Review: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life as We Knew It is written as the journal of high school junior Miranda.  Life in her small Pennsylvania town isn’t perfect- her best friends are bugging her and she’s not sure she even likes them much anymore.  One has become a born again Christian and the other one is really into boys.  Her dad’s new wife is pregnant and giddy and that’s bugging her too.  She wants to start ice skating lessons again but her mom wants her to continue on the swim team.  To top it all off, there’s this “moon thing”.  At first it barely gets a mention in her journal, but then her teachers start piling on more homework about the moon.  Annoying!

An asteroid is scheduled to hit the moon on Wednesday, May 18^th, around 9:30pm.  The teachers are all talking about the moon- even her French teacher- and giving out assignments about it- three different essays are due on Friday.  Why are they making such a fuss? 

When the big night arrives, Miranda’s mom makes a plate of cookies and the family gathers around CNN to see what’s going on.  Just before the lunar event, they take lawn chairs and the cookies out to their front yard, along with binoculars and a telescope.   Neighbors are barbequeing and it’s a party atmosphere up and down the street.  Miranda’s brother, manning the binoculars, shouts that the asteroid is coming.  A hush falls over the neighborhood as everyone looks skyward and sees it streaking across the sky, smaller than the moon but bigger than anything else they’d ever seen in the sky.  There are cheers when it makes impact, but then the cheers stop and there are screams of “Oh my God!”  

From Miranda’s journal:

 “But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore.  It was tilted and wrong and a three quarter moon and it got larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the horizon, only it wasn’t rising.  It was smack in the middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible.  You could see details on the craters even without the binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s telescope.” 

The moon, pushed off its axis and out of its orbit, wreaks havoc on the earth’s environment.  Tsunamis destroy the eastern seaboard, killing millions.  Terrifying thunderstorms knock out power sporadically.  It’s hard to get news of what’s going on.  Miranda goes to school the next day but it’s anything but typical.  Her mom comes to get her and they race to the grocery store with hundreds of dollars in cash, buying everything in sight that they might possibly need in the foreseeable future, taking purchases to the car then returning for more.  The panic is palpable. 

As the world changes, Miranda and her family learn to survive with few resources, no heat or electricity, and a dwindling food supply.  There are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in other areas of the country and around the world, with ash traveling for miles and blocking the sun, causing temperatures to plummet and creating an Arctic winter.  We hear about many of these things as information from Miranda’s mom after she listens to the radio, etc., making it a lot less terrifying to read then it would be if Miranda were seeing things firsthand.  

Miranda is forced to grow up quickly.  She and her family are strong in the face of enormous challenges.  They are determined to survive in a world that has become unrecognizable.  They do what needs to be done to take care of themselves and each other.  Miranda amazes herself at what she is able and willing to do for the people she loves. 

Life As We Knew It reminded me of The Road in a number of ways.  There is a major, life changing, worldwide event (in The Road, we never learn what that is- in this book, we do).  The world is gray and covered in ash.  But unlike The Road,  Life As We Knew It offers hope- the world will never be the same, but perhaps they can learn to live in it.  It allows us to really know the people involved (in The Road, the main characters are referred to as ‘the man’ and ‘the boy’).  We really feel their emotions.  It was so realistic, which made it all the more frightening.  The moon event, while highly unlikely, is something we can all imagine happening. 

I was totally engrossed in this book.  Among many other things, it made me think about how woefully unprepared we are for any sort of major emergency.  It made me think about our resources and the food we eat (and waste).   It caused me to wonder about the nature of our environment, the delicate balance we take for granted every single day.  How one thing, one event, can change our lives permanently.   And how through love and determination we can survive just about anything. 

This is an amazing YA book that I would recommend for ages 13 and up.  Kids any younger than that might be frightened by it. 

I LOVED Life As We Knew It and HIGHLY recommend it!!  It would be great for book clubs, especially mother/daughter book clubs (if the kids are old enough).  Please let me know if you read it and I will link your review here.  

Sunday Salon

It has finally happened.  Months have gone by since I was utterly consumed with a book, so much so that I read it at every opportunity and devoured it in a day.  But that was my day yesterday.

I was looking for fuel for the raging reading inferno that is my 11 year old daughter when I came across Suey’s 2008 Top 10 list.  In the number one slot for YA and JF (Junior Fiction) was Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  I’ve seen that title around so I thought I’d investigate.  After reading the description on amazon and seeing that the appropriate age was 6th-8th grade, I decided to get it.  My local library didn’t have it, but I had a $5 Borders reward to spend, so I placed it on  hold through their website and we drove over to get it.  

I’d told my kids before we went into the store that we were just going in to pick up the book and that if they wanted anything else, they’d have to use their own money (they are loaded with birthday and Christmas money but have deposited most of it in the bank).  I’m not playing the “I’ll pay you back” game anymore. In line at Borders, there were tons of gift books and Christmas clearance items stacked up, 30% off.  Things like “Animal Art” complete with colored pencils, and “How to Draw Faces”, and a “Rock Art” set with paints- just the kind of things my kids love.  And then, *cue the angels* my daughter saw a calligraphy set with markers of varying width- $7.99 marked down from $12.99.  She is fascinated by this style of writing, but I stuck to my guns and said, “You can come back with your own money.”  Having left her purse in the car, she looked at me with horror, but I said, “We talked about this before we came in, remember?”  I’m doing my best to teach them the value of a buck.  

Back in the car, she frantically went through her little purse to see if she had enough.  I reminded her about tax, which sent her into a frenzy of counting pennies.  I had to chip in 64 cents (I’m not made of stone!) but she was able to pull it all together, mostly in quarters, and she ran back in to buy her book.  The line was long so it took another 15 minutes, during which time I decided to open up Life As We Knew It.

I was immediately drawn in, but very early on I decided this wasn’t going to be a book for my daughter.  On page 5 a joke is made about a high school girl named Samantha.  Rather than call her boy crazy or promiscuous, they say, “Well, there’s always a man in SaMANtha” and then there’s a short discourse about sex before marriage.  So, no.  I don’t want my girl thinking high schoolers are running around having sex right and left, even if they are.  I couldn’t let my 11 year old read the book until I discovered just how raunchy it would get.  I’m happy to report that the incident on page 5 was the only objectionable sexual reference in the book (makes me wonder why they even put that in).

I told my daughter I wanted to look the book over a little more before she read it.  I’m not sure she even heard me as she was in rapture over her calligraphy kit and had already pulled out the pens to admire them.  “Look how cool the pens are!  Aren’t they great, Mom?”  I know she’ll value this little kit more because she bought it with her own money than if I had just put it on the counter and handed over my credit card.

Our next stop was the mall.  My girls received Claire’s gift cards in their stockings and were itching to spend them.  While they browsed and weighed the value of hair accessories vs. toe socks, I sat on a bench and read Life As We Knew It.  40 minutes later, when they emerged with their purchases, apologetic for taking so long and excitedly chatty about how they spent their $10 gift cards, it was all I could do to tear myself away.

I read in the food court while the girls stood in line at Chic-Fil-A and Sbarro.  I read while they ate and people watched.  I read while they applied makeup (“Is it ok, Mom?”  “What?  Huh? Oh, sure, go ahead.”)  I read in the car at red lights.  I got home and read while the kids ran down the street to rake leaves at a neighbors’ house ($1 a bag).  I read while my husband took the outdoor  Christmas lights down and asked, “Weren’t you planning to take down the tree?”.  I read as I answered, “Tomorrow”.    I read as I made dinner and while everyone ate.  I read while the kids did calligraphy and watched a movie and put themselves to bed.  I read as my husband made mad, passionate love to me.  Ha Ha.  Ok that didn’t actually happen, but I definitely was that distracted by this book!  I read straight through the news and Saturday Night Live, but started slowing down as I neared the last few pages, not wanting it to end.  At 12:05 I closed the book, teary eyed but happy.  

Life As We Knew It.  Great book.  Just make sure to clear your schedule if you decide to pick it up.

Enjoy your Sunday!