This World We Live In

For the first time ever I hoped there was no Baby Rachel.  I don’t know what happened to Dad and Lisa, if the baby was ever born.  It must be so hard now to have a baby.  Lisa could have miscarried or had a stillborn baby.  Horrible though that is, it might be for the better.

I tiptoed out of the sunroom and through the kitchen to the bathroom.  It smells of fish and bedpans and ocean breeze air freshener.  I curled up on the cold tile floor, and I rocked back and forth, glad it made my body ache even more, like I deserved the punishment for what I’d been thinking.

I hate my dreams.  I hate Matt for bringing Syl into our lives, and I hate Syl for giving me her nightmares.

I hate this world we live in.

In Life as We Knew It, we meet Miranda Evans and her family when an asteroid hits the moon, pushing it closer to Earth, and causing natural disasters around the globe.  Miranda, her mother, and two brothers are better off than most.  They have a wood burning stove, and live next to a wood, so are able to survive the winter that quickly sets in upon them.   In The Dead and the Gone, we meet Alex Morales, a 17 year old boy in New York City, who is left orphaned by the same cataclysmic events, and must figure out how to feed and care for his two younger sisters, how to survive without their parents.

This World We Live In is the third book in Susan Beth Pfeffer’s post-apocalyptic series, and begins a few months after the first two books end.  Food is running short, and Miranda and her family are barely scraping by.   Along come Miranda’s father, step-mother, and their new baby, along with Alex, one of his sisters, and another stranger.  They have been traveling long and hard, hoping to find Miranda’s family safe, and longing to be close together in this alternate reality, one without telephones, mail service, television, and very little radio communication.  Miranda’s family welcomes in the newcomers, despite the shortness of food, and as the families come together and try to determine how they will blend, how they will survive, Miranda finds herself falling in love with Alex, and thinking that the future might not be as bleak as she once thought.

I read (and reviewed) the first two books awhile ago, and was happy to see this third book released recently.  It is told in the voice of Miranda’s diary, and the glimpses of horror and pain are tempered by those of faith, love, and enduring humanity.  A very good young-adult read.