“At that second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon and that if it was attacked, then we were attacked.”
Like any other rare phenomenon in outer space, the whole world gathers to watch as an asteroid is about to hit the moon. The calculations have been made and the asteroid is just supposed to create a new crater, but as people watch, they can immediately tell something has gone wrong. There is a giant crash that they can see and hear and then the moon moves much closer to the Earth. The moon affects tides and gravitational pulls and Life As We Knew It goes on to explore what life is like on Earth after the moon changes course.
I was talking about dystopian books with our local children’s librarian and she recommended Life As We Knew It. She had listened to the audio version. I put it on my to-read list, requested the eBook from the library through Overdrive and it was available within a few weeks.
The story of Life As We Knew It is told through the journal entries of a teenage girl. Miranda finds herself trying to survive in this new world with her mother, younger brother, elderly friend who lives a few blocks away and her mother’s doctor boyfriend. Her older brother comes home from college a few days after the moon is hit and they find out a lot of the world has perished due to high tides. Then, volcanoes erupt and terrible thunderstorms and snowstorms hit, leaving them with no power for months. The doctor ends up staying at the hospital to help and the elderly friend won’t move in with them. A woodstove helps keep them warm and allows them to cook food, which they stocked up on the day after the moon moved, but start to run out of very quickly. Will their lives ever return back to normal? Will they survive?
I enjoyed reading this book because the premise was interesting. There were a few noticeable errors with them having access to their well water with no power and their well running dry. There was also some words used that make me think the author is European (buggy instead of shopping cart). Other than that, it was an interesting idea to explore and think about. I would recommend it to high school age readers and older, especially readers who like dystopian novels.
Do you have a favorite dystopian novel? If so, comment with the title below!
