05 August 2009

"Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It (Moon, #1) Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Genre: young adult fiction
From my TBR list?: Yes

Book #1 of a trilogy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Even though this book deals with the aftermath of a fantastical natural disaster, I wouldn't call it sci-fi. It is more about how family members cope when all they have to rely on is each other. For me, it brought up the question of how I would react in a similar situation.

The author doesn't sugarcoat events as much as I would have expected in a young adult novel. There are deaths and bad behavior, and the main character Miranda isn't exactly a Pollyanna. There isn't a magical ending, either, that would make everyone live happily ever after. My 16-year-old daughter couldn't finish the book because she kept crying and she isn't an overly emotional girl. That is a testament to Pfeffer's storytelling; she made us both feel like the situation in the book could really occur.

I didn't find out that this was the first book in a planned trilogy until until after I finished it. My policy is to wait until all books in a trilogy have been published before I start reading. If you are like me, then you may want to wait until April 2010 when the third book, "This World We Live In", is published. However, I think that this book is wrapped up in such a manner that it will be nice to revisit these characters next year, but I'm not tearing my hair out wondering what happened.


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4 comments:

Kelly @ IdealistMom.com said...

I wasn't a huge fan of the next in this series, The Dead and the Gone, so I'll probably cut my losses and move onto other TBRs. But I did really enjoy this first book, so go figure! Kelly from yannabe.com

Dani In NC said...

Kelly, I read the description of "The Dead and the Gone" and it didn't appeal to me. If it was continuing with the characters from the first book, then I might add it to my TBR list. I'm waiting for the third book because I've heard that it combines characters from the first two books.

Kelly @ IdealistMom.com said...

Ah, I didn't know that about the 3rd book. I might check it out then! Kelly from yannabe.com

Sandra Stiles said...

I have heard good and bad things about the second book which is on my desk in one of many TBR piles. I think I will reserve judgement until I have read it. Hopefully that will be in the next 2 weeks.