I can honestly say that this series is one of my absolute favourites. Unlike other teen reads that get boring or annoying after the first few times that you re-read them, this is one that never gets old.
Australia has been invaded, and in a show of brilliance, John Marsden never reveals who exactly the foreign enemy is. While some find this annoying, I think that it gives the story more of a sense of realism, and it means that no country or group of people feel vilanized by the plot. This is a book that any person can pick up and read and feel like it is talking about their country, instead of feeling like they have been wrongly judged.
The series follows the lives of a group of teenagers from the small time rural town of Wirawee that were camping while their country was invaded. Deep in the Australian bush in a wild and uninhabited place named Hell, they were safe and ignorant of the invasion. However, when they return home, they find that something is very wrong. They come to realize that their home has been taken over: their parents are gone; their pets are starved and dying; their houses have been destroyed and ransacked; they are completely alone.
They are faced with an impossible decision: Do they turn themselves in and be with their families, run back to the security of hell and pray that they are never found, or do they take a stand and fight for what they know is theirs? With determination and suffering, they do all that is in their power to fight back, but in a show of realism, nothing comes without sacrifice and consequences.
John Marsden's characters are brilliant. They grow and develop throughout the series, their reactions to the events around them feel real and true, and their longtime struggles with what they are doing and what has been done to them make this series one that will change lives.