Darkness, Be my Friend is the fourth book in John Marsden's series consisting of Tomorrow, When the War Began, In the Dead of the night and The third day, The Frost. The series is based around, when seven young people are thrown into a middle of a war zone. Ellie, Fi, Kevin, Lee, Homer, Robyn and Corrie set out on a camping trip to a remote part of the region. They find there way into a remote gully surrounded by huge cliffs and difficult vegetation, where they are completely safe and cut off from the rest of the world. When the Teenagers return home, they find that everyone family in the district has been rounded up and locked-up by army men trying to take over Australia. They had been locked-up in the local show grounds. After they had spent numerous days looking around the town, hiding from the soldiers, they go and perform a number of terrorist attacks to try a hamper the enemy's progress. In Darkness, Be my Friend the group sets out from New Zealand to help a small group of New Zealand soliders blow up an airbase. But without trace the New Zealand soliders disappear so the teenagers have to attack by their selves.
Obviously this book is about adventure and survival but I think it is just as based around emotions, friendship and relationships. The series is written as a dairy of the unofficial leader of the group and she speaks a lot of her thoughts, her relationships with other members of the group and her emotions about what she has been forced to do during the war.
All through the book I think John Marsden keeps a very good mixed of adventure, excitement and personal experiences. He looks very thoroughly in to Ellie's mind and explains exactly how she would feel. He makes the story that much more touching and believable, also he portrays the feelings of characters so well in a way that I would imagine people in that situation would feel. He does it so convincingly, that you can fully understand what the group went through.
