Tomorrow, When the War Began

That's not to say it doesn't have some good themes - but the author, in my opinion, did not manage to pull it off. What annoyed me most was that the characters were so unrealistic. I don't know - they said acceptable things and all that, but I never found myself connecting with any of them. I still can't differentiate between the characters' personalities. They all seemed to be the same, boring person, with no emotions. I mean, sure, they were labelled as having different characteristics - joking, kind, quiet, graceful - and Ellie expressed her thoughts in long, disconnected paragraphs about the meaning of life. But they were still very 2D. They just never seemed to me to be real people. And to me, good characters are real people. Also, I could hardly bring myself to read about the totally unrealistic, random and sappy romances that were dotted throughout. It seemed the author decided that so-and-so should get with someone, and that so-and-so seemed like a good candidate - and lo and behold, we have a pairing between two cardboard characters you can hardly relate to. It is impossible to see how they relate to each other. Somehow I just wasn't drawn into it. It seemed like a small-scale action story and nothing more. Usually, I very much like books with themes of friendship, loyalty, bravery and even survival. But although the book claims to express these themes, it does so in such a black-and-white manner that I was really not convinced. I appreciate that some people think that this book is one of the greatest books ever written, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'm just giving you mine. Disagree with me if you will.

I really did not enjoy this book, at all. I'm not a critic, and I do not mean to write a detailed submission on why I didn't like this book, so here is my honest opinion: For one, the book was boring. The characters were cardboard and the storyline dry. Most of the character's showed little sign of fright or emotion, making them ultra superior and boring. Unrealistic, random romances happened between the characters that led to sappy, romance-esque atmosphere. The action and thriller atmosphere was also bad, for everytime something thrilling happened, like a gun battle, or running sequence, a cheesy and un-funny comic relief, like someone giggling, hampered down the feelings of thrill and action. The dialogue was also bad. Many times in the novel, characters did nothing but talk about what they did that day, often in rambling, one page dialogues. But not all is bad in this novel, for the chapter concerning the hermit and his family was interesting, but no more chapters were anything more than that. In all, this book was boring, cheesy, had rambling characters, and pages that inspired no action or thrill.

This book stuck with me when I was a teenager. It felt like John Marsden had reached into my mind and plucked one of my fears out and written it as if I were Ellie (even though I'm male). I can connect with her and her friends and their situation perfectly. Ive read this book 9 times in the last 13 years, once on its own and then again each time a new book in the series was released I would start from the beginning. I love it. Its as simple as that. Now that I'm edging closer to 30, it still brings back that wonderful feeling of being a teenager in a big bad world .. but also that feeling of no matter what happens in this big bad world, I will survive and become a better person at the end.