Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Mitunes - The Rembrants' "I'll be there for you"

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Genre/Level: 12 & Up
Release Date: May 1, 2008
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 320

It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.


I LOVED this book.


I really couldn't start this any other way. Now I am going to tell you why...


Knowing the premise of the book really didn't set me up for what i was getting into and in so many ways I'm grateful for that. Upon reading a synopsis like the one above I assumed it would be like all those crazy end of the world type of movies like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow. I thought, 'Ok, big deal, no electricity, crazy weather, people running from scary tidal waves.' I couldn't have been more wrong about this book.

The narrator, Miranda is such a wonderful character that I connected with on so many levels. Everything she did seemed agreeable from the reader's stand point and never was I thinking, she's so stupid or unrealistic or anything like that. In fact, most of the thoughts she had or actions she took were things that I not only agreed with but would have done as well. (Or at least I think so)

The actual incident of a comet knocking the moon off its orbit leads to tsunamis and unexpected volcanoes, but I was so very happy to discover the book wasn't about people running from tidal waves or molten lava. So much of it was just Miranda and her family doing anything and everything they could to survive, even if that meant rationing their food to the extremity of starvation, using bed pans as their only means of going to the bathroom, transforming the only room in their house with a wood burning stove into a single functioning unit and those are just to name a few.

Everything in the book was so believable I kept thinking about it everywhere I went especially when I saw the moon. I was not only hooked, but so closely connected with the characters as well. I truly couldn't stop reading it, just because I needed to make sure that Miranda and her family were ok.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is that in a strange sort of way, nothing really happens for long periods of time. Now, of course things happen or no one would continue reading it, but what I mean to say is that the reader is enwrapped in the novel and Miranda's voice without the use of any gimmicks. Pfeffer never resolves to throwing in intense events just for the sake of keeping the reading interested. She doesn't need to because her voice is so great.

I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone, that's how much I liked it. The book is, of course part of a trilogy, though I believe the second one focuses on someone else in another part of the world. At first I found that displeasing (I care about Miranda so much!) Still, the more I thought about it, the more I am intrigued and cannot wait to experience someone else's journey and struggle with this catastrophic event.

Get your hands on this book. And if you've already read it I would LOVE to hear what you think!