The Dead and the Gone
Susan Beth Pfeffer
308 pages
Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.
With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.
The Dead and the Gone is a companion to Life As We Knew It. This one follows Alex Morales and his two sisters as they fight to survive in New York after an asteroid hits the moon knocking it closer to the earth.
This book follows over roughly the same time span as Miranda's story and you go through the same basic events again, with the exception of it being in a big city rather than a small town.
Alex's parents are missing now, his older brother is in the Marines, where they aren't certain. It is up to him to take care of his younger two sisters, Briana and Julie in this new post-apocalyptic world. There is the same food problems, flu problems, epidemics, etc. as there was in the first book, only we get to see it all through the eyes of Alex.
I did enjoy this, but not as much as I would have liked since there weren't really any new big events happening, but rather the same ones in a different perspective. Alex didn't annoy me quite as much as Miranda, but he still had his moments and in the end was trying to do the best he could as a seventeen year old young man looking out for his younger sisters.
I think you could get away with reading either this or Life As We Knew It first since they are completely different stories (with the same events of course). Now, I am looking forward to reading the last book in the trilogy to see if things turn out better than where I left Miranda and Alex!
2 comments:
I haven't read this series, though the idea of companion novels intrigue me. But I think you captured a crucial issue in your review: how do you make a novel seem exciting when essentially, the story has already been told before in someone elses perspective? Great review. Thanks!
I still enjoyed it, but the main part for me was the excitement and general fright wasn't as bad since I already knew what was going on before he did. Thanks!
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