A review by jacqui_des
Darkness, Be My Friend by John Marsden

4.0

5-Word Review: (for the series)
Tense, gripping, suspenseful, teenage heroism

Memorable Quotes

"...surely the bigger the fear the greater the courage?"

"I’ve always suspected boys are secret pyromaniacs. They love lighting fires."

"I’d again made the decision that my life was worth more than theirs."

"I had the feeling he didn't want to know about psychological problems. Like a lot of country guys he thought you should be tough enough to cope with anything. He thought guys should have their tear ducts surgically removed at birth."

"I had the feeling that this was the most impor­tant thing I had ever done in my life, that if I didn’t hold him with enough love he would fall apart, or he would slip away and never return, not just to me, but to anyone, to life itself."

"I started to realise that it didn’t really matter, that love could overcome all those stupid misunderstandings; that if someone really loved you, they knew what was in your heart and it didn’t matter if you made mis­takes. They looked past your words and read your heart. If they liked what they saw there, if they recog­nised it as good, they’d forgive just about anything."

"Bushfires aren’t only dangerous while they’re blazing."

"That’s what war does to you. Either kills you in one go or destroys you bit by bit. One way or the other, it gets you."

"Death wasn’t on our agenda. We never mentioned the word. We thought we were indestructible."

"I just wished there was more room in my little body to accommodate all these violent wild feelings that kept screaming around inside me. I already had so much stuff squashed in there – liver and appendix and intestines and heart and all that junk. There was absolutely no room for feelings. But they still managed to squeeze in somewhere. Most of them lived in my stomach – a whole huge mess of them in there – but some kept crawling over my hands, and some stuck in my throat like I’d swal­lowed a doorknob."

"Even in peacetime it’s expen­sive to be the kind of person you want, to live the kind of life you know is right. Well, I’ve learnt this much: it doesn’t matter what it costs, it’s worth paying the price. You can’t live cheap and you can’t live for nothing. Pay the price and be proud you’ve paid it, that’s what I reckon."