Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

I’m not going to review this book – it has been review so many times in the past 18 years since it was published that I’m sure you could find someone far more capable than I to tell you how good this book is. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the series and then passing them on to my mega-reading nephews. I meant to read this book when it first was published in the early 90s. I watched as sequel after sequel hit the book stands but just never picked one up. I recently saw the movie and was so pleasantly surprised by the storyline, action and dialogue that I renewed my interest in reading the books. And so far, I have not been let down.

I am interested in Young Adult (and Junior to a lesser extent) fiction. Good writing is good writing, in my book, no matter what shape or form it takes. I am interested in what elements need to fit together to make a successful YA literary novel. The primary issue is writing a story that is about what teenagers think they are about.
Let’s see if I can say that differently.

In the highly successful (go figure!!) Twilight series the protagonist is a teenage girl about 16 years old, who has fallen in love and is ready to give up her life for a 100 year old vampire in a 16 year old boy’s body. Now any 16 year old girl will tell you that it is possible for a teenager to fall truly, madly, deeply in love. As adults, it is hard to take teenage love seriously. I do have a couple of friends who met when they were in their teens who are still happily married to this day but as any adult will tell you, their relationships didn’t really develop until they were older and more mature. But a teenager does not know that. Stephenie Meyer has taken a typical teenage romance (bordering on a teenage suicide story) and thrown in a couple of presently-popular vampires and wha-la, a best seller. Anyone would want a boyfriend like Edward – handsome, broody, strong, master-protector who would never cheat or grow old. Who wouldn’t? But would any girl who found herself the amorous object of such a one’s love give up her life to join him in living death?

OK – back on track!! As you can see I don’t really think these books are very good. But, teenage girls love them. So, lesson number one in writing for teens – write like teens feel. And John Marsden does just that. He writes with a very authentic voice. Ellie is country girl – a strong girl who has all the foibles of teenage angst, teenage sexual feelings and teenage unreasonableness (is that a word?). The other characters are also strong and constant voices and develop just as any teenager would – they just happen to be teenagers defending their homes from foreign occupation. Their emotions are high and sometimes out of control but they stay in character and they seem real.

Lesson number two – don’t talk down to readers just because they are primarily teenagers. Marsden uses Ellie’s voice to tell the story – she is keeping a journal – and so the voice feels very true. He is really good at writing as a young woman would speak. As a young adult fiction writer you need to find that voice and keep it close to you throughout the process. Anything else and you will lose the attention of your reader. I know that every parent out there has seen the glaze come over their own children’s eyes as soon as they start to preach, instruct, tell off or ask them to do something. As a writer you can’t do any of these things or your readers will just stop reading. Period.

Lesson number three – if the protagonist of your story is a teenager, let them do something either really dangerous or seriously romantic. I have read all genres of youth fiction – fantasy, realism, mystery, action – all of them, and in all of them the main characters are super-human in some aspect. They either save someone or something, have special powers, link romantically with someone very interesting, or go on a fantastical adventure that tests their will and integrity. As adults, we can learn a lot from these kids in books. They kids in Tomorrow When the War Began do all of these things except for the special powers. This book is realistic but these kids have to live completely out of their own comfort zones and capacities to save their own existences. They link romantically together, they save each other, they care about each other and they learn that family is far more important than they previously thought. They fight, they cry, they love and they do it all while trying to save a way of life that they believe is vitally important.

Well, I guess I did sort of review this book. As I write this I am at the end of the second in the series and I am enjoying it just as much as the first. I find I care about these kids and I am cheering for them. I am also concerned that they will become jaded and sour. But that is the adult in me. The teenager in me is totally wrapped up in the adventure, the danger and the excitement. Give it to your kids to read and then read it yourself. You’ll thank me.