"The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Genre: fiction, young adult, dystopian
On my TBR list?: Yes, since April 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. 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, and food and aid dwindle. With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.


This book didn't work for me. I was surprised because I enjoyed Life As We Knew It, the first book in the series. At first I thought I was judging it unfairly because I wasn't in the mood for a novel set in a dystopian future, but I also had the third book on hand (This World We Live In) and immediately became engrossed in it. So what was my issue with this book?

I think that the the point of view was the problem for me. Unlike the other two books, the story in this one is told in the third person. That made the book depressing but still removed from my real life. However, when reading Life As We Knew It, the first-person diary point of view made me feel like the events were happening in my world NOW. There were times while reading taht book that I would have to remind myself when I woke up each morning that everything was normal. My teenage daughter had to put the book down because it affected her so strongly. I didn't get any of that with this installment of the series.

Although I am generally not a proponent of skipping books in a series, I would recommend that readers skip this one and head straight for the third book. It picks up shortly after the events in the first book and I didn't get the feeling that I was missing anything.



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