Burning for Revenge

By John Marsden

Burning for Revenge is the fifth book in John Marsden’s award winning Tomorrow series. It continues as the diary/journal of Elle, the central character, and chronicles more of her adventures in guerrilla warfare with her remaining friends Homer, Fi, Lee and Kevin. It starts as usual in Hell, their safe haven in the bush while the invaders continue to win more and more land around them.

Plot Line:
By chance the group find themselves inside the enemies airfield. With some quick thinking they manage to destroy the airfield and escape by swimming down the river to Stratton. While in Stratton they are mugged by a group of Australian kids and Lee is discovered to be having an affair.

Language analysis:
The Tomorrow series is set apart from other books by John Marsden’s excellent ability to draw a reader into the moment. Although all the books in the series are introduced as Elle’s written account of events and therefore written in past tense after the events have taken place, they are also written in such a way as to make it seem that the events are being read (and the thoughts put to words) at the time of action.

John Marsden perfectly presents the personality of Elle who, though not an exactly original character, is effective in connecting to the reader. Perhaps the most convincing trait in the book is John Marsden attention to detail; not just in relation to the way scenes are so carefully represented to the slightest detail and the way that the reader is included in the big events as well as in the small, everyday details, but also in the convincing ‘padding’ that John Marsden gives to the story; the small side notes that, though not essential to the plot line, are vital to the smooth running and credibility of the story. An example of this is the way that at several points in the book Elle expresses the wish to speak with her New Zealand psychiatrist when faced with the moral battles of killing another human being.

Burning for Revenge, like the other books in the series, is filled with questions based on morality surrounding war and its casualties, and to a lesser extent to the other books, messages about what it really means to fight for a country and to deserve a country. John Marsden captures the heart of war and the people in the middle of it and puts it into words far more realistic then most other authors dare, or can do.

At first all the main characters in the book are presented as viewing the destruction of the airfield as a complete success: the airfield, by the time they were finished with it, was no longer operational and they sustained only minor injuries:
‘it was…the most defining moment in the history of the war’ (-Colonel Finley New Zealand).
Later on however, we discover the far less impressive and more horrifying side of their success as expressed through the character of Fi, who describes to Elle the extent of her emotional pain after being the cause of so many deaths, enemy or not.
The young Australian children who mug Elle, Fi and Homer, represent the entire lost generation of the war, the wartime children: usually forgotten or purposely not included in most fictional wartime stories, as well as the idea human nature dictates that even allies, in desperation, can turn on each other and be just as equal and problematic enemies as the original invaders.
The relationship between Lee and Reni, though not mentioned in detail, draws attention to the fact that the enemy invaders, many of which the main characters and particularly the heroine of the story, Elle are killing, are still human and not only similar but capable of the same human emotions such as, in this instance, love.

A downside to John Marsden’s attention to detail is the way that climatic stages in the book are often too long drawn out, distracting from the natural flow of events and making certain scenes far less impressed upon the reader then they otherwise could be. Despite John Marsden’s affective characters and well thought out plot line, the language used in the book is simple, making it far from being a challenging or linguistically interesting read. The characters also are non original and fairly basically stereotyped:
Elle the courageous almost tom-boy heroine who comes up with the best plans, is often mentally the strongest, takes the greatest risks and is the last to complain,
Homer the tough, macho Greek boy-o and the co-leader of the group with Elle, often taking big risks and allowing for the occasional comic relief, who falls in love with
Fi, the mothering gentle type who is opposed to killing, is not very outspoken and acts in a far more feminine manner to Elle,
Lee the quiet, smart and deep thinking Asian, occasionally cold and hard as well as a bit of lone ranger.
And finally Kevin, the least mentioned of the group and emotionally the weakest, opposed to fighting and risking their lives, problematic and quiet he finds mental wellbeing in gardening vegetables for himself and the others.
All in all the book is not destined to be a classic though it’s plot line does have potential.

Aimed at a teenage audience I would give this book a ratine of 3/5 stars.
By Clancy Fraser,
10E English.