More than any scary movie or horror novel, Life as We Knew It freaked me out. I desperately wanted to read this months ago, but I had to wait for my part of the Cybils (winner announced Feb. 14th!) to be over before I could indulge this purely pleasurable read.Like the rest of the country, Miranda, is planning on watching the meteor strike the moon, but when the scientists are wrong and the meteor proves to be larger than anyone thought, life as everyone knows it changes. The climate falls apart, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis kill millions and Miranda and her family must fight to survive.
This book makes me want to buy a house in the country with a wood stove and a well. It makes me want to start stocking my pantry with food for an army. Initially, right after reading it, every time I went anywhere near the grocery store I felt a compulsion to buy LOTS of bottled water and canned goods. Susan Beth Pfeffer made her entire scenario so plausible that for weeks after reading it I was still feeling its effects. She immersed me in the plot, and Miranda's voice was so authentic and understandable that I had to remind myself that it was all FICTION. Really. Cohort Sara had a similar reaction.
Fans of Francine Prose's After and Rosoff's How I Live Now should like it. That book freaked me out too. Or fans of that movie with Jake Gyllenthaal and the wolves that made me laugh. Where they took refuge in the library? Um... Oh right, The Day After Tomorrow.
5 comments:
LIFE AS WE KNEW IT is so great. I think my response--and it's pretty typical--is that it made me cold and hungry. (So it's up there with The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder in that regard). I definitely should have considered that before starting it right before bedtime! But one of my favorite aspects of the book was how hauntingly permanent the changes are. (That and a realization of what on earth would I ever do without electricity!) Very memorable book. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Did you ever read THE POSTMAN by David Brin. It was made into a not so great movie by Kevin Costner. As I remember, I really liked the book......Uncle Ed did too. The world as we know it is ended......stock up on survival gear.
Mom
I'm dying to read this one, too. Thanks for the review!
This was a Cybils nominee in the scifi and fantasy category, and, I think, the first book I read as a member of the nominating panel. That was back in November.
I still think of it. What I dwell on is the knowledge that many of my relatives wouldn't have survived the ordeal in the book.
I had the same reaction -- this book is *still* haunting me. We just got a small woodstove in our house and I gaze lovingly at it every day.
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