Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is told in journal entries that sixteen years old Miranda Evans makes. The book is set in a suburban city in Pennsylvania where Miranda and her two brothers and mother live. Her straining friendships, falling grades, and the fact that she is going to be a godmother to Lisa’s, her step-mother, and her father’s child are her major issues. But when the predicted asteroid hits the moon, it causes the moon to move closer to the Earth disturbing the Earth’s gravitational pull. This causes earthquakes, and tsunamis in various parts of the world causing many casualties. Now Miranda and her family have much more to worry about than her school life. The story becomes a survival story and they have to get through these hard times even with volcanoes erupting out of nowhere and very deadly mosquitoes.

Life As We Knew It could be a very relatable story to others in the way Miranda and her family act. It can really make you think of what you would do in their situation and how you would handle it. It makes me think about how grateful I am that I am not going through their situation. The theme of the book is survival. Miranda and her family works hard in the book to stay alive and get through everything together. They stick together through everything and work things out. I really loved their dynamic and how they acted with each other. Their personalities had their own flair that made them stand out from each other. Life as we knew it is an emotional story and it can make you rethink things in life and I really liked that aspect of it.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially if they like dystopian stories. Life As We Knew It is the first book out of the four in the series and I would love to read the next in line: The Dead And The Gone.

-Nicole R.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive.