Book Review: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series: Last Survivors #1
Pages: 337
Date Published: October 1, 2006
Source: Library
Rating: .5/5


Summary: 
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)


My Thoughts:
Reading this book made me more frustrated that I've been in a very long time. The first 100 pages I was so excited by the story and the possibilities. What makes me sad that I hated the book so much was that was it pretty realistic. But there was no excitement in the plot. It was all survival. Surviving? Fine. I like that. But the last 1/3 of the book is just utter torture and nothing happens. Nothing happens with her friends. Nothing happens with her boy interest. Nothing happens with her skating. NOTHING. Its a good book but there was possibilities there that just utterly let me down, and that was in favor of realism, I suppose. There also are very, very few answers. Once again: realistic, but SO frustrating! An interesting plot turned into monotonous starvation and "oh my god, things get worse" a billion times. But the "worse" isn't even interesting! ARGH!

In Short, The Good:

• The cover?
• The cat? (ah I'm stretching it here)

In Short, The Bad:

• No development of characters besides the family (and barely there)
• Boring plot
• Starvation
• UGH JUST EVERYTHING