Jo R. (readingbuggotme) reviewed This World We Live In (Last Survivors, Bk 3) on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
The first book in this trilogy grabbed my attention and didn't let go. It made you think about "what if something hit the moon". The 2nd book in the series was okay but felt like it was retelling the events just from a different location. The 3rd book (this one) was a dissapointment. The author attempts to blend the first two books characters into one story in the final book with horrible results. The characters seem stiff and one-sided in this book and the interactions between them are forced. It was like watching a bad movie where the actors have no chemistry. It is apparent to the reader as you move thru the story and the author was trying to scrape up enough story to make a 3rd book when in essence she didn't have a story line period.
Jennifer W. (GeniusJen) reviewed This World We Live In (Last Survivors, Bk 3) on + 5322 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com
A year has passed since a meteor collided with the moon, sending it closer to the earth, and forever changing the world. In LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, Miranda chronicles the events her family experiences as they struggle for survival during dramatic weather changes, loss of friends, and dangerous food shortages.
The companion novel, THE DEAD & THE GONE, follows the hardships of Alex and his sisters in New York City. The author paints a more gruesome side of life in this installment. One that stays with the reader long after the book is closed.
THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN brings the two stories together.
Once again, we see Miranda at home with her mother and two brothers as they continue to eke out a living. They find ways to deal with lack of food, poor air quality, cold temperatures, and no electricity. Even though they are doing okay now, Miranda knows it won't always be like this. The food deliveries might stop and then what would they do? Miranda's mother rejects any suggestion of leaving , but Miranda knows there will come a time when they'll have no choice.
Miranda's brothers leave for a fishing trip in an attempt to supplement the provisions they receive weekly from town. Matt and Jon bring back a lot more than fish. While fishing, they run into a band of travelers including Miranda's father, his new wife, Lisa, and their new baby, Gabriel. Also traveling with them is a man named Charlie and a brother and sister named Alex and Julie. As if that weren't enough, Matt meets a girl named Syl and claims her as his wife.
If supplies were dangerously low before, adding six more people to the mix made it downright frightening. Everyone struggled - with issues of privacy, issues of jealously, and issues of conscience.
THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN returns the reader to the first-person diary format of LIFE AS WE KNEW IT. Miranda documents her changing life as she talks about her growing family, her complicated feelings for Alex, and the grotesque discoveries that still seem to pop up even after a year. Their lives settle into a new routine until an unthinkable disaster rips through town. Miranda and her family are forced to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives if they want to survive in the world they live in now.
Susan Beth Pfeffer gives her readers what they've wanted. Personally, I'm very glad she went back to the first-person diary format. Even though there were times Miranda seemed at bit too whiny and I wanted to strangle Alex, I'm happy with the ending of the book.
If this series is new to you, please begin by reading LIFE AS WE KNEW IT followed by THE DEAD & THE GONE. You won't be able to understand the full impact of what these characters are going through in THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN without knowing a little about their backgrounds.
A year has passed since a meteor collided with the moon, sending it closer to the earth, and forever changing the world. In LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, Miranda chronicles the events her family experiences as they struggle for survival during dramatic weather changes, loss of friends, and dangerous food shortages.
The companion novel, THE DEAD & THE GONE, follows the hardships of Alex and his sisters in New York City. The author paints a more gruesome side of life in this installment. One that stays with the reader long after the book is closed.
THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN brings the two stories together.
Once again, we see Miranda at home with her mother and two brothers as they continue to eke out a living. They find ways to deal with lack of food, poor air quality, cold temperatures, and no electricity. Even though they are doing okay now, Miranda knows it won't always be like this. The food deliveries might stop and then what would they do? Miranda's mother rejects any suggestion of leaving , but Miranda knows there will come a time when they'll have no choice.
Miranda's brothers leave for a fishing trip in an attempt to supplement the provisions they receive weekly from town. Matt and Jon bring back a lot more than fish. While fishing, they run into a band of travelers including Miranda's father, his new wife, Lisa, and their new baby, Gabriel. Also traveling with them is a man named Charlie and a brother and sister named Alex and Julie. As if that weren't enough, Matt meets a girl named Syl and claims her as his wife.
If supplies were dangerously low before, adding six more people to the mix made it downright frightening. Everyone struggled - with issues of privacy, issues of jealously, and issues of conscience.
THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN returns the reader to the first-person diary format of LIFE AS WE KNEW IT. Miranda documents her changing life as she talks about her growing family, her complicated feelings for Alex, and the grotesque discoveries that still seem to pop up even after a year. Their lives settle into a new routine until an unthinkable disaster rips through town. Miranda and her family are forced to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives if they want to survive in the world they live in now.
Susan Beth Pfeffer gives her readers what they've wanted. Personally, I'm very glad she went back to the first-person diary format. Even though there were times Miranda seemed at bit too whiny and I wanted to strangle Alex, I'm happy with the ending of the book.
If this series is new to you, please begin by reading LIFE AS WE KNEW IT followed by THE DEAD & THE GONE. You won't be able to understand the full impact of what these characters are going through in THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN without knowing a little about their backgrounds.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
First Line: I'm shivering, and I can't tell if it's because something strange is going on or because of the dream I had or just because I'm in the kitchen, away from the warmth of the woodstove.
A year ago, an asteroid crashed into the moon, forcing it closer to Earth with catastrophic results. Teenager Miranda Evans is almost accustomed to friends and neighbors being dead, to food shortages, to the relentless gray skies and freezing temperatures.
The struggle to survive gets worse when Miranda's father, stepmother, their baby, and three strangers show up on the doorstep. One of the strangers is Alex Morales, the young boy in the dead & the gone, the second book in the trilogy by Pfeffer. Alex is going to cause some very profound changes, not only in Miranda's life, but in the lives of all the others struggling to survive in this nearly deserted town in Pennsylvania.
I loved the first book in the trilogy, Life As We Knew It. The scenario involving the asteroid crashing into the moon and forcing it closer to the earth captured my imagination. Miranda's voice rang true to me: typical whiny, self-absorbed teenager at the beginning, she matured before my eyes and really made me care about her and her family.
the dead & the gone I didn't care for as much, mostly because of Alex's insistence on being The Man of the Family who always knows best and who must be obeyed at all times. This reaction is undoubtedly personal, since I've never dealt well with anyone who's had that attitude.
In many ways, I wish Life As We Knew It had been a standalone, because I had no real emotional investment in this third book. I should've realized that Miranda and Alex would take a shine to each other-- especially in regards to their age, their hormonal state, and the scarcity of choice for them both-- but it would have been nice if they hadn't. It's as though the author painted herself into a romantic corner when she introduced Alex into the Pennsylvania cast of characters. Miranda and the choices she made were supposed to heighten emotion, but mine were deadened because they reminded me of books read in the past.
This book ends on a very ambiguous note, as if the series will continue. I really hope it doesn't. As it stands now, the trilogy began brilliantly... and became progressively weaker with each subsequent book. Will you be able to follow the action in This World We Live In if you haven't read the first two books? Yes, you should be able to, but you'll be missing the full range of the characters' motivations if you do.
My advice, regretfully given, is to read the first book and possibly the second, but to give this one a miss.
A year ago, an asteroid crashed into the moon, forcing it closer to Earth with catastrophic results. Teenager Miranda Evans is almost accustomed to friends and neighbors being dead, to food shortages, to the relentless gray skies and freezing temperatures.
The struggle to survive gets worse when Miranda's father, stepmother, their baby, and three strangers show up on the doorstep. One of the strangers is Alex Morales, the young boy in the dead & the gone, the second book in the trilogy by Pfeffer. Alex is going to cause some very profound changes, not only in Miranda's life, but in the lives of all the others struggling to survive in this nearly deserted town in Pennsylvania.
I loved the first book in the trilogy, Life As We Knew It. The scenario involving the asteroid crashing into the moon and forcing it closer to the earth captured my imagination. Miranda's voice rang true to me: typical whiny, self-absorbed teenager at the beginning, she matured before my eyes and really made me care about her and her family.
the dead & the gone I didn't care for as much, mostly because of Alex's insistence on being The Man of the Family who always knows best and who must be obeyed at all times. This reaction is undoubtedly personal, since I've never dealt well with anyone who's had that attitude.
In many ways, I wish Life As We Knew It had been a standalone, because I had no real emotional investment in this third book. I should've realized that Miranda and Alex would take a shine to each other-- especially in regards to their age, their hormonal state, and the scarcity of choice for them both-- but it would have been nice if they hadn't. It's as though the author painted herself into a romantic corner when she introduced Alex into the Pennsylvania cast of characters. Miranda and the choices she made were supposed to heighten emotion, but mine were deadened because they reminded me of books read in the past.
This book ends on a very ambiguous note, as if the series will continue. I really hope it doesn't. As it stands now, the trilogy began brilliantly... and became progressively weaker with each subsequent book. Will you be able to follow the action in This World We Live In if you haven't read the first two books? Yes, you should be able to, but you'll be missing the full range of the characters' motivations if you do.
My advice, regretfully given, is to read the first book and possibly the second, but to give this one a miss.
Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed This World We Live In (Last Survivors, Bk 3) on + 2527 more book reviews
This is the third and final book in the Last Survivors series by Pfeffer. It wraps things up nicely, but was my least favorite book of the bunch.
This book goes back to Miranda's perspective and is presented as day to day journal entries by her. It has been almost a year since that fateful day when the moon was shoved closer to Earth. Miranda and her family are still surviving. Things get more complicated though when Miranda's father returns with his new wife and their baby, along with two other kids. One of the kids is Alex Morales, whose story we read in the second book. As they struggle to survive, the reader learns that no matter what happens life will continue to limp forward.
This book was a lot less about survival and more about how the characters in the house interacted with each other. For me that just wasn't as interesting as the previous books have been. All of the characters are worn and tired and there is very little that is about hope in this book.
Even Alex and Miranda falling in love, so to speak, was a bit depressing. There was a lot about this that really bothered me. They didn't really seem to like each other all that much, or even have much in common. They were just both there and both around the same age so they were a couple. They quickly went from "I can't stand you" to "I am desperately in love with you" and it didn't make much sense. I guess if you are living from day to day you learn to not be picky about who you are attached to.
A large part of this book revolves around Miranda's family being torn apart and moving on with their lives. Miranda's eldest brother finds a wife, who loves him because he doesn't beat her up like her previous guys have. Miranda's younger brother finds a good friend in Alex's younger sister Julie. Miranda's mom is kind of the one left floundering, which is ironic considering she is the reason they survived so long in the first place. No of the characters are all that admirable, they are just survivors and are at times selfish and hard to deal with.
Much of the survival is similar to what you saw in the first book, the only difference being that with spring around the corner they can be outside more. The book ends fairly open ended as you might expect a book like this too. There are occasional glimpses of hope throughout, but they are rare. Basically if you expect that the characters will be miserable and continue to limp through life, well then that's what happens in this book. They occasionally take solace in each other, but things never really look like they are going to get much better for our families.
Overall an okay read. I enjoyed that it went back to the journal format. The characters are very human, which makes them unlikable at times but realistic. Pfeffer doesn't throw any allusions of hope at the reader; she shows that humans are willing to move on and accept what they have to to survive. Even the love between Miranda and Alex is shadowed by this sentiment; Miranda often calls Alex "last boy on earth" and mentions that it's better than no boy at all. I probably won't be reading future works by Pfeffer; while I enjoyed some of the events leading to the apocalypse and reading about how the characters survived things in general, this was just too depressing of a read for me.
This book goes back to Miranda's perspective and is presented as day to day journal entries by her. It has been almost a year since that fateful day when the moon was shoved closer to Earth. Miranda and her family are still surviving. Things get more complicated though when Miranda's father returns with his new wife and their baby, along with two other kids. One of the kids is Alex Morales, whose story we read in the second book. As they struggle to survive, the reader learns that no matter what happens life will continue to limp forward.
This book was a lot less about survival and more about how the characters in the house interacted with each other. For me that just wasn't as interesting as the previous books have been. All of the characters are worn and tired and there is very little that is about hope in this book.
Even Alex and Miranda falling in love, so to speak, was a bit depressing. There was a lot about this that really bothered me. They didn't really seem to like each other all that much, or even have much in common. They were just both there and both around the same age so they were a couple. They quickly went from "I can't stand you" to "I am desperately in love with you" and it didn't make much sense. I guess if you are living from day to day you learn to not be picky about who you are attached to.
A large part of this book revolves around Miranda's family being torn apart and moving on with their lives. Miranda's eldest brother finds a wife, who loves him because he doesn't beat her up like her previous guys have. Miranda's younger brother finds a good friend in Alex's younger sister Julie. Miranda's mom is kind of the one left floundering, which is ironic considering she is the reason they survived so long in the first place. No of the characters are all that admirable, they are just survivors and are at times selfish and hard to deal with.
Much of the survival is similar to what you saw in the first book, the only difference being that with spring around the corner they can be outside more. The book ends fairly open ended as you might expect a book like this too. There are occasional glimpses of hope throughout, but they are rare. Basically if you expect that the characters will be miserable and continue to limp through life, well then that's what happens in this book. They occasionally take solace in each other, but things never really look like they are going to get much better for our families.
Overall an okay read. I enjoyed that it went back to the journal format. The characters are very human, which makes them unlikable at times but realistic. Pfeffer doesn't throw any allusions of hope at the reader; she shows that humans are willing to move on and accept what they have to to survive. Even the love between Miranda and Alex is shadowed by this sentiment; Miranda often calls Alex "last boy on earth" and mentions that it's better than no boy at all. I probably won't be reading future works by Pfeffer; while I enjoyed some of the events leading to the apocalypse and reading about how the characters survived things in general, this was just too depressing of a read for me.
Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) -
I don't know what to say. If Life As We Knew It and The Dead & The Gone were five star books then what is this? At least a ten star book.
I'm scared I won't get it out there right. I have some friends who have listed this to read and I really want to make sure I convey how amazing these books are and I think I'm going to fail. Miserably. These are something you have to read for youself. They shouldn't, IMO, even be classified as 'YA'. Why, because the main characters are teens? Not good enough. This can be enjoyed by anyone. Male, female, old or young. There are no lines. Anyone could identify with different parts in all of the stories and I doubt there is a person alive who wouldn't appreciate the realness of them.
I knew, I had a feeling, that the third would be the best for me and I was right. I actually, for whatever reason, had expected it to be somewhat different. I think I was expecting alternating chapters between Miranda and Alex. This, instead, forcused on Miranda and her family for a good portion of the book until Alex and Julie arrive.
A lot of times, especially with reading, having set expectations can tear it all apart. Not possible here. I expected something different sure, but this was executed so beautifully there was no way to even focus on that.
I have to say to the people out there like me, who do judge a book by it's cover and whatever else, don't do it here. It'd be a mistake. The covers are all beautiful but they do look a little sci-fi so without my friends glowing recommendation I doubt I'd have ever looked twice at any of them. That would have been my mistake. It's so far from sci-fi.
I sincerely hope Pfeffer is continuing to write. This story could be continued and I wouldn't be surprised to see another eventually. And, I wouldn't even mind it. This is one of the few stories out right now that deserve to be continued.
I'm scared I won't get it out there right. I have some friends who have listed this to read and I really want to make sure I convey how amazing these books are and I think I'm going to fail. Miserably. These are something you have to read for youself. They shouldn't, IMO, even be classified as 'YA'. Why, because the main characters are teens? Not good enough. This can be enjoyed by anyone. Male, female, old or young. There are no lines. Anyone could identify with different parts in all of the stories and I doubt there is a person alive who wouldn't appreciate the realness of them.
I knew, I had a feeling, that the third would be the best for me and I was right. I actually, for whatever reason, had expected it to be somewhat different. I think I was expecting alternating chapters between Miranda and Alex. This, instead, forcused on Miranda and her family for a good portion of the book until Alex and Julie arrive.
A lot of times, especially with reading, having set expectations can tear it all apart. Not possible here. I expected something different sure, but this was executed so beautifully there was no way to even focus on that.
I have to say to the people out there like me, who do judge a book by it's cover and whatever else, don't do it here. It'd be a mistake. The covers are all beautiful but they do look a little sci-fi so without my friends glowing recommendation I doubt I'd have ever looked twice at any of them. That would have been my mistake. It's so far from sci-fi.
I sincerely hope Pfeffer is continuing to write. This story could be continued and I wouldn't be surprised to see another eventually. And, I wouldn't even mind it. This is one of the few stories out right now that deserve to be continued.
