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Life As We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213753.Life_As_We_Knew_It?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Life As We Knew It" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172762708m/213753.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213753.Life_As_We_Knew_It?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Life As We Knew It</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1318.Susan_Beth_Pfeffer">Susan Beth Pfeffer</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8513124?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars There's something about post-Armageddon-survival books--they don't usually start with the Armageddon. Either it's the lead-up to and immediate impact of the event, or it starts a week or a month after the event and here's how we're doing. Life as We Knew It starts with the approaching event--an asteroid bearing down on the moon--and the extra assignments that are being piled on at school as a result. But then the moon gets knocked closer to the Earth, and we get the rush at the supermarket. The tsunamis and flooding. The mosquitoes. The months of isolation, with nothing to do and food supplies dwindling, people dying, and a family making the best of a horrible situation. And it's not the usual Hatchet-esque survival story, because with all the ash in the air from volcanoes, nothing is growing and outdoor game is starving. There's literally nothing but canned and boxed goods, and when they run out, that's it. 
 
 The plot is well-paced and well-imagined, and Miranda's voice is mostly true to a bright 16-year-old in impossible circumstances. The book is arranged in diary entries, not exactly an uncommon tactic, but it works well enough. Dialog is a little annoying, though, as the author includes "____ said" at the end of virtually every exchange, as if we couldn't tell who was talking. (Though, with the audio, you really couldn't tell who was talking; the narrator has just one voice and uses it for all the characters. Inflection, sure, she's got inflection up the wazoo, but no skills in making characters sound distinct from each other.) 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/41490?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Brandy's review
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bookshelves: 2007reads, audiobooks, library, teen
status: Read in October, 2007

There's something about post-Armageddon-survival books--they don't usually start with the Armageddon. Either it's the lead-up to and immediate impact of the event, or it starts a week or a month after the event and here's how we're doing. Life as We Knew It starts with the approaching event--an asteroid bearing down on the moon--and the extra assignments that are being piled on at school as a result. But then the moon gets knocked closer to the Earth, and we get the rush at the supermarket. The tsunamis and flooding. The mosquitoes. The months of isolation, with nothing to do and food supplies dwindling, people dying, and a family making the best of a horrible situation. And it's not the usual Hatchet-esque survival story, because with all the ash in the air from volcanoes, nothing is growing and outdoor game is starving. There's literally nothing but canned and boxed goods, and when they run out, that's it.

The plot is well-paced and well-imagined, and Miran...more

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