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A review by emilyusuallyreading
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
5.0
What I Liked
This was plausible. This was horrifying. I stayed up all night reading this book, something I haven't done in months. I was appalled. Maybe the science doesn't work. Maybe it does. I don't know because I'm an English person, not a science person... however, it made sense to me. And it was horrifying.
At the core of the story are two things. One, a girl's transformation from slightly spoiled fifteen-year-old high-schooler to a survivor who has known the worst poverty and trauma. And two, a close-knit family's resilience and determination in the face of the apocalypse.
Life As We Knew It is written as if it's a teenage diary. This is something that worked until this last entry.
This is an apocalyptic novel that really works in terms of survival. Hoarding food from the grocery store, the sputtering of electricity, the desperation to know what's going on in the world (and yet a strangely disconnected apathy from it all when you have problems of your own), deciding if school matters anymore, and discovering who really is family.
The bond between Miranda and each member of her family (and "extended" family) is incredibly believable. This family unit seemed incredibly American, tangible, and modern from the first page to the last.
What I Didn't Like
It's obvious to me that Pfeffer must not have been in high school for a while, because she used terminology and phrasing from Miranda that didn't work, even for a book written 10 years ago. I was in high school during the year Life As We Knew It was published (oh snap, I'm getting old), and some of the dialogue that Miranda would use I couldn't understand or I would just chuckle as I read, thinking that it would make more sense for Ms. Nesbitt to say those words.
The distaste for all religion/religious figures seemed a little too obvious to me. Every religious character was self-serving, corrupt, condescending, and foolish. Instead of offering glimpses at both, Pfeffer lays out her anger towards Christians (and Republicans) over and over again to the point of coming across a little silly.
This was plausible. This was horrifying. I stayed up all night reading this book, something I haven't done in months. I was appalled. Maybe the science doesn't work. Maybe it does. I don't know because I'm an English person, not a science person... however, it made sense to me. And it was horrifying.
At the core of the story are two things. One, a girl's transformation from slightly spoiled fifteen-year-old high-schooler to a survivor who has known the worst poverty and trauma. And two, a close-knit family's resilience and determination in the face of the apocalypse.
Life As We Knew It is written as if it's a teenage diary. This is something that worked until this last entry.
Spoiler
I was baffled when she started describing the trek to her death in town. I was thinking, "If Pfeffer has her pull out her journal and write the last few moments of her life, this just isn't going to work." Ultimately it did work - but there was less of a fear of death because I knew she had to go back and write the journal entry... so she had to end up okay, right?This is an apocalyptic novel that really works in terms of survival. Hoarding food from the grocery store, the sputtering of electricity, the desperation to know what's going on in the world (and yet a strangely disconnected apathy from it all when you have problems of your own), deciding if school matters anymore, and discovering who really is family.
The bond between Miranda and each member of her family (and "extended" family) is incredibly believable. This family unit seemed incredibly American, tangible, and modern from the first page to the last.
What I Didn't Like
It's obvious to me that Pfeffer must not have been in high school for a while, because she used terminology and phrasing from Miranda that didn't work, even for a book written 10 years ago. I was in high school during the year Life As We Knew It was published (oh snap, I'm getting old), and some of the dialogue that Miranda would use I couldn't understand or I would just chuckle as I read, thinking that it would make more sense for Ms. Nesbitt to say those words.
The distaste for all religion/religious figures seemed a little too obvious to me. Every religious character was self-serving, corrupt, condescending, and foolish. Instead of offering glimpses at both, Pfeffer lays out her anger towards Christians (and Republicans) over and over again to the point of coming across a little silly.