Aftermath of disaster...

As the world turns..., August 30, 2013

Do you like to read books that describe what life on earth might be like after a horrible disaster has taken place? In this series, the moon has been pulled off its orbit and everything that was before is no more.

Oh my! This is the 4th book in the "Life as We Knew it" series and it can be very depressing and shocking to read about what this author imagines might happen. I finished it late last evening and I had nightmares all night long with visions of this horrible post disaster world. The events that transpire and the subject matter are appropriate for the older teen and young adult.

Jon is the youngest in a family that included his sister Miranda and brother Matt. His mother, Laura, had sacrificed everything when they were stranded on the outskirts of a town in Pennsylvania so that her children and she could survive after the moon's orbit pulled it closer to earth resulting in climate change, tsunamis, famine and epidemics. Now, 4 years later, the survivors have relocated. Several other relationships and the deaths of family members have left the family broken and separated with the remaining few living in different places in the newly established cities and towns. The "clavers" are the rich and important people who live in Sexton while the "grubs" who serve them live in White Birch. They are a very class conscious segregated society where the clavers have power and often mistreat the grubs who live under quite primitive and filthy conditions. Society has devolved into a hierarchy that encourages superiority, prejudice and violence.

I did not like Jon's character at all. I didn't care for many of the supporting cast of characters whose actions and relationships didn't ring true given the times and situations. Despite some grandstanding at the end, which didn't feel believable, I don't feel Jon redeemed himself. The book was depressing and relentlessly miserable. I almost stopped reading it several times but forced myself to push on to the end, hoping that things would eventually improve for the survivors.

Unrealistic in so many ways and not deeply developed enough to provide the details that are needed to make the new world and society structure credible, the story lacks the critical elements that other doomsday scenario authors have done much better. The struggle is, of course, between good and evil, but mostly it is a clash between the "haves" and the "have nots". The violence is extreme and the ability of the clavers to step into their behaviors is scary. I hope there's nothing in this that is remotely plausible should an event like this ever really occur. I guess I just have more faith in humanity than that it would end up as described in this novel. I prefer to hope so.

Other titles in the series:
Life As We Knew It - highly recommended
The Dead and the Gone
This World We Live In

All of these can be found in the AOHS Library!

Reviewed by Ms Crawford