Lost in a Good Book

I am not an expert on John Marsden. I don’t even have any authority to speak about his career or his books beyond a reader and fly by observer, there are plenty of articles and commentary coming out that are more knowledgeable than I. But I knew he was a staple in Australian YA and had written some of the most memorable books on the landscape and the most important books in my reading career. When I saw he had died it was a real shock. He was 74 so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but it still felt too soon.

I first picked up Tomorrow series when a friend recommended it in Year 7. The year was 2001 and I was thirteen years old. I loved them. I loved Ellie and how she was not perfect or powerful, but she was capable and smart. She was one in a group of teens who were caught up in a mythical war on Australian soil. From then on I was hooked.

After reading the Tomorrow series I picked up the next Marsden book our library had which was Checkers. It was incredible. Short, unassuming, but packs a punch and hits you in the face right at the end. I had never read anything like it. I didn’t know you could write a book like this. Reading Checkers made me want to do to others what Marsden had done to me. I wanted to write a book that lured the reader in then turned everything on their head at the end. I wanted to blow them away with an ending like that and a story so incredible.

I had always written stories and I’m fairly sure the idea of being a writer was in my brain for a few years at that point, but reading Marsden cemented the idea. I would spend every opportunity recommending Checkers to people and still do despite the fact it probably isn’t as amazing and life changing to others as it was to me.

Winter was another fantastic read, Letters from the Inside, and So Much to Tell You. Marsden loved stories with female voices where they had flaws and were difficult, stubborn, troubled, and in trouble. I don’t think I understood how important that was at the time but now I adored seeing these girls be imperfect. They were loving too, and emotional, and brave. They were human. That’s not to say he doesn’t write boys well either. His retelling of Hamlet was divine, and The Journey brought us the wonderful Argus.

Tomorrow is his powerhouse series of course. Robyn, Ellie, Lee – these characters were instrumental in my love of how regular people can make change. There’s scenes in Tomorrow that are so impactful that I will never forget them. These characters who are so human and so ordinary that are drawn to fight and make a stand. Like Katniss a decade later, these teens looked at the world around them and wanted to stay out of it but were dragged into it, trying to get through it and keeping their humanity intact.

Marsden’s school in Victoria was my dream school. I think I only wanted to go because it was his. I admired him as a writer and thought the brilliant mind I saw in his books would be just as incredible as a teacher. It didn’t matter I was a state away and rapidly aging out of the accepted age for admission.

The absolute highlight was finally getting to meet him in 2013. I did the long drive to Maitland where there was an event and got my sun bleached copies of my Tomorrow books signed. I was a nervous wreck and babbled incoherently and became tongue tied but got through it.

Prior to this meeting my mum got to be at an event with him where she spoke to him about my dreams of being a writer. On a scrap piece of paper he wrote a brief note to me that said To Amy, Take risks!. I framed it and had it sitting on my desk for years where I could stare at it.

Thankfully he published South of Darkness soon after because I got to meet him again in 2014 as I attended a literary lunch through Dymocks. It was super expensive but an amazing experience. I wrote a bit about it at the time and I still remember the wonderful chat around my table (and my first time trying spatchcock), while sitting in the amazingly swanky Shangri-La Hotel. I was feeling incredibly out of place and about fifteen years younger than everyone around me.

The final time I got to see him was when he came to the Sydney Writer’s Festival in 2015 and I got more of my books signed. His sessions about writing and students and education were amazing, and it was clear he had a passion for kids learning and discovering the world around them.

I am not here to say he was the perfect person, or writer. I was old enough to read about and understand the conversation about kids and schools, his views on a range of subjects and people’s views about his opinions. Again, I am not even remotely equipped to talk about that. I know he wasn’t the perfect person, no one is, but the impact he has had on the Aussie YA scene can’t be denied.

I’d like to think if nothing else preservers the Tomorrow series will. It could get readers to expand to his other books and start a chain reaction of then go onto reading authors like him and who like him. I started reading Alice Pung because John Marsden spoke highly of her work, and Alice wrote her own book about Marsden which I loved.

Authors make other authors, and they can change the lives of readers. And even if you were someone who only read his work, I hope his impact will stay with you long after. I know his books changed who I am and I will always be grateful of that.