Life as We Knew It

Title: Life as We Knew It
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Orlando : Harcourt (2006)
ISBN: 0152058265 9780152058265
Pages: 337

5 bookmarks

The moon - not something that we think about very often. We all know that it controls the tides, but what would happen if something happened to the moon? That is exactly what happens in Life as We Knew It. Astronomers forecast that a large meteor is going to hit the moon. The residents of her small Pennsylvania town decide that they will celebrate the occasion by going outside to watch. Only something goes horribly wrong.

The moon suddenly becomes much larger and brighter, evidently pushed closer to the Earth by the impact. As can be expected, mass chaos ensues as coastlines around the world experience flooding and tsunamis. Weather patterns quickly change as the stronger gravitational pull makes volcanoes world wide erupt, even volcanoes that have previously been extinct. Along with the volcanoes come earthquakes. The world as we know it, is thrust into a deep winter. People everywhere are freezing and starving. Miranda's family has prepared some. Early on, they stockpile food, ration their remaining gas and oil, and re-arrange their house to attempt to survive the coming changes. As the problems in the world grow, so does the conflict within the house as everyone experiences some cabin fever. Will the family be able to survive the disaster?

Sometimes a book comes along that absolutely sucks you in and makes it hard to determine where the book ends and where reality starts. This has been one of those books for me. (Granted it doesn't help that the past few weeks have had some unusual weather). Susan Pfeffer expertly uses the voice of a teenage girl, Miranda, to capture what we all would be feeling if life as we knew it were instantly changed and all the things we take for granted (easy travel, fast food, television, even electricity) were suddenly to disappear without warning. The use of journal entries is especially effective.