Customer Reviews

Incurable (Ellie Chronicles)

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John Marsden's misguided follow-up series to the brilliant Tomorrow books takes another disappointing turn in Incurable.

The friendships, suspense, drama and passion of Marsden's original series of war stories has all but gone in the Ellie Chronicles, as the author has abandoned his characters and replaced them with what could essentially be summed up as a story about cattle farming and the world's most unlikeable child.

Once again I struggled to make it through the first part of the book, which consisted of endless pages about running a cattle farm. It was mundane, it was too detailed, and it was not what I signed up for when I began reading the Tomorrow books back in the early Nineties. John Marsden lives on a farm, and it seems he is so fascinated with his own life he feels the need to share it all with us through his characters. Unfortunately, it just isn't that interesting. Once again I found myself wishing Marsden had been able to let go of his story and leave it where it should have been left - at the conclusion of the war.

Worst of all, Ellie - brave, heroic Ellie - has become boring. And stupid. She spends the entire book running around and fussing over Gavin - the violent, stubborn, selfish and hopeless child Marsden introduced towards the end of the Tomorrow series, and now essentially the only other character in the story.

I wish John Marsden would explain why he felt the need to ever introduce the younger children at all, but especially why he decided to do away with the brilliant characters of the past and replace them with this utterly unlikeable child. Where in the past the action came from the war and from the struggle of Ellie and her friends to save their country, now it stems completely from Gavin's incompetence.

Gavin sneaks over the border, which forces Ellie to risk her life to find him, and then he nearly kills Ellie and her friends by firing a gun at them by accident. Gavin is sent home from his friend's place for mutilating an animal, and Ellie decides it would be easier just to overlook the situation - you know, because she loves him anyway. In the most pointless moment of the entire series (which is simply Marsden padding out an empty story), Gavin falls off a cliff, leading to Ellie risking her life to climb down and save him. Then Gavin goes to see his family, which leads to Ellie being chased by a murderer. The murderer is almost successful in killing both Ellie and Gavin because of Gavin's incompetence in that situation too.

Gavin, Gavin, Gavin, Gavin.

The child has no redeeming qualities, no likeable qualities. None. We are being force fed gigantic ladles of Gavin, and we are expected to enjoy it - because once or twice Ellie mentions that she really does like him, despite all of the bad stuff.

I'm sorry Mr Marsden, but that simply is not enough.

Perhaps most upsetting is Ellie's newfound blasé attitude towards her friends, and her sometimes boyfriend(s). It is out of character and it feels like Mr Marsden is betraying his strong group of friends by turning them into a bunch of dithering - and very distant - idiots. It really seems Marsden does not realise we read the Tomorrow books for the friendships, not the child rearing. He would do well to remember his target audience. The writing is getting sloppy, and Mr Marsden seems bored with his own story. The repetition is annoying - the same words (some of them offensive to me) pop up every few sentences. It just doesn't feel like the same person wrote this new series.

Worst of all, the action is completely unconnected to the war and the continuing struggle for independence. It is all erroneous rubbish because Marsden - for some unknown reason - feels the need to go on drawing out a story that is long past its use by date.

If you enjoyed the Tomorrow series, please leave it at that. Nothing about the Ellie books is similar. These days when Ellie is in a life or death situation she goes off on speculative tangents that last for pages and pages. By the time we get back to finding out if she is going to survive her latest brush with death we have forgotten why she was there in the first place. And more time is devoted to describing the dull details of life on the farm than is to the Liberation movement.

I made the colossal mistake of purchasing all of the Ellie books, and so have read through to the end of the series, but in all honesty I wish I had stopped back when the war ended.

What was a series about teenagers surviving the invasion of their country on their own has turned into a story about farming and an insufferable child.

There is nothing to like here. If I had never read the Tomorrow series I would not have finished this book. I only kept reading because I hoped for #1 a plot (like the others had) and #2 the return of all the characters I knew and loved.

Do not buy this if you are new to the stories. Definitely do not buy it if you've read the Tomorrow books.

I am so disappointed.

Gavin has been unlikable and in the way since he showed up in The Night is for Hunting. Unfortunately, Incurable was all about this nasty little sociopath. I miss Ellie. I miss her friends. I wish she'd turn Gavin over to family services so he could get the intensive help he needs and quit being such a complete drain on Ellie.

While different than the Tomorrow Series I'm happy to see that its been extended. It shows the scars that don't go away after tragedy is experienced by children.

I'm not saying that John Marsden is a bad author, just that as a story, this book was horrible. By page 115, I was still pushing myself along -- as if I was giving a new book a go on it's first page.

It felt like torture forcing myself to meet a page count: "Try for at least 30 today." The story was boring.

But his writing was good. He is a talented author.

But since when does anyone buy a book for the writing quality? I want to feel lost in the author's world that they've created. I want to love the story and that is where Incurable failed.

It isn't worth the money.

This book and the entire Ellie trilogy get bad reviews, but I think most people have missed the point of the trilogy.

The characters faced many adult problems while being guerrilla fighters during the war, but they never faced normal adult problems. Ellie and Lee don't know how to parent effectively. Most teenagers don't. Many reviewers complain about Gavin, that the books are all about Gavin. Of course they are; Ellie is the "author" and protagonist, and she's learning how to parent a little boy who's only known terror for many years and was a leader for children younger than he was for a long time.

The Ellie books aren't without their flaws, amongst which is some overdescription during action scenes. Ellie has always rambled in her descriptions, which is part of her charm, but I think this sequel trilogy overcompensates for the lack of action by making the action scenes far longer than they need be.