Two books. Two reviews.

First up…Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I found this book on one of those lists: Books to Read When You’re Crying Because The Hunger Games Trilogy is All Over. I am guessing someone put it on that list because it is scary in one of those holy-crap-I-don’t-know-what-I’d-do-if-this-happened-to-me sort of way. The story is told through a teenage girl, Miranda’s, diary entries. Basically, her world is turned upside down after the moon is hit by a meteor. I don’t want to say much more about the story line because I hate when people give too much away about a book. What I will tell you is this: Read the book, but prepared to be sad. Everything that happens is realistic – natural disasters, disease, death, young love – and how a family deals with nightmares becoming reality. I could not put this book down – it is an easy read, a bit juvenile (I found it in Teen Fiction afterall), but if you are looking for something to lose yourself in, I highly recommend checking it out at the library.  

Of course I had to read, This World We Live In, next. 

This World We Live In starts almost a month after the first book left off. I liked that because I felt like I really understood why Miranda took a few weeks off from writing in her diary. Girl needed a break from talking about her sucky life! And it’s not like we missed much (which really couldn’t have been anything at all under her circumstances). Miranda’s teenage life changed immensely when a meteor hit the Moon closer to the Earth almost a year ago – things like school, internet, and malls don’t exist anymore. Cars don’t drive down the street, and most of the people in her town have either died or move away. There isn’t even really a sun shining or a moon glowing in the sky due to so many volcanic ash clouds. Her world is a very gray and very lonely place. I know you are thinking, “Why would I read such a depressing book?”, but, I promise, there is a lot happening in the second book that you’ll want to read about. Let’s just say, without giving too much away, that there are TEN characters at one point, and one is a baby. Lots of stuff happens.

 So, go read these books. 

And then come back and tell me if you like them.   

And if you don’t, I’ll publicly apologize to you for telling you to read them.