Book review – “Incurable” by John Marsden

Did John Marsden need a bit of extra cash to help run his school or something? There was no need for him to write this book. I wasn’t mad keen on The Ellie Chronicles to begin with but at least the first book had real emotional wallop and a decent story and dealt with an interesting subject matter (a dodgy peace). This one is just tap dancing. It’s built around three set pieces, all admittedly very well written which show Marsden has lost none of his flair for action: a raid over the border, a hiking accident, and a fight in town with someone trying to kill Gavin. But so what? There’s no complexity, no point to it unless it’s setting up for book three. We find out a bit of Gavin’s back story – big deal.