The Killing Frost (aka The Third Day, The Frost) Review

Title: The Killing Frost
Author: John Marsden 
Published: 1995
Pages: 278
My Rating: 5/5

In the third installment of the Tomorrow saga, the anything-to-survive existence of Ellie and her friends has sharpened their senses and emboldened their plans. They aren't merely on the defensive anymore; they're also striking back. Their strategy? Attack the enemy not just on land, but also on water. If they have any hope of sabotaging the formidable container ship at Cobbler's Bay, then stealth is a must, but so, too, is one very big explosion. And if they fail, they may face a whole new kind of terror -- imprisonment.


The Tomorrow Series be John Marsden is easily one of my favorite book series, and I've only just read 3/7 books so far! I cannot begin to explain how incredible and powerful, not just the writing but the story and the 
situation. 


A brief overview is: Ellie and a group of friends from Australia go on a camping trip for a week and come back to find that they town (and country) has been invaded. Everyone is being held in the Showground and Ellie and her friends must go into hiding and do whatever they have to do in order to stay alive agaisnt this brutal enemy.


This is only the third book, and already the events are reaching much more powerful and devastating heights than the last few books. The layout of events in this book were also a lot different to the first two, but I can't say anymore on that without giving anything away. One thing that I really love about these books is that, even though the whole series so far has been about the same group of people in the same general situation; it never gets monotonous, boring or repetitive. There is always something new, something exciting, or some shocking twist just waiting to happen! 


I feel as though I am there with the characters and feel myself growing and warming to them. They are all so believable and real. They also react like real people. It's not like in films, where normal characters can just whip out a machine gun and shoot at the bad guy, be the hero and be totally fine like that. They all have their own individual way to coping with the events that happen. 


In this book in particular, there wasn't quite as much character development as the last two. I think this was mainly because Ellie was on her own throughout quite a portion of this book, so it was more of just Ellie's development and thoughts. There was a shocking twist right at the end, that I don't think I'll truly get over, it was so sudden there wasn't any time to be sad! But that's another part that makes it so realistic! 


I think it's a crime that this series isn't more known! I highly recommend it! Though saying that; it's not for everyone. It's one YA book with no fantasy, (not a huge amount of) romance or Sci Fi, but instead follows this group of realistically real teenagers as they struggle to survive during a war on their country.       

The Tomorrow Series Mystery

A while ago I talked about the fantastic Tomorrow Series when I had finished the second book. After that I went on to order the third (the first two were only like £4 on Amazon). I found that the third, fourth and sixth books were around £70-£120 on Amazon! I was in shock, they were only paper back books, and as I said, the first two and (after I searched) the fifth and seventh, were only about £4. Ridiculous!
    I searched round, and found that out of the whole series, those three books were almost impossible to get my hands on without having to pay a hell of a lot of money! I found an Australian seller on Ebay selling the Australian versions for about £10 each including postage and packaging. It was perfect but I very (VERY) stupidly left off getting them until it was too late and there were no more. But I needed these books so bad! And as my birthday was in a month, I wanted to ask for them as a birthday present.
     In the end, I found this site that finds and sells out-of-print books which had quite a few of the books I wanted. Unfortunately, they were still pretty pricey, but just about affordable for my birthday. I decided on getting the third and fourth books and holding off on getting the sixth for the moment. The two books came to about £30. One is an second-hand hardback library book from Austrailia and the other is from the US with a cover that I HATE. But still, it's not about the covers, it's about the books and I now can't wait to read them.
      But I still can't get my head round the fact that the third, fourth and fifth books can't be found in the UK when the rest can. It will have to remain a mystery for now.

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.