Review: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

ISBN: 9780152061548
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Series: The Last Survivors #1
Released: 2006
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     SUMMARY

High school sophomore Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, 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.

     REVIEW

Life As We Knew It is kind of like a car crash you can't tear your eyes away from. It's horrible and turns your stomach but you just need to know what happened. That's kind of how I felt reading this book. Actually, I think I only picked this book up out of morbid curiosity.

Oddly enough, this book is set in Pennsylvania in a town not to far from where I actually live right now. Not to mention that an apocalypse of this nature is one of my biggest mostly-unrealistic sources of anxiety. In this book, the moon, which has been hit by an asteroid or something, the size of which has been greatly miscalculated by scientists, is knocked out of orbit and is now much closer to Earth, throwing everything out of whack.

There are tsunamis, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, horrible storms, massive blizzards, etc. Enter Miranda, young girl struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy when the world seems to be ending. I kind of hated Miranda for most of the book for not taking the whole thing seriously until shit got really bad for her family. I won't go into more detail because the horrible little things this family goes through is kind of what makes the book to begin with.

I'll admit that I didn't like the story being written from the perspective of Miranda's diaries. Sometimes I felt the scope was too limited and sometimes I felt like Pfeffer went outside that scope with her dialogue and whatnot which was a little weird.

This book gave me such anxiety and such bad nightmares while reading it. I think LAWNI is even better (or worse...?) because of how possible these things are. I mean, do I think our scientists would completely miscalculate the size of an asteroid or meteor set to hit the moon? No. But I think a giant asteroid or meteor could hit the earth and our scientists would know about it and the world would be in a state of absolute chaos and everything would go to shit. It's pretty terrifying, honestly, and I'm glad the book is over. I don't think I'll be reading the next few books in the series either because I can only take so much.

RATING: ★★★ 1/2 - Liked it!

Life As We Knew It is a chilling apocalyptic tale that is rooted in real possibilities, making things all that much scarier. It was bleak and scary as hell, but it was pretty good all around (despite a whiny MC). I don't think I'll be reading the next few books but I would recommend this one because... you just have to read it and find out for yourself. It's just too crazy to pass up.

Have any of you read Life As We Knew It? What did you think of it? Does it freak you out because of how realistic the possibilities are? Or are you completely unaffected by the potential of a disaster like this effectively ending the world? Okay, I think the real question is, am I going to be one of those people who absolutely loses their mind and starts eating their own body parts for sustenance if the world ever ends?

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