The Dead of the Night (Tomorrow Series #2)

by John Marsden, Suzi Dougherty (Read by)

Overview

War rages on! The second installment of the internationally bestselling Tomorrow series is even more action-packed than the first...

A few months after the first fighter jets landed in their own backyard, Ellie and her five terrified but defiant friends struggle to survive amid a baffling conflict. Their families are unreachable; the mountains are now their home.
When two of them fall behind enemy lines, Ellie knows what must happen next: a rescue mission. Homer, the strongest and most unpredictable among them, is the one to take charge. While others have their doubts about his abilities, Homer has no choice but to prove them wrong - or risk losing everything to the enemy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781743191866
Publisher:	Bolinda Publishing Pty, Limited
Publication date:	03/26/2012
Series:	Tomorrow Series , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	7.12(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

John Marsden's highly praised series concludes in this thrilling installment that will bring readers to the edge of their seats and keep them there until the last page is turned. John Marsden is one of Australia's best-known writers for young adults. His work has received critical acclaim and has earned a cultlike following worldwide. The popular Tomorrow series has been translated into seven languages and has sold over one million copies in Australia alone.

Editorial Reviews

This action-filled sequel to the Australian import Tomorrow, When the War Began picks up just where its predecessor left off-and the reader will need to do likewise; for the uninitiated, the background may unfold too slowly. In conversational tones larded with Aussie slang (a glossary is included), Ellie, the narrator of Tomorrow, recounts the further adventures of her group of friends, who previously returned from a camping trip in the bush to discover that an unnamed foreign army had invaded the country, imprisoning all of the locals and laying sinister plans for the future. Ellie and friends here persevere in their attempts at guerrilla warfare against the occupying forces. Romantic relationships continue to develop, and perils of many kinds persist. In a subplot that promises to fuel still another book, the teens briefly hook up with a group of adults who have also managed to elude the enemy, but the adults' leader turns out to be as villainous as the invaders. While Marsden's writing is as taut as ever, the excitement of the original premise wears off in this installment, replaced by a less satisfying emphasis on the teens' maneuvers. Though it's still a superior adventure tale, it lacks the provocative edge and hard-hitting moral challenges of the author's very best work. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Scholastic will reissue the first two volumes in John Marsden's the Tomorrow series-Tomorrow, When the War Began and The Dead of Night-this month, and will feature them in its on-line summer-reading campaign (see Children's Bookshelf, June 8). One additional title will appear every other month. PW called the story of some Australian friends who return from a camping trip to discover that enemy forces have invaded the country and imprisoned everyone in town "a gripping tale." Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

At the end of Tomorrow When the War Began (Houghton, 1995/VOYA August 1995), Ellie and her friends were hiding in the bush trying to survive after Australia had been invaded. This latest story begins soon after the end of the first novel. Ellie is still our narrator, and she takes us through the group's physical hardships, survival techniques, and interpersonal relationships. This time they encounter a group of inept and possibly sinister militia-type guerrillas. The teenagers continue to try to keep safe, survive, fight back, and learn the status of their families, friends and neighbors. Regular teenage concerns remain a part of their lives, despite their extraordinary circumstances. Particularly well done is the growing intimacy between Ellie and Lee, as their relationship becomes sexual. Also fascinating is the group's introspection on their strengths and weaknesses-they realize they have strengths of which they had not been aware-as well as their moral concerns over killing enemy soldiers. Tomorrow ended with the group still in the bush, with no end in sight. Except for the loss of a couple of their friends, the group is pretty much in the same circumstances at the end of this novel. If you hope for a plot with any closure, you will not find it here. What you will find is a strong adventure story, a little romance, and an excellent psychological study. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

VOYA - Alice F. Stern

First published in Australia, this suspenseful series was reviewed extensively in KLIATT when released in the US in hardcover editions and also as audiobooks. Now, the volumes are available as trade paperbacks, and this is the chance for all YA libraries to get copies. The basic plot of the series is that a group of high school friends in Australia are away on a camping trip when their country is attacked and terrorized by an unnamed enemy. They become an insurgency group, doing whatever they can do to make things difficult for the occupying forces. Their parents and families have been placed in concentration camps, demoralized. The teenagers, making use of their intimate knowledge of their own hometown, stage raids and then retreat to the outback to regroup. The narrator is Ellie, who is filled with rage sometimes and remorse at other times. She is a realist, knowing that they have to do what they are doing if they expect to get their homeland back. All kinds of moral issues are raised. Also compelling are their feelings about each another. This represents the best of YA literature—exciting, honest, gripping. (Look for the final two books in the series to be released shortly—there are seven in all.)

KLIATT - Claire Rosser

Gr 6-10--Marsden picks up right where Tomorrow, When the War Began (Houghton, 1995) left off. A few months have passed since Ellie and six of her friends returned from a camping trip deep in the Australian outback to find their country invaded by an unidentified, non-English-speaking nation. The Dead of Night opens with a brief recounting of what happened in the previous novel; two members of the group, Corrie and Kevin, are still missing. Homer, a self-appointed leader, rallies the others together to track them down. They discover that Kevin has been imprisoned, and Corrie is alive, but in a coma. The teens continue their guerrilla activities and, by the end of the story, have lost Chris, another comrade. As in Tomorrow, Ellie narrates and keeps a written record of the group's activities and experiences. She is a fully realized character who grows considerably in the story. She is a thoughtful, realistic protagonist who wrestles not only with the brutalities of war, but also with her own adolescence. Her feelings for Lee are particularly well done. She wants to have sex with him, but worries about the complications that could result. These realistically depicted human conflicts make the book much more than just an exciting apocalyptic adventure. In the end, only four members of the original seven remain, but they are still committed to fighting the enemy. Hope is alive. Although this sequel can stand on its own, readers of Tomorrow will find it far more satisfying.--Edward Sullivan, New York Public Library

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