Reviews

The Other Side of Dawn by John Marsden

ande13's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Very disappointing and anti-climactic ending to this series. I think the series as a whole was dragged out too long and the author didn’t know how to wrap it up so he just ended it, but threw in a lot of unnecessary details

like the female soldier that attacked Ellie at the top of Taylor’s Stitch… did she really need to come back into the story? Especially when there was literally nothing that came out of it other than a few more pages of random action.

Glad I finished the series, but it will not be a reread for me.

sammy_3003's review against another edition

5.0

The end of the war approaches but will everyone make it through and if they do, at what cost?

What an ending to a fantastic series! Some endings can be 'too clean' or 'perfect' but this ending sounds believable. Life doesn't just snap back to pre war and that seems realistic.

It was a great journey to see the change in the characters, their relationships with each other and also with the land. The series did such a great job of not only highlighting how war affects people but also the Australian environment and way of life. This was done scarily well that I shudder to think of it actually happening here or the places where it did happen.

The narration was also very well done. I'm not usually a fan of female narrators but Suzi spoke in a clear voice and distinguished the different characters well.

For those people who have read all the Tomorrrow books, you must read this and chew your fingers to the last page like I did. You have to know how it ends!

natahliagoss's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

jadeaway's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A

3.25

tommy1974's review

5.0

Ok, I've finished the series and I would give it a clear 4.5 to 5 stars. Loved it, takes "Red Dawn" to a new level!!! The setting is great, the pace is fast enough to keep me hooked in, the characters are great. I loved it, in fact it's depressing to have finished :-(

Oh and keep away from the film, it doesn't do it justice!!! They should have made it in to a TV series.

How I review...
1 star - binned it before half way, please don't write anymore!!!
2 stars - finally binned it after really trying, I mean really trying and I hate to not finishing someth....
3 stars - finished it but boy was that hard work on times, it just about hooked me back in as I was about to dump it
4 stars - great book but it lacked something, something, can't put my finger on it but.... something
5 stars - want more, more books, more movies about the books, more movies about the authors and the making of the movie, just more!!!

michellel123's review

4.0

Full-on action in the conclusion to the 'Tomorrow' series. Ellie and her friends are contacted by the New Zealand army and asked to launch counter attacks to help distract the invaders from the big final assault by the New Zealanders. While carrying out their attack on a fuelling station, Ellie is separated from her friends and spends the last few weeks of the war wondering where they are. Exciting, well-written, fast-paced, although a little hard to keep up with at times.

_rusalka's review

4.0

I started this series when I was 13. I have all the books and remember waiting for this one to come out. I read a few chapters, and just stopped. It's sat there ever since. With this year's series challenge I thought it was time to put it to bed.

I was mostly worried that the writing would be awful. John Marsden has achieved a sort of mythic level in my early teenage years. He wrote books about things no one would really talk about to us early teenagers then. While this series was more about the adventure, it still dealt with these pretty big issues throughout. I was terrified that reading him again as an adult would diminish this.

Luckily though, his storytelling and writing is still fantastic. It's an easy YA read, but it was a great ride. I can see why I lapped up his books when I was young.

Was it a satisfying ending to this series that defined my teenage reading? It wasn't terrible. I wasn't sure how you would end the series without being anticlimactic, but he did a reasonable job. The real thing about it was never pretending these teenagers will ever be normal again. They may wish and do normal things, but there was no "and now everyone's back to being 16 as we know it". That was my big fear and he handles it well.

So glad I finished this series, even 15 years on.

For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/

flajol's review against another edition

5.0

Marsden delivered the goods in each and every one of these books. Lots of action and adventure, and even though they seem far-fetched in the cold light of day, they are so believable as you're reading.

A brilliant end to a fantastic series. I'm feeling bereft now that I've read them all...

jacqui_des's review

4.0

5-Word Review: (for the series)
Tense, gripping, suspenseful, teenage heroism

Memorable Quotes

"When we arrived and they realised it was safe they threw themselves at me like I was a gum tree and they were koalas."

"Of course we all might have to deal with the deaths of close relatives—we didn't know yet—
but with Lee it was a certainty. We could still look forward to reunions with mothers and fathers; he couldn’t. Hope wasn’t part of the equation of his life."

"That’s what growing up’s all about, isn’t it? Not showing your pain."

"I sure personalised Fi and Kevin and Lee and Homer. They were the beats of my heart, the skin of my body, the breath that entered my mouth and nostrils. They were the beautiful friends who had taught me that love was the life-force."

"...it seemed unfair that I might get a bomb dropped on me by my own side. I guess if you’re blown up, it feels the same whether you’re blown up by your friends or your enemies."

"We didn't want to come and go from this planet without leaving a mark. Looking around me sometimes, even before the war back at school, I’d had the feeling that the only mark some people were going to leave on the world was a skidmark."

"Life is just so precious and strange and beautiful and sad and special, I guess that’s all I’m saying, and I hate to see it thrown away or taken away or crushed and destroyed."

"Of course in dreaming about the future I was really dreaming about the past. Sometimes it’s impossible to separate the two. I guess it’s always impossible. It’s like the future is a building you put up on the foundations of the past."

"Never cry over anything that can’t cry over you,"

"Some things end. But war never does."

"I don’t want to be happy. I know I won’t live happily ever after. I want more than that, something richer. I want to go right up close to the beauty and the ugliness. I want to see it all, know it all, understand it all. The richness and the poverty, the joy and the cruelty, the sweetness and the sadness. That’s the best way I can honour my friends who died. That’s the best way I can honour my parents, who brought me into this world. That’s the best way I can lead a life I can be proud to call my own. I want to experience everything it has to offer: LIFE!"

trisha_thomas's review

4.0

7 books. 7 books and I've completed the series.

and what a finale.

I'm still rocked a little. It's hard to believe it's done. I mean, war - the lands have been ravaged, houses destroyed, people/families killed. We've had to say goodbye to so many friends in these stories, so much heartbreak and murder. These kids have changed and have had to adapt.

it's crazy to see them at the end - knowing who they were when this series began. It's hard to believe there won't be another story....

but I'm okay with where I'm leaving Ellie for now.
I will read her other series, though. I just hope she's okay.