The fifth and latest in Marsden’s series about a group of Australian teenagers who find themselves in the middle of a war follows the adolescent guerrilla fighters as they try to survive in an Australia occupied by enemy forces, while inflicting some damage on the enemy along the way. The five kids (who in the first book, Tomorrow, When the War Began, had returned home from a camping trip to find their country occupied and their families gone) have now become fairly experienced soldiers. Although the five are in theory backed up by adult soldiers, the grownups have been out of touch for so long that the teenagers are virtually on their own. Deciding that they have to try and do something, even if there is not much chance of success and even if it means being discovered by the enemy soldiers, the group plans to infiltrate an enemy airfield and blow it up. Miraculously, the group succeeds, and, even more miraculously, they all come out of the experience alive. Between the day-to-day struggle for survival and the desire for revenge that they feel, the personality of each character emerges, displaying moments of bravery, as well as fear, despair, jealousy, and even pettiness. A fascinating portrayal of the dynamics that occur within a group whose members are dependent on each other, this is part survival, part adventure, and part war tale, with plenty of undercurrents of romance and hints of sexual tension thrown into the mix. It is exciting, dramatic, and laced with violence, while also capturing the drudgery and boredom that is part of the group’s daily life. The contrast between the difficult lives they now lead and their former comfortable and peaceful lives as normal Australian teenagers is especially poignant. Something for everyone. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-395-96054-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful.
January 1945: as Russians advance through East Prussia, four teens’ lives converge in hopes of escape.
Returning to the successful formula of her highly lauded debut, Between Shades of Gray (2011), Sepetys combines research (described in extensive backmatter) with well-crafted fiction to bring to life another little-known story: the sinking (from Soviet torpedoes) of the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff. Told in four alternating voices—Lithuanian nurse Joana, Polish Emilia, Prussian forger Florian, and German soldier Alfred—with often contemporary cadences, this stints on neither history nor fiction. The three sympathetic refugees and their motley companions (especially an orphaned boy and an elderly shoemaker) make it clear that while the Gustloff was a German ship full of German civilians and soldiers during World War II, its sinking was still a tragedy. Only Alfred, stationed on the Gustloff, lacks sympathy; almost a caricature, he is self-delusional, unlikable, a Hitler worshiper. As a vehicle for exposition, however, and a reminder of Germany’s role in the war, he serves an invaluable purpose that almost makes up for the mustache-twirling quality of his petty villainy. The inevitability of the ending (including the loss of several characters) doesn’t change its poignancy, and the short chapters and slowly revealed back stories for each character guarantee the pages keep turning.
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful. (author’s note, research and sources, maps) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-16030-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
PROFILES
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
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