Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden

Reviewed by Brook Reynolds

This book is about…
Somewhere out in the wild, Ellie and her friends are in hiding. They're terrified, they're shocked and they're alone. Their world has changed completely, with the speed of a trigger clicking into place.
They've got no weapons - they've got no help - they've got nothing
How strong can you hold, when your world is full of people trying to kill you?
It’s the summer holidays, and Ellie and Corrie decide to camp out for a week or so in the district with some of their friends, to try to reach Hell, a place that's surrounded by towering cliffs and ravines, and dangerous wildlife.
Ellie, Corrie, Homer, Lee, Fi, Robyn and Kevin manage after some time of bushwalking and trekking, beating their way through the bush and the wild cliffs to find a track that would lead them into Hell. There they find a beautifully crafted timber bridge, which leads them across the stream and into a clearing. It's perfectly hidden, and when they hike back up to their car for more supplies, they can’t see their camp at all. Perfect!
A week later, they all return to Ellie's farm to find it deserted. The dogs have died on their chains, and their water bowls are hauntingly empty. The house reeks of rotten food. There's no note to explain what has happened. At Homer's it's the same. But at Corrie's, there's a fax from her father, from the Showground where he would have been for the Wirrawee Show. The fax reads that he doesn't know what's happening, that nobody understands why he's panicking. He says he's about to go home and rip up his fax, so that no-one will ever know how stupid he's been. Then he says that if Corrie does read the fax before he gets home, she's to go bush, and not come out until everything's alright.
Everything eventually adds up: Australia has been invaded.
They all do as Corrie's dad says, and return with all the supplies that they can gather to Hell. They plan the impossible task to evade capture and do whatever they can possibly do to free their families, who have been locked up at the Showground by the invaders from an unknown country or origin.
I especially liked about this book...
There's a real sense of reality to this book that I love. While the scenario might sound death-defying, John Marsden manages to make you believe that this is what's happening. Give the storyline to any other writer and they'll produce a story where Homer's a boy scout, Lee's an Aboriginal who knows all about bush tucker, Ellie's the favourite daughter of an army general who's taught her all about war and tactics... But that's not the way it is. These are real people with real personalities, real ideas and real faults, just like real life stories. I have explained this many times before to different people and teachers.
I didn't like about this book...
At first, I didn't like the way the book jolted me out of the comfort zone we all create for ourselves. Australians like to see our country as different. Wars happen in other places. And yet, the more I thought about it, the more I realised we're not the fortress we see ourselves as, especially when you look at our neighbours - countries with millions and millions of people, most of them starving and suffering - and what they must see when they look over the fence.
That, obviously, eventually turned into a positive.
Also, the start of this book was hard to cling onto, stimulation wise. Other writers tend to get into the thick of the action very quickly where characters improvise a lot on what they are about to do, whereas Marsden likes to make the characters plan out what they are going to do very carefully, and discuss all the things that can go wrong with their ideas and plans.
Why I recommend Tomorrow When the War Began…
The "Tomorrow" series is not just a story about war. Perhaps even more so, it's a story about discovering who you are. That makes it a perfect book for teenagers, although I also know a lot of adults who love them as well. I can't really comment on what they see in them.