Life as We Knew It

Life As We Knew It

By Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda is an average American teenage girl. She talks about friends, family and complains about school. Especially all of these extra homework assignments about the moon that all of her teachers are giving. 

Who cares if some asteroid is going to hit the moon? Stuff hits the moon all the time, but everyone's making a fuss because it's big enough that you're supposed to be able to see it hit.

Suddenly it matters though. The asteroid is bigger and denser then predicted and it knocks the moon off kilter. Suddenly everything is in chaos and the ocean is raising and volcanoes are erupting worldwide.

May 18th is  the day that the world as we know it changes.

Gas prices jump to five dollars in a day and in a week you're only allowed five gallons per person and it's close to seventy dollars. People are frantically buying supplies and soon the stores will be all empty.

First the power starts to go and then it shuts off altogether.

Ash from volcanoes is always in the sky turning it a perpetual grey. Some days you can't even see the sun.

Sickness sets in and medicine runs out.

There is virtually no one untouched by the disaster and everyone knows someone that didn't make it.

This was written in 2006 so the idea of the price of gas leaping to five dollars was a little more dramatic but it was kept fairly timeless in the sense that it's not set in a particular year and doesn't have anything that would make you think 'Oh, this is set in ___.'.

I am not a crier. I very rarely cry but both times I have read this I have teared up and had to watch something happy. There is character death in this book so if you are looking for something lighthearted this is not that book.

The book itself is only 337 pages and it's written in a diary format. It's target audience is 12 and up. I think that I had a little more perspective about the magnitude of the disaster when I was a little older then 12. I read this for the first time when I was 14.

The main character is definitely a teenage girl, especially at the beginning, but it's necessary to the story to show how it changes everyone either for better or for worse.

It actually made me think a lot about what would I do and how I would cope with all of the uncertainty and death.

There are other books in the series that are basically the same event from different characters point of view in different parts of the country. I haven't read any of them. I want to but I haven't gotten to them yet.

While this book can be sad at parts I still think that it's a good book that people should read. This author also write some very good children's books that I recommend and are not nearly as sad as this one.

I know I've recommended this to people before and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this book.