Book Review: Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1)

Title: Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1)
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Graphia (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2006
Date read: January 7th, 2011
Page total: 337 pages
Genre(s): Science Fiction; Young Adult
Synopsis: When a meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer in orbit to the earth, nothing will ever be the same.
Worldwide tidal waves.
Earthquakes.
Volcanic eruptions.
And that's just the beginning.
(from the back of the book)


This book is written in a diary form of a high school sophomore named Miranda. It starts when people are still excited about a meteor about to hit the moon. Of course, nobody has expected it would affect the earth, that the meteor could knock the moon closer to the earth and cause problems.
The readers accompany Miranda and her family as they hear people dying in NYC, as they watch people moving away in hope to find more food, and as their neighbors die.
The way Miranda writes might annoy some people; today I did this, then we did that. Miranda herself appears to be a bit slow and has the tendency to being a bit immature but that changes as the situation gets worse. She learns what it means to think about others before doing anything stupid and how to survive in a bad condition. Personally, the way she writes was so engrossing, I couldn't put it down. And I had the moment of fear I have missed my stop on my 30-minutes-ride home, reading. Also, the situation feels so real, and every time I took a break to eat supper or something, it was so bewildering to have such an easy access to light, heat, food and water. And I was thankful we were guaranteed such a luxury.
I loved the scene where Miranda and her family race out to the super market to buy every canned goods and other essential thing they can load when the first unnatural weather struck. I always love a crazy shopping day!


All in all, if you aren't too against reading about the apocalypse, you might like this book.