Review of The Dead of Night by John Marsden

Title: The Dead of Night
Author: John Marsden
Published: '97
Pages: 288

So today, while at college, I finished The Dead of Night by John Marsden. It's the second book in the Australian Tomorrow Series, that now has a film made from the first book.
    Here's a brief description of the story. It's told from the point of view of Ellie, a (by my guess) 17 year old girl living in a small town in Australia. Her and six of her friends -Homer, Fi, Corrie, Kevin, Lee and Robyn- go on a camping trip for a week and come back to find that their country has been invaded and everyone in their town has been captured and held in the Showground. Throughout the book, Ellie and her friends must struggle to survive by keeping out of sight of the trigger-happy soldiers, as they try to make some kind of impact agaisnt them.
    The thing I love so much about this series is how realistic it is. The characters are real. They are not just typical stereotype teenagers, nor typical emotionless heroes that you find in a lot of these types of stories. They react like how I would imagine anyone of us in that situation would and they think through their problems and plans carefully instead of going in with guns blazing.
     This book was a lot grittier to the first, there was more violence and sex, which makes me wonder what parents would think about their children reading this book, as I know that some schools have assigned it as reading (a brilliant choice in my opinion). There weren't quite as many action sequences or character development as I would have liked to have seen, but it was still a very enjoyable read. Exciting and heart-breaking. It starts of with a bang and ends with a bang (literally), with a fair few bangs in the middle. Note how I'm using the word bang to try and not give anything away. I'm so looking forward to the next.
    My problem is getting my hands of the next. The series has seven books altogether, and I'm only able to get books 1,2,5 and 7. For some odd reason, I'm not able to find books 3,4 and 6. It seems as though they are not available for purchase in this country, which I find very strange. But alas, I found the books selling on Ebay, in a different cover, from Australia. So I'm going to put in a bid for those and see if I can get it. Because I really can't wait to see what happens to Ellie and her friends.