Tomorrow, When the War Began

In the spirit of my friend Monica, I'm going to write a book review, of sorts.  I just spent several weeks reading a series of books, and I want to talk about them a little.

A couple of weeks ago we watched a movie on Netflix instant play.  I wanted something easy and fun, so we chose one that was billed as an Australian version of Red Dawn.  I saw the original Red Dawn (you know, the 1984 one with Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze?) years ago on a first date, and I don't remember much of it.  About a year ago, Karl and I saw the updated Red Dawn 2012 with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson (yes, really!)  It was actually pretty good.

So we watched this Red Dawn knockoff called Tomorrow, When the War Began.  And it was really good, much better than either of the Red Dawn movies.  The kids were much more interesting and well-drawn, and the plot had plenty of excitement.  Although the reviews warned that the movie is extremely violent, we didn't find it so.  There is one scene where people, um, catch on fire, that was a bit grim, but I saw it coming, and it wasn't nearly so bad as I'd feared it would be.

The premise of the movie is that a group of Australian teens head out on a camping trip, and while they're merrily splashing in the creek and making eyes at each other, their country is invaded.  They return to empty houses, soldiers, and danger everywhere.  So of course they decide to go on the offensive and become guerilla warriors.  In Red Dawn, the kids in a similar situation called themselves the "Wolverines," after their school mascot.  I call the "Tomorrow" kids the Wombats.

The movie was quite exciting, and ended, not like Red Dawn, with the end of the war, but with the beginning of it.  So, of course, we wanted more.  Sadly, it was the only movie made.  But there are books!  

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first of seven books in a series, and I blasted through all of them.  They are taut, gritty and incredibly realistic.  The author, John Marsden, creates such lifelike, detailed characters.  In the midst of a cracking good plot, he shows us the characters' feelings and reactions to their horrible situation in ways that really made me think about the psychological effects of war, the things you don't think about, like boredom, spiritual angst, relationships during conflict, life-or-death decisions, consequences.  The other cool aspect of these books, is that they are loaded with tidbits about rural Australian life.  There is even a glossary of Australian slang in the beginning of the books, which I referred to often in reading.  I found myself reading these in an accent!

I'm not generally a fan of "teen fiction" to say the least, but these books were fantastic.  My only complaint, and it's a big one, is the ending.  I wanted the war to end with a bang, preferably a huge explosion caused by the Wombats, who blow a lot of stuff up, but it ended with rather a whimper, and all the great character development that I loved in the first 6 1/2 books kind of fizzled out in the last one.  However, I still highly recommend the Tomorrow series.  I loved it.