The Last Survivor Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Title: Life As We Knew It
The Last Survivor Series
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publish Date: Oct 1, 2006
Publisher: Harcourt Children Book
337 pages

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I am completely and utterly enamored with this book. Instantly pulled in and forever will be talking or thinking about this concept. Fascinating!

All the scientists and world are talking about the moon being hit with an asteroid. The entire world turns out to see it. Only it turns out to be a bit denser that they predicted, completely changing the world - as they knew it. Tsunamis, volcanoes, and all sort of natural disasters destroy so many people and parts of the world. Would you survive? Would your family? And what would you do and how far would you go to save yourself and loved ones?

HELLO?! SO FASCINATING!!

I just love this book. The characters were awesome. The main character, Miranda, is so real and I love her for that. She is down to earth, a sweet person who wants a normal life and fall in love. What her dreams are become nothing to what she will deal with in the following time after the impact. She has so many conflicts with her mother who is trying to save her family while Miranda is trying to decipher who she is. Then there is her older brother who is away at college, but comes home and learns he may not be the end all be all. Her younger brother ends up being the one the entire family feels has the best chance to survive because he is strong and young. They give up so much to keep him well and alive.

Meanwhile the surrounding neighborhood is drowning in not enough food, beggars, sickness, gangs with guns. As people are dying Miranda's family must decide will they help and risk their own lives.

This raises such wonderful discussions for me and those around me. Okay, really it just impressed me, but I still managed to bring it up in many conversations.

Honestly, I really didn't care for book Number 2 in the series, but I am loving #3 where they pick up with Miranda's family where they left off in book 1.

Summary -

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.