Book Addiction

The Dead and the Gone - Susan Beth Pfeffer

pub. 2008, 308 pgs.

From the book jacket -

When life as Alex Morales had known it changed forever, he was working behind the counter at Joey’s Pizza.  He was worried about getting elected to senior class president and making the grades to land him in a good college.  He never expected that an asteroid would hit the moon, knocking it closer in orbit to the earth and catastrophically altering the earth’s climate.

He never expected to be fighting just to stay alive.

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It enthralled and devestated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event from a small-town perspective.  Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican New Yorker.  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.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

My thoughts -

While this novel is about the same events as was Life As We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone is a much different book.  It is darker, scarier, and feels more real.  Even though I really enjoyed the first one, I have to say that I think this companion is even better.  Even though it is a lot more haunting and troubling, I think it follows more closely what would actually happen if something like this did occur in real life.  Something I really liked about this book that wasn’t present in the first one is Pfeffer’s discussion of class.  The Morales family lived in an apartment building that the father maintained, but because Alex had received some sort of scholarship (I think), he went to a private Catholic high school, so the majority of his friends had plenty of money.  Therefore, many of the people he knew had no problem getting out of New York (it was stated quite explicitly that money and connections can get you anywhere), while Alex and his sisters were forced to stay behind.  Class differences aren’t often mentioned in fiction, and I definitely think that if this nightmare were to happen in real life, class differences would make a HUGE difference in whether you lived or died.  So it was nice to see Pfeffer recognize something like that.

Another blogger mentioned that he/she (can’t remember who it was…) felt that the overall premise of these two books was somewhat lacking because if this were to happen in real life, most likely some scientist somewhere would have predicted that an asteroid hitting the moon would have consequences for the earth, and precautions would have been taken before the catastrophe could occur.  I do think that blogger is correct, so I was somewhat bugged by that while reading this book, but I forced myself not to think about it and just focus on the story.  Awesome story, somewhat shaky premise, excellent writing, great characters… overall a really solid book, one that I’m happy to recommend.

8.5 stars.

Also reviewed by Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews.

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!)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

From the back cover -

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t know hate her from a distance.  The safest place is to be alone, inside her own head.  But even that’s not safe.  Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens.  And then she would have to speak the truth.

My thoughts -

Like other bloggers have said about this book in the past, it’s a difficult book to say anything about because the main element to the story is something that’s hidden from the reader from the beginning and not revealed until close to the end of the book.  The great majority of this YA novel consists of Melinda’s thoughts and feelings as she goes through her freshman year of high school a complete outcast.  Obviously, as the summary implies, there’s something very big that caused Melinda to become such an outcast, but this something is a secret she’s keeping from everyone, her old friends, parents, teachers, even her guidance counselor.  Personally, I figured out what that “something” was pretty easily but I have no plans to give it away to anyone who hasn’t read the book yet or wouldn’t be able to guess on their own.  Speak is a very engrossing read, Melinda is a painfully real teenager, and above all else, this is a really great book for teens because I think it portrays the way things can happen in high school very well.  I enjoyed it a lot, and best of all, it’s about 200 pages so I was able to read the entire thing in an afternoon!

9 stars.

Read Trish’s review here, Susan’s review here, Muerta’s review here, Stephanie’s review here, and Becky’s review here.

The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff

From booklist -

One of the world’s oldest stories becomes new again in the hands of a 70-year-old first-time novelist. The setting is a lush, freshly formed Garden of Eden, where Eve is just awakening to the all-wise, feathered Serpent who is her guardian. Nearby, Adam is being raised by a cranky, white-bearded God intent on seeing that His creations adhere to His vision. But the Serpent has something far different in mind for its charge, and under the Serpent’s painstaking tutelage, Eve begins to think and to question. Journeys with the Serpent outside the garden give Eve a breadth and depth of knowledge forbidden to Adam, who learns to fear a god who is both capricious and demanding.

Despite the Serpent’s strenuous objections, God insists that Adam and Eve mate, and the event turns into a rape, for which Eve is loath to forgive either God or Adam. Only later, when the Serpent changes form, becomes a man, and makes love to Eve, is she prepared to accept her central role as the mother of humankind. Even then, however, she’s still not ready to forgo her independence. Although the Serpent explains all the hardship that will come to her if she eats the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, she accepts the challenge to become a fully realized human, as does Adam, who, though lacking Eve’s strength, also yearns to be his own person.

My thoughts -

This book was very interesting to me.  Aidinoff took the story of Adam and Eve and completely turned it on its head.  In this version, Eve is the protagonist and we see how the events may have played out if it were Eve who wrote the Bible.  In Aidinoff’s story, Eve, who is creative, smart, and questions absolutely everything, is raised by the Serpant, who instead of the Devil, is actually the voice of reason, conscience, logic, and a wonderful teacher and friend to Eve.  God, on the other hand, is extremely pretentious, full of himself, requires absolute obedience and adoration, and is pretty terrifying to both Eve and Adam.  Last, we have Adam, who is depicted as a simple pawn in God’s grand plan, lazy and not too intelligent, a dreamer who simply goes along with whatever God tells him to do (including raping Eve).  In this story, the Serpent spends most of its time teaching Eve about why she is in the Garden, what her role is in the world, and about what is outside the Garden’s boundaries.  He even takes her exploring outside so she can see for herself just what is out there should she ever venture out on her own time (even though God does not ever plan on her leaving).  And when the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil appears in the Garden, it is the Serpent who carefully explains to Adam and Eve exactly what will happen to them if they eat an apple from it.  Ultimately, both Adam and Eve decide that they crave the independence and freedom that will result from eating the apple.  None of them imagine the crushing punishments God ultimately inflicts upon them for having eaten the apple (you know the whole pain in childbirth, difficult life, shame, women are subordinate to their husbands stuff).  Although Adam and Eve both considered the pros and cons to eating the apple and gaining the freedom they so desired, as written in the Bible, Eve is blamed for having coerced Adam into doing it, and the Serpent is blamed for having coerced Eve (thus, God turning him into the Devil), and they are all banished from the Garden forever.

I actually did enjoy this book.  I just found it so interesting to think of this whole entire story in such a different way.  Of course, nobody will ever know what really happened in the Garden of Eden, but it was definitely fun to think of things from a different perspective than what is in the Bible.  I loved how the story was told from Eve’s perspective, and how she defied the expectations held for her, had a mind of her own, and ultimately chose to be punished so that for the rest of time, people would be able to have free will.  In the author notes in the back, Aidinoff claims that this is not a feminist book, but I think she’s kind of in denial about that.  This is a radical book, especially to those of us that (well in my case, somewhat roughly) believe in the Bible and God’s word and all of that.  It is a huge feminist statement to say that perhaps things didn’t go quite as stated in Genesis and perhaps Eve isn’t the horrible sinner she was made out to be, especially in this patriarchical society that we live in, and especially for Christianity, which is even more centered in patriarchy than the general culture.

I can’t say that I loved the writing style, I got bored at times, and I do think the book was a little lengthy for its content (400 pages).  But I still am a big fan, and I’d recommend this to anyone looking for something a little different to read. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Such A Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss

From Booklist -

With her father imprisoned, 15-year-old Meredith thinks she could live out her high-school days safely, but when he is released early for good behavior, her security is shattered. A popular youth baseball coach, her father has abused Mer as well as other boys and girls. With strict orders that he not be left alone with his daughter, he is returned to the condo complex where she and her mother live. In contrast to Mer’s terror, her mother is giddy with delight at his return, and together the reunited couple plans to conceive another child. Yet in the shadows and stillness, Mer’s nightmare begins anew. This is a gritty, terrifying novel about a father’s abuse of power and trust, and the way two different teens, Meredith and her paraplegic friend, Andy, deal with that reality. Although not explicit, the novel is honest in its telling. Admittedly sensational, Wiess’ story is a page-turner that ultimately sends a startling message of empowerment that, while improbable, is extremely satisfying.

My thoughts -

I’m not sure when I heard about this book, or who I heard about it from, but I’ve had it on my wishlist since it came out and finally mooched it recently.  This is a very short (200 pages) YA novel that I finished in one sitting, so it is definitely easy to read.  Don’t let the compactness of the book fool you, however; there is real character development and complex themes running through this novel.  To deal with child abuse, especially sexual abuse, is difficult for authors to do well, oftentimes it ends up being overdramatized or underempathized (if that’s even a word).  Not in this novel; Weiss does an excellent job telling Meredith’s story, making it seem completely real, as if we were reading the true thoughts and feelings of a fifteen year old girl, terrified of her own father, haunted by what he’s done to her and what he wishes to continue doing.  Meredith is a brave young girl, as scared as she is, she’s dedicated to getting her father back to where he belongs (prison) so that he can’t hurt any more kids like he hurt her and her friends.  Weiss builds suspense up throughout the novel, building to a final chapter that tied things up pretty neatly, but did not feel false in any way.  I’d really recommend this book, especially for teens and parents of teens.  Or if you just enjoy YA books (like me), you’ll enjoy this one too. :)  Weiss recently had another book come out, Leftovers, that looks just as gripping and one I’ll be adding to my wishlist immidiately.

Rating: 9/10