This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Disappointing and leaves room for yet another installment..., March 30, 2010

This review is from: This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I was really excited to be offered this novel for review having read both Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone (The Last Survivors, Book 2) as soon as they were released. I was very disappointed in this book and found it unsatisfying. Not so much a conclusion as just another part of a series that should have ended with this third book.

I love an apocalyptic novel. I had really liked the first one I read, Life As We Knew It, and although slightly unimpressed with the companion novel, The Dead and the Gone, I did hope for some sort of culmination as the characters from both books met up and interacted in Howell. In the first place, there really isn't much backstory so unless you've read both prior books you will be somewhat lost as this third story begins.

Miranda and Alex and their families try to forge a sort of existence in Howell a year after the meteor collided with the moon. Their continuing struggle for food and survival fills page after page of this book. All try to be hopeful about an uncertain future and each makes choices and decisions that alter the course of their existence. Yet another calamity occurs toward the end of this book and it seems that the band of remaining survivors will move on to find a more suitable place to live.

All in all the book left me unsatisfied and irritated. I can see room for yet another in the series and am disappointed about that. I doubt I will read the next book. This series was called "action-packed, thrilling and utterly terrifying" but I think that each successive book lost those characteristics.

Borrow, don't buy.