John Marsden doesn't pull any punches! But I like his way of doing it - it's necessary to make the series seem realistic, yet he doesn't throw them all at once, so the reader gets time to breathe between each new tragedy.I didn't like this book quite as much as the previous three, as it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong and it got to be a bit much at one point, but it's still a fascinating read and I can't wait to see what happens next!