deadandgoneWhen an asteroid knocks the moon out of orbit causing chaos on earth, 17-year-old Alex Morales must find a way to protect his little sisters, Bri and Julie, from starvation. Although this story takes place at the same time as Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It (LAWKI), it gives a very different perspective on the struggle to survive. For one, this story takes place in New York City. While the Morales family is much less isolated than Miranda’s suburban family in LAWKI, they also face more danger from looters and sexual predators. The Morales siblings also continue attending school, getting food from food lines and having some electricity well into the story. Another big difference is that the young people in this book must fend for themselves from the beginning, versus Miranda who relied heavily on her mother and older brother to survive. This story also focuses more on religious faith than LAWKI. The Morales family, especially Bri, are devout Catholics, and this book gives an interesting exploration of how faith (both individual and institutional) can help deal with such a tragedy. In many ways, this book is more realistic than LAWKI in that it delves into the ugly side of humanity, represented most by Harvey, the man who trades canned food for dead people’s shoes.

Though not as good as LAWKI, fans of that book will definitely want to check this one out, even if it is really hard to get into at first. The first-person narrative of LAWKI added a sense of immediacy to the story and made it easy for readers to relate to Miranda. Not the case in this book. The narrative is third-person, and Alex is not an immediately relatable character. However, readers who can stick around through the first hundred pages or so will be rewarded with an intense, heart-rending tale.

DweebMeter: 3/5

Links

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Blog

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