K.'s Reviews > Darkness, Be My Friend

Plot summary: Now safe in Wellington, Ellie and her friends are adapting to life outside of war-torn Australia. All that is about to change. When they're asked to return to Wirrawee with a team of New Zealand soldiers to undertake guerilla attacks, they reluctantly agree. But when the New Zealand soldiers disappear without a trace, the teenagers must once again fend for themselves, and decide once again whether to hide out or fight for their country.

Thoughts: This is the book where the emotional toll of the war starts to show itself. Every single one of them is a total wreck, in completely different ways. For the first time, they find out what's happened to their families. As is to be expected with war, there's a mixture of relief and tragedy involved. This, for me, is the book that's about exhaustion and a degree of resignation. Yes, they're still fighting. But this is where it becomes obvious that they're barely hanging on by a thread, and where the darkness starts to embrace them.