John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When The War Began is a story narrated by a seventeen year old, Ellie, who tells the story of how she and her friends fought to save their friends and family. It started off as an interesting read, involving the seven teenagers heading off on a camping trip to a place called Hell. At first it was exciting, but after a while it just continued to drone on without making much sense to me. That is my opinion but others may think differently.
I felt that the author was in a hurry to complete the book at the end as the most exciting part of the whole book was described in about 20 pages, compared to the introduction to the story having about 50-60 pages. Summary of Plot: John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When The War Began’s plot described the story of how seven teenagers went for a camping trip only to come back to find out that their friends and family had been kidnapped and that their town, Wirrawee, had been invaded by an unnamed enemy.
The seven teenagers undertake guerrilla-like warfare to try and rescue their friends and family who are trapped and guarded in the middle of town. Main Characters: The main characters are Ellie, Homer, Corrie, Robyn, Kevin, Fi, Chris and Lee. Highlights: The main highlight and most exciting part of the book for me came very close to the end of the book where Ellie, Fi, Homer and Lee decide to destroy the bridge connecting the main highway to Wirrawee by blowing up a petrol tanker underneath a weak structure..
Another highlight is when they first find out that their town has been invaded and that their animals have mostly been killed and there is no sign of their families. When they find Chris at his parent’s property it is significant as they increase the number of people in their group from seven to eight. Aspects of the novel I enjoyed: I enjoyed the start of the novel as you get the sense that it was going to be a really interesting book, because they were going camping in “Hell” and they had to go down “Satan’s Steps” and there was the story of the “Hermit from Hell” who murdered his wife and child. I also enjoyed how Homer devised a plan to rescue Lee by using a bob-cat to carry him to safety. Aspects of the novel I disliked: I disliked how in the middle of the book there wasn’t much happening except with romance which got a bit boring.
I disliked how the author didn’t develop all of the characters over the space of the novel as it made me think of them as when they were first described to me at the very start of the book. Recommendation and Rating: I would recommend this book to not many people as it was a pretty average book, (meaning boring), that had underdeveloped characters and didn’t really develop the plot very well, but if people like reading about teenage romance it could be a good read for them. I give it 2 stars out of 5 for plot and 1 star out of 5 for character development.
