough to lead into the next.  These cliffhangers were genuine “oh no he didn’t” moments that made me want to rush right into the next book without wasting any time.

The most important aspect of these  books, what makes them so hard to resist, is how  Marsden has built his cadre of characters.  All are typical teenagers with no truly special qualities as they set out on their camping trip.  They have crushes, the debate drinking, and they succumb to peer pressure.  It isn’t until they are thrown into the extraordinary circumstances of war that that we see each of them rise to the occasion and become the dynamic individuals they were destined to be.  Leaders, risk takers, compassion filled caretakers each member of the crew learn to live their lives in the bush of Australia while formulating how to best overcome the occupying forces.  I found myself so enamored of each character despite their strengths and weaknesses that I felt each and every emotion right along with them.  That was an amazing feat to accomplish given the depth, strength and heavy subject matter of the story as a whole.

If you can’t already tell, I strongly encourage everyone to read these books.  They are so wonderful and compelling it would be a shame for you to miss out on the experience they provide.  I know I’ll be diving into book four during the month of April!