Review – Life As We Knew It

Posted on by Heather

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

From the book jacket –

When Miranda first hears the warnings that a meteor is headed on a collision path with the moon, they just sound like an excuse for extra homework assignments.  But her disbelief turns to fear in a split second as the entire world witnesses a lunar impact that knocks the moon closer in orbit, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate.

Everything else in Miranda’s life fades away as supermarkets run out of food, gas goes up to more than ten dollars a gallon, and school is closed indefinitely.

But what Miranda and her family don’t realize is the worst is yet to come.

Told in Miranda’s diary entries, this is a heart-pounding account of her struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all – hope – in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar time.

My thoughts –

This was an extremely powerful book to me.  Pfeffer is an amazing novelist, and she makes the whole situation seem so incredibly, frighteningly real that your mind really begins to wonder if this could happen to us, and if so, how would we survive?… Would we survive at all?  And that reality, that terrifying thought that the whole premise of the bookcould actually happen, makes it such an intriguing and fast-paced read.  I truly couldn’t put this book down, I NEEDED to know what was going to happen to Miranda and her family, I needed to know that they were going to make it through and that eventually the world would begin to stabilize again.  I especially enjoy the way Pfeffer wrote the characters, I really ended up caring about all of them and hoping so badly that they would all be ok in the end.  I’m so glad I found this book at the library and I heard somewhere that there is a sequel, which I’d absolutely love to read.  Anyone know the title of the sequel?

9 stars.

Read Darcie’s review here, Amanda’s review here, Suey’s review here, Joy’s review here, and Chelsea’s review here. (any other reviews? Just let me know!)

Published by Heather

24 thoughts on “Review – Life As We Knew It”

  1. That sounds like a real page-turner and I’ve just requested it from my library system. After having watched what happens for a few days in the aftermath of a hurricane, I’ve often wondered what would happen in a major city if food supplies became scarce and there was no gasoline to get out of the city. This sounds like the same thing but on a much larger scale…thanks for the review.

  2. Sounds fascinating! I am so buried in TBR books that I can’t add it to my list! But I did devour a book today, so I might be making a dent.

  3. The second book is titled The Dead and the Gone. Supposedly it was released today! My understanding is that it is very much the same as the first – just different people in a different place. I’m going to wait a bit longer before I pick it up, so I don’t miss out on the impact. During the first one, I wanted to run out and get supplies! Pfeffer made it very real – she’s good.

  8. I’ll have to check that out… I enjoy books that make you wonder.. oh my what would you do if that situation arose! I’m trying to recup from college graduation (lit major) so my brain is using koontz to calm itself down from cram sessions haha I’ll have to check this out!

  11. I read this from the library, I gulped it down! It haunted me and really stayed with me for a long time. I can’t wait to read the second book. Or the third.

  13. Well, I ran out and got this one at the library and it was as good as you said. I reviewed it on my blog, too.

    Thanks for the recommendation.

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