Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 978-0-85738-733-2
Pages: 284
Series: Tomorrow #1
Type: Young Adult Action/Adventure
Source: Gift
Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Ellie Linton travels into the bush with her friends for one
last adventure before they return to school. Ellie and her friends (quiet Fi,
serious Robyn, best friend Corrie and her boyfriend Kevin, arty Lee and class
clown Homer) return to a changed world. While they were camping in an idyllic
hard-to-reach valley called Hell, hell has taken over their town and Wirrawee is
no longer the home they left behind. Joined by stoner Chris, the teenagers are
faced with a question - how far will they go to regain what has been
lost?
I have to admit the preview for the movie was the driving force
behind me getting a copy of this book, partly because it looked great and partly
because it reminded me that I read and loved this book about eight years ago. At
that point the rest were unavailable so I gave up on the series. Seeing the
preview reminded me how much I'd enjoyed the book and led to me tracking the
entire series down (even to retailers in Australia) and then asking for them as birthday gifts.
Having now reread the book I must say I still
find it to be an incredible read. Written in the past tense, the book starts
after the invasion but everything is revealed in chronological order so there is
a lot of 'so I thought' or 'that was before'. This is a really clever technique
as it builds the tension right from the start so even the relaxing camping trip
the characters take at the beginning has a vein of tension running through it.
The events are dealt with realistically making the book believable. The setting
is also beautifully described. I was a huge fan of The Silver Brumby as a child and this captures the Australian outback with that
level of imagination and detail.
The book is pretty heavy on characters
as eight teenagers are the main focus. Once the events get underway they begin
to split into smaller groups so the sheer volume of cast doesn't become
overwhelming. Each character is also really unique, and as they are described
before and after they become three dimensional. The book is written from Ellie's
perspective and, although she can be a little immature at times (understandable
given her age and situation), I really liked her as well as the other characters
and it was great to see how the events of the book changed them.
All in
all, this is an incredible read and I'm really looking forward to reading The Dead of Night.
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending:
10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Overall: 49/50
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I LOVED this series when it first came out - I read the whole lot at least 4 times. A GR friend of mine was reading this one a few months ago and I went to try and track down some e-copies (all my originals are in boxes in Australia), but they are so hard to get hold of!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your reviews of the rest of the series!
They are really tricky aren't they? It's so annoying because they are awesome books.
DeleteThanks for stopping by :)