Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Synopsis:
Everyone knew at a meteor was about to hit the moon and Miranda and her family watched like so many others. But as soon as the meteor hit everyone knew something was wrong. The experts had been wrong this was a big deal and the moon was not in the right place. The meteor had hit the moon and knocked it closer to the earth. Miranda, a 16 year old girl living in rural Pennsylvania knew things were going to change but did not really understand how bad it was going to be. Life as she knew it was over. News of Tsunamis started almost immediately. The world was going to have to deal with tidal waves, earthquakes and volcanoes and no one had been prepared. Miranda, her mother and two brothers (one older and one younger then her)  prepare the best they can. The stock up on wood and food. And in their secluded home survive the best they can. This book follows Miranda and her family for almost a year in the form of Miranda's journal.

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780152058265

My Thoughts:
I am all for post apocalyptic fiction and a journal too. Win/Win. I liked the book. This was a journal of a young girl 16/17 and what she goes through in the months after the moon if knocked out of place. Tsunamis, floods, earthquakes the usual post apocalyptic fair. This is the journal of Miranda and also tells of her mother and two brothers. I can not imagine what it would be like to prepare for and take care of a family in a world literally knocked off course. My main problem with this is I w...moreI am all for post apocalyptic fiction and a journal too. Win/Win. This was a journal of a young girl 16/17 and what she goes through in the months after the moon if knocked out of place. Tsunamis, floods, earthquakes the usual post apocalyptic fair. This is the journal of Miranda and also tells of her mother and two brothers. I can not imagine what it would be like to prepare for and take care of a family in a world literally knocked off course. Lucky for her family Miranda's mom is quick to realize that everything has changed and she goes and stockpiles everything she can her hands on. Miranda laughs at her when she starts buying Thermal underwear in May but she is so thankful for it when winter sets in very early and very cold. My main problem with this is I would hope a mother of three would not decide one child had a better chance of living over the other two. Miranda seemed like such a child in the beginning and by the end she had grown up but I can understand her jealousy and anger. Her mother basically asks her to sacrifice herself to ensure that her brother lived. She had stopped eating just so her brother could eat two meals a day. Miranda implied that Jonny was the favorite before the moon was hit by the meteor and starvation, freezing and illness did not change this. Even when all but Miranda became ill and Miranda nursed them all back to health her mother asked her to just eat a couple days a week so her brother would survive. I just do not see how you can place one child in front of the others. How can you choose? Why would you choose? Would it not be just has as easy to hope all your children survive?  I found myself irritated in parts. I had to remind myself that Miranda was just a kid and the world was falling apart around them.

It is a well written book and I am curious how they all ended up, it was never said what happened to Miranda's  father, his second wife and their baby that was on the way but lucky for us there is a third book that revisits Miranda and her family. The author makes such complex and interesting characters. 


For more information about this book or the others in the series you can visit :
http://www.hmhbooks.com/lifeasweknewit/index.html

Posted in: