This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the first 2 books in this series, this summary & review will contain spoilers. My reviews of Life as We Knew It & The Dead and the Gone are live, so be sure to check them out first if you want to read about the 3rd installment.

It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

From Goodreads

Again, we don't pick up where we left off in the last novel, but the terrain is still familiar enough for the reader to be comfortable with what's going on. This time we find ourselves back in Pennsylvania with Miranda & her family. Things are going as well as can be expected given the circumstances until it all changes when her father & stepmother suddenly appear not only with their baby, but 3 more unknown individuals. While Miranda's family is thrilled to be reunited, things become tighter & resources become more scarce.

The best part about the new arrivals though is that there is someone else Miranda's age. Enter Alex Morales (from The Dead and the Gone) & his little sister Julie. While Julie spends her time with Miranda's little brother, she & Alex are free to get to know one another. Love seems to be in the air, but the moon isn't through with them yet. Something big is coming & everyone seems to know it. The other they can do is prepare as best they can & hope that it's good enough.

Miranda & Alex continue to develop strong personalities & really assert their independence from those around them. While they still cling to parental figures for guidance, they are always thinking outside the box & on their own. Stubborn Alex helps Miranda to explore outside her comfort zone while scavenging while she tries to help him see through this picture-perfect image he's got of how his future will unfold.

Pfeffer brings us right back into the chaos & doesn't let up until it's over. There is non-stop movement, but not necessarily action. There is a lot of timeline development & filling in of the background by the new arrivals giving the reader a more complete sense of the nation-wide devastation. The new characters also bring a new dynamic to the interactions. As a society, we have preconceived notions of how typical social interactions will unfold & these folks turn that on its head providing us with a key piece to comprehend just how life-altering this has all been. Naturally we can fathom the emotional & physical toll this experience has taken, but the shift in societal norms & mores might catch you off guard.

A thrilling read with a jaw-dropping ending, This World We Live In hopefully is not the last we hear of Miranda, Alex & the other "Last Survivors". I'm not so sure as I haven't found anything indicating this as the end or just another step in the series. I guess we'll have to wait & find out.

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

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.

From Goodreads

Alex Morales & his two younger sisters find themselves in the same alternate realtiy as Miranda from Life as We Know It when an asteroid throws the moon out of proper synchronization with the Earth. Unfortunately for the Morales family, they were not nearly as lucky to be spared direct devastation to their family unit. Just kids in the Big Apple, they manage to scrape by with luck, determination & faith.

Alex is an unwilling hero in this story. Charged with being the "man of the house" with his father in Puerto Rico & his older brother serving in the Marines, he finds himself the person his younger sisters are looking to when it becomes obvious that their family is not coming back for them. While he may be ill-tempered & sharp-tongued he is also resourceful & protective. He does what he believes to be best for his sisters, even if it's not the easiest task.

What really made this book stand out from the first is the fact that we were in a completely different part of the United States & so we get to see a whole new facet to the living nightmare that everyone is facing. Trapped in a large metropolitan area might seem like the ideal place during an apocalyptic event, but the Morales family soon discovers that the opposite is actually true.

While you don't have to read the first book to understand the second, it is best to read it before you move on to the third installment as there is some crossover that won't make any sense without having read the first book. If you're looking for something spine-tingling, well-written & filled with dynamic characters, then you've found your calling. Enjoy!

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, 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.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

From Goodreads

Susan Beth Pfeffer weaves a terrifying tale of mayhem in this first installment in the series. We meet Miranda & are just beginning to get a grip on her family situation (2 brother, one older & one younger, divorced parents, remarried father announcing pregnancy with new, younger wife) when an asteroid collides with the moon disrupting everything. Thanks to her mom's quick thinking, they manage to stock up on enough food & personal supplies during the initial phase, but the toll the moon takes upon the Earth's seasons is just the beginning of their fight to survive.

A strong, but still flawed teenager Miranda is the perfect person to narrate this tale as she is not quite so young that she doesn't understand & appreciate the situation, but she's still immature enough to feel selfish & overwrought. The book is written loosely in journal-entry format. I can't imagine being as verbose as Miranda has a tendency to be, but when you're trying to convey to someone else what's going on I guess you might get carried away.

I was really fascinated by the interconnectivity that Pfeffer spun in relation to the asteroid. We really take for granted the delicate balance that must be maintained in order for our world to continue operating as it does. Pfeffer explores that balance & blows your mind with what occurs & how the characters manage to survive. These resourceful folks are just the kind that I would want as neighbors if something like this were ever to occur.

An even more intriguing part of the book was the focus on the US (and the world) as a whole going through this trying time together. The book takes place in Pennsylvania, but Miranda's family is all over the place & the reports on the radio come in from Yellowstone, the South & more. Everyone is suffering, just at different rates, allowing us a window into the severity of the situation & the fortunate circumstances of our characters.

If you're looking for something spine-tingling & sense-shocking, read this book. The characters are real & engaging, allowing the reader to fully grasp the direness of the circumstance & the story never lets up. I was guessing what would happen until the very end.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer review

Waiting on Wednesday: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

It being 2012 and all, we knew I wouldn't be able to go long without an apocalyptic book on my WOW. Article 5 by Kristen Simmons promises to be everything I liked about the societies in Matched and Delirium & the obstacles of the Life as We Knew It series. January 31st can't get here fast enough!

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

From Goodreads

While I could do without the star-crossed-lovers effect, I have a feeling that this book will have some of the same great story-telling & plot/world building that I have come to lavish in in this genre.

What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater review

Jenni only thought her husband couldn't become any worse a human being. She thought wrong. After being bitten the night before, Jenni's husband is turned into one of the undead & decides to make a meal of his family. Barely escaping with her own life, Jenni is rescued by lesbian, lawyer Katie in a pick-up truck. Katie too has lost all that she has after her wife become one of the undead. As the women get to know one another they start to comprehend the reality of the situation they face. The infected are dying & then coming back to life and the government is the last group you want to listen to.

On their way out of an over-populated city (soon to be teeming with the undead) they stop for supplies in a rural town. They manage to hole-up with the sweet old married couple who just happen to own the guns & ammo shop while planning their reconnaissance mission to save Jenni's camping-in-the-woods stepson. With renewed strength & spirit the women vow to keep in touch with the couple & save as many as they can because the only way out of the whole mess is through it. If they just keep running, maybe they can outrun the pain of all that they've lost, but at what cost to those who remain?

The First Days is a remarkably stark look at what could be considered a realistic reaction to a zombie apocalypse. Two ordinary women manage to cobble together an existence that allows them to hope for a future while surviving the present. Even better was the fact that this book was set in Texas. Now that may not sound like much, but it's like saying a book takes place in the South, there are mannerisms & societal norms that lend themselves to having a zombia apocalypse book set there.

The book's chapters were broken down into mini-chapters like one would expect to see of a book that was originally released in serial format. The narrator didn't change with every mini-chapter or even every chapter which made it a nice surprise when we shifted perspective. The characters were each unique adding their own personal experience to the situation they wound up in. Even better was how the characters ended up where they were when they met & assisted other survivors. The interactions with local drug dealers, old girlfriends & the founding members of the community really lent a sense of realism to the story.

While there were several editing errors that could have easily been fixed with a little more attention, the story itself was rather engaging & terrifying. This was the first zombie book that I've read & I definitely believe it won't be the last! Give it a shot & let me know what you think!

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater review