Life As We Knew It
Susan Beth Pfeffer
337 pages
Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.
Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
Where do I even begin? While I was reading this book - even from the beginning I was not able to stop thinking about it. I still can't get it out of my head or quit talking about it.
Miranda is a sixteen year old girl who mostly lives a normal life. Her parents are divorced, and Dad and new wife have just found out they are expecting a baby. Her older brother Matt is at college and her younger brother Jonny is pretty average and has a love of baseball.
The only thing different is scientists and astronomers are saying that a meteor is going to impact with the moon. Everyone is excited about the event and some are even throwing parties while they watch. However, there is one thing that they are not predicting - that the impact is about to knock the moon a lot closer to earth.
The moon being pushed closer is causing major problems. There are massive tsunamis, brutal storms, and volcanic ash that blocks out the sunlight turning even the hottest of summer into an arctic wasteland. Miranda, her two brothers and their mom are left to try and survive this world changing catastrophe with limited supplies and resources.
I loved this - it scared the pants off me, but I truly enjoyed it. I have never read a book and felt so frightened or had the urge to go to every store I could and stock up and anything and everything. Maybe it is realistic, maybe not, but when it comes to things up/out there you never truly know. That in itself was enough for me!
As much as I loved it, Life As We Knew It wasn't without flaws. For a good portion, Miranda irked me a bit. I know that teens can be unpredictable and hormonal sometimes, but when things got bad I would have expected a more mature attitude out of her sometimes. Some of it I could understand, I mean, hello end of the world type business going on here, but other times I felt that she was being straight up selfish and immature. Of course, there were other times I wanted to defend her as well. All in all, she grew up a lot by the end and I felt kind of proud of that. No matter how she may have been acting or how hopeless and bleak things were looking, she never lost hope and I think that had a lot to do with getting her through things.
Life As We Knew It has a kind of drop off ending, but luckily there are still two more books to go and I am hoping there will be a more positive ending/outlook for Miranda and her family.
4 comments:
This one sounds interesting. I saw a review or a mention of it somewhere and put it down on my TBR shelf. Can't wait!
It seriously freaked me out! I think you'll like it, you might not like Miranda so much - she had to grow on me a little, but the story itself is amazing, scary, but good all the same.
I LOVED this series! I must say that I didn't find the other books as good as this one.
I liked it better than The Dead and the Gone and can't say for This World We Live In yet since I haven't long started it.
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