Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book when I first started it. The format of the book is a diary. Each day (sometimes skipping some days between) Miranda will write about what happened that day, what she is feeling that day, what the others in her family or town were doing or even what the cat did.

It might not sound that interesting to begin with but then take into the fact that life as they knew it (hey, I see where the title came from!) is over and it gets a lot more intriguing. I really liked the idea of this apocalypse. Well, as much as anyone can like any idea of an apocalypse. I wouldn't say that it is my preferred method of the end of the world or anything but I like how it is explained. Keep in mind, I am not a scientist. I don't know if this is even possible to have happen but it sounded good when I read it. Basically, a massive asteroid collided with the moon and knocked it all off kilter. We all know how important the moon is. It controls the tides and.......all sorts of things (again, quite obviously not a scientist). So, needless to say, the moon got all jacked up and thus, the world got all sorts of jacked up.

So that's what sets the story but what really makes the story is Miranda and her reactions. I warmed up to the diary format because it really showed the way Miranda was dealing with everything. She dealt with it all very much in the way a teenage girl would, in my opinion. At times she was a horrible, selfish brat and other times she was responsible and caring. One day the entry would be about how much she loved her mama and the next day was all "I HATE THEM ALL!". I would say that is normal for any girl, especially one who is starving, dirty and feeling pretty hopeless.

It's not the best post-apocalyptic book but it is a really good one, in my opinion. ((If I wasn't such an Ashfall groupie, I would maybe have given this 4.5 or 5 stars. Maybe!))

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