L’Autre Côté de l’Aube (Demain, #7) de John Marsden

Upon taking Ryan back to Tailor’s Stitch with them, in order to take some of the supplies into Hell with them (and come back for the rest another night), they are shocked to discover that not 48 hours after their last battle with the enemy, who had been camping out in the area, that there is an entire new squadron out there, and not just at the top – but actually propelling down into Hell itself! The battle really doesn’t go well, and while Ellie and Co are able to defeat the enemy without any casualties among them, they finally realise that Hell is no longer safe, and they can no longer call it home. Two lots of soldiers in so short a time is exactly the push they need to leave their sanctuary and really strike out.

While they agree to Ryan’s plan for them to be guerrillas (officially this time), and help with the war effort by hitting the enemy behind their lines while the Kiwi soldiers attack them with all they have (for « D-Day »), there is one condition; Ryan (and the kiwis) take the « Ferals » with them to safety, because there is no way that Ellie and Co. can be guerrillas for the cause while attempting to take care of four kids under the age of 12. After some delays and complaints, Ryan agrees to take the Ferals with him, but when they go to the landing spot where they are to meet the helicopter they stumble upon (…and step on, in the case of Ellie) an enemy patrol that is also waiting for the helicopter, and they have to go for their backup plan, which ends up splitting the group. After Ryan and the ferals get on the helicopter and it flies off, they realise one small issue with the getaway… Gavin didn’t get away, and stayed behind with them (on purpose) in the confusion.

The team ends up holed up in Stratton for a few days, while they await the « go ahead » to head to Cavendish and do as much damage as possible. While waiting though, they find that they cannot sit still, and try to do some damage to the enemy motorbike patrols with idiotic schemes and limited success, before finally getting the go-ahead and striking out for Cavendish.

On their way to Cavendish, they come across a fuel station that is well-used by enemy patrols, alongside a railway that could be a secondary target for them if they have the time. After planning their attack, they wait until nightfall before essentially going for a three-pronged attack on the garage; Lee and Ellie take out a soldier and steal his clothes so that they can make their way onto the site and blow it up, Kevin takes out the power, and Lee, Fi and Gavin create a distraction to give Lee and Ellie the time they need. During their attack, things do not go well, and Ellie ends up separated from the others and on the run for her life – especially after she purposely gets the attention of the enemy soldiers in order to give her friends a chance to get away with their lives, when she notices that they’ve almost been caught. She manages to get her pack and make a run for the train, but not without being pursued the entire time by a rather pissed-off soldier, who is DETERMINED to get her and kill her. The both of them end up on a train and go for several kilometres while on the top of it, with Ellie both fighting for her live and attempting to sabotage the train, and the enemy soldier doing his best to take her out no matter what it takes. There’s an incredibly brutal battle before Ellie is finally able to win, and when the train slows down, she firstly takes the peg out between the carriages so one stays behind, and then travels along the curve the « fast » way by land in the hopes that she can blow up the track RIGHT BEFORE the train gets there and thus destroy the track, the train, and everyone on it… it doesn’t go according to plan unfortunately, and while the track IS destroyed, it’s not until most of the train has gone past and so Ellie is kinda left in a really bad situation in which there are a TONNE of enemy soldiers after just one target… her.

After being chased and shot at (repeatedly), Ellie is hit in the leg and goes down HARD, but still manages to stay free from the enemy soldiers until they bring out dogs and she gives herself up (rather than risk being turned into a pincushion, after seeing how the soldiers react to the dogs getting excited). She is saved by an enemy soldier for some as-yet-unknown reason and taken to a hospital where her bullet wound is treated and she is (mostly) healed, but still kept in a ward with enemy soldiers… who are also apparently prisoners. When things get a bit hairy with Kiwi bombings, and pissed inmates who are NOT pleased to be sharing a hospital room with an Australian, Ellie ends up being taken to what is basically a concentration camp, with a bunch of other Aussies (mostly males), who are being held for one crime or another, such as sabotage (from those who were working in factories, and purposely trying to make things not-to-scale so as to sabotage the efforts of the enemy) or crashing a car (which had an important enemy soldier in it). While she’s fine (…if a bit beaten down) for a while while everyone thinks her name is « Amber », when someone recognises her as Ellie – as one who’s done so much damage – she needs to get out FAST, and with the help of one of the other prisoners (…in particular a poor man who has just died of AIDs) she is able to escape, and decides to head out to the place she has heard her mother has been taken to.
(Side note: said soldier who « saved » her did so to save his own skin, so that there would be a backup plan for him should the war be lost to his side, he also lied and told Ellie that all her friends were dead… nice guy ._.)

Upon finally reaching the set of apartments that her mother lives in (a long with many, MANY other Australians), Ellie arrives to hear that the war is over, it’s done! She manages to reunite with her Mother, and they go back to Wirrawee to be reunited with her father, where she has to tell the horrible news to the families of Homer, Fi and Kevin (…though not the families of Lee, because his parents are dead and his siblings are who-knows-where, or Gavin, as she has never met his family) that they are dead. It’s not until she manages to speak to General Finley (no longer a Colonel – he’s been promoted), that she learns all her (remaining) friends are alive, and they’ll be back in Wirrawee soon.

The novel ends with Ellie and Co. together again, with Ellie making one last trip to Hell (…and being attacked by a rabid soldier that was left there since the last battle), and with her reminiscing over how different things are going to be from then on. They may have « won » the war, but Australia is now two countries, and will never be the same again. (hide spoiler)]

J’ai l’impression que ces romans sont devenus de plus en plus intenses au fur et à mesure que la série avançait, et au moment où je suis arrivé à celui-ci, je me sentais vraiment fatigué de la guerre moi-même ! Ce qui est le dernier livre de la série, vous voyez vraiment le point culminant des effets que la guerre a eus sur Ellie, Fi, Lee, Homer et Kevin (bien sûr Ellie en particulier en tant que narrateur de cette série). Le livre commence avec la destruction du refuge d’Ellie and Co., et les choses se dégradent un peu à partir de là… dernière bataille, et ils sont vraiment tous arrivés au bout de leur attache, à la fin de ce qu’ils peuvent éventuellement faire face (et pour être honnête, c’est un sacré miracle qu’ils aient tous tenu si longtemps, sauf quelques paniques attaques et pannes dans les livres antérieurs). Malheureusement, dans ce livre ? Ils craquent tous. C’est tout simplement trop, et ils commencent à faire des erreurs stupides, à se remettre en question, à faire des plans à la volée alors qu’ils ont réellement le TEMPS de passer en revue et de planifier à l’avance, sans tenir compte d’un plan de sauvegarde ou d’un repli.. .

Malgré tout cela, vous ne pouvez pas vous empêcher de respecter tous ces adolescents, SURTOUT Ellie, qui est plus déterminée que jamais à protéger ses amis à tout prix (peu importe ce que cela pourrait lui faire), et qui peut encore arriver avec des plans remarquablement bons même dans un train qui ne va nulle part (… littéralement pour elle).

Ce roman se concentre vraiment à peu près uniquement sur Ellie et son chagrin, avec son apprentissage que (voir spoiler)[her friends have all been killed from an enemy soldier (only they haven’t, because he lied) (hide spoiler)] et se sentir toute seule dans une prison avec d’autres « rebelles » (qui étaient loin d’être aussi « rebelles » qu’Ellie and Co. pour mémoire), grâce au fait d’être capturée seule, essayant de survivre et de garder la tête hors de l’eau quand elle se sent morte à l’intérieur, et comme toute la lumière l’a quittée. Et quand la guerre sera enfin finie et qu’elle pourra retrouver ses parents ? Cela ne ressemble en rien à ce qu’elle imaginait. Tout ce temps à penser (voir spoiler)[that she’d get to be a kid again when she met up with her parents, that they’d take care of her and she’d be able to forget the war and her trauma, even a little? No luck. She basically has to be parent to them (hide spoiler)].

C’était vraiment un roman difficile à lire. Non pas parce que ce n’était pas brillant (parce que c’était vraiment l’ÉTAIT) mais juste à cause de la difficulté du sujet et du fait que l’auteur n’a pas vraiment coupé les coins ronds, ou vous a donné des moments heureux pour alléger l’ambiance (voir spoiler)[aside from the little « Ellie’s friends are alive! » bit at least 😛 (hide spoiler)]. Le roman n’a pas hésité à aborder les aspects les plus sombres du sujet, et il y a tellement de choses à penser ici que cela vous fait un peu mal à la tête, mais c’est TELLEMENT BIEN FAIT et j’adore ça.

… j’ai vraiment besoin que ma prochaine lecture soit un peu plus joyeuse ._.