Customer Reviews

This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN is not the follow-up to LIFE AS WE KNEW IT that I was hoping for.

I think the root of the problem is that the diary format just doesn't work for this installment. In book one, it was interesting enough to follow Miranda's personal journey via her written thoughts. She goes from a girl who has the whole world open to her to a girl trapped in a dark, cold room with only her starving family (and, yes, the family cat). However, this time around, Miranda's character arc is so scant that it can't sustain 300 pages of her whining.

The diary format also makes the creation of sympathetic, three-dimensional supporting characters difficult. I do recall caring about the fate of Miranda's family in the first book, but here all we see through Miranda's eyes is mom being an agoraphobic shrew, older brother Matt being a selfish jerk, and everyone else just existing.

The romance between Miranda and Alex (the "hero" of book 2) is dead in the water. These two have so little chemistry together, I cringed when they touched. And c'mon Miranda - I know you don't have a lot of options for romance, but Alex is NOT boyfriend material. He wants to be monk. He's super controlling and stubborn. And he's obsessed with his sister. (Good at finding food though. I'll give him that.)

And what's up with everyone just moping around the entire novel until a tragic event (in the last 20 pages) forces them into action? Why couldn't we have gotten more exploration of the "safe town" idea for instance?

Unless you are just really in love with the characters and world of LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, I'd probably recommended putting this one near the bottom of your reading pile.

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.

The third book in Susan Beth Pfeffer's series of young adult post-disaster novels, This World We Live In attempts the daunting task of bringing together characters from the previous books (Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone). At that task, it succeeds with flying colors and provides another character-driven novel in world gone horribly wrong.

Miranda and her family have survived the worst after the moon was knocked into a closer orbit around the Earth by a meteor, but they're not out of the woods yet. Food is scarce, electricity is on-again-off-again at random, and the sudden arrival of Miranda's father and stepmother, and a few unexpected guests, is making things more difficult. But with these new guests is Alex Morales (The Dead and the Gone), and soon Miranda and Alex find themselves in conflict with their growing feelings for one another and the harsh reality that is their future in a world brought to its knees by nature.

Much like Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In captures the essence of family in all the right ways. Miranda's family is an amalgam of the kinds of families we see in the world today (here in the West, anyway): we have the divorced parents, the stepmother, the turmoil between brothers and a daughter in a world no longer founded upon the same equal opportunity we take for granted today, the injection of other people into the social stratum of the family unit (much as friends become members of the family, even though they aren't). Pfeffer continues to make family, social structures, and character the central focus of her novel, despite being set in an future where one could have a heyday with action and violence. Her characters are (still) flawed, and yet lovable regardless. We might not like the way they all act from time to time, but throughout the narrative (and the series as a whole) we come to understand how humanity often needs copious amounts of time to properly adjust to a catastrophic event.

In a way, I can't help seeing the analogy between the Great Depression and Pfeffer's out-of-place-moon future, where mankind is thrust into awful situations where even those who were moderately fortunate before are forced to change against strict, horrible social/cultural/physical pressures. Perhaps that is what makes This World We Live In, and the previous two novels, engaging and real. It's not Doomsday or I Am Legend, but an unintentional response to that kind of action-focused post-disaster genre--a response that seems to work without becoming preachy or too geared towards a particular gender or age group (even though it is a young adult novel).

The epistolary format continues to work surprisingly well, the characters are surprisingly human (they irritate, they amuse, and they make good and bad decisions), and the ambiguity of the ending is both a warm, if not morbid, moment, and a reminder of our fragility as a species. Hopefully Pfeffer will show us more of this world, either through the eyes of her previously established characters, or via the introduction of new characters from entirely different situations (it would be interesting, for example, to see how the richest people of the world are coping with the "end of the world"). We'll see.

The only recommendation I have for anyone interested in this novel (besides the obvious suggestion of picking it up and reading it) is not to read the back cover. This may be isolated to the uncorrected proof I received for review, but the synopsis on the back cover of my edition essentially gives away the ending. Don't read it.

First Line: I'm shivering, and I can't tell if it's because something strange is going on or because of the dream I had or just because I'm in the kitchen, away from the warmth of the woodstove.

A year ago, an asteroid crashed into the moon, forcing it closer to Earth with catastrophic results. Teenager Miranda Evans is almost accustomed to friends and neighbors being dead, to food shortages, to the relentless gray skies and freezing temperatures.

The struggle to survive gets worse when Miranda's father, stepmother, their baby, and three strangers show up on the doorstep. One of the strangers is Alex Morales, the young boy in the dead & the gone, the second book in the trilogy by Pfeffer. Alex is going to cause some very profound changes, not only in Miranda's life, but in the lives of all the others struggling to survive in this nearly deserted town in Pennsylvania.

I loved the first book in the trilogy, Life As We Knew It. The scenario involving the asteroid crashing into the moon and forcing it closer to the earth captured my imagination. Miranda's voice rang true to me: typical whiny, self-absorbed teenager at the beginning, she matured before my eyes and really made me care about her and her family.

the dead & the gone I didn't care for as much, mostly because of Alex's insistence on being The Man of the Family who always knows best and who must be obeyed at all times. This reaction is undoubtedly personal, since I've never dealt well with anyone who's had that attitude.

In many ways, I wish Life As We Knew It had been a standalone, because I had no real emotional investment in this third book. I should've realized that Miranda and Alex would take a shine to each other-- especially in regards to their age, their hormonal state, and the scarcity of choice for them both-- but it would have been nice if they hadn't. It's as though the author painted herself into a romantic corner when she introduced Alex into the Pennsylvania cast of characters. Miranda and the choices she made were supposed to heighten emotion, but mine were deadened because they reminded me of books read in the past.

This book ends on a very ambiguous note, as if the series will continue. I really hope it doesn't. As it stands now, the trilogy began brilliantly... and became progressively weaker with each subsequent book. Will you be able to follow the action in This World We Live In if you haven't read the first two books? Yes, you should be able to, but you'll be missing the full range of the characters' motivations if you do.

My advice, regretfully given, is to read the first book and possibly the second, but to give this one a miss.

Okay... this book just was not what I was hoping for in a final installment to this series. First of all, it didn't really feel like a final installment since it left so many questions still unanswered. I wanted more! Don't want to be a spoiler though, so enough of that. Alex from The Dead and The Gone is back and seems to have reverted to his annoying naivete and relentless stubborness that was present at the beginning of The Dead and The Gone. By the end of that book I had really started to like Alex, but I don't know what happened since he is not the same character that shows up in this book.

The circumstances that brought these two families together seemed contrived, and there was just so much stuff left out, it was hard to really get connected with this story. The first two books were characterized by such pulse pounding action that in comparison, this one came across as rather dull. Part of the greatness of the first two books was they really drew the reader in so they could imagine what they would do in these circumstances. This book did not provide that same connection as the characters were not nearly as compelling. Miranda's parents were almost ghosts of characters, they were so thinly portrayed. There were hints of things, (like Laura's agoraphobia) but nothing was ever fleshed out

I was really hoping for more of the heart rending emotion that was present in the first two books and also some resolution! Unfortunately, this book didn't deliver on either. I'm sure if people read the first two they will still read this one regardless of any review, but I can't honestly say I recommend it.

I know it's a wee bit early to start talking about favourite 2010 books and hell, I actually finished reading This World We Live In during the final days of 2009 but I'm confident that come the end of this freshly started year I'll still be raving about this no holds barred YA novel about the continuing struggle for life in a world forever changed.

If you've read Susan Beth Pfeffer's previous two meteor books, Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, like me you're probably already hooked on Pfeffer's vision of the earth ravaged by a sudden and permanent change in the moon's orbit after its struck by a meteor.

In This World We Live In we learn what became of Miranda, the main character from Life As We Knew It, and The Dead and the Gone's Alex. During the course of the novel both teenagers struggle with responsbilities and haunting choices they could scarcely have imagined before the planetary tragedy.

Death and destruction are all around. The sun no longer shines. Food supplies are scarce and may stop showing up in Miranda's hometown any week now. Scavenged soap is a luxury. Safe cities (where vestiges of civilization like hospitals still exist) are few and space in them is reserved for those with connections. Can family ties survive in a world like this? Can genuine new love take root?

Susan Beth Pfeffer is fearless in what she reveals about characters we've already come to care about and the nightmare realities of a broken and bloody world. This isn't a story for the faint of heart but I highly recommend it to everyone else. If you can handle it, This World We Live In will be one of the best things you read all year.

Three words. I HATE IT. This book was probably even worse than The Dead And The Gone. This book had very little action. Nothing exciting ever happened. Well, maybe except the tornado. But even that was disappointing. I mean, come on. The tornado disorients Alex and he couldn't get back for a few days. How did he get food to survive? How did he survive in general? So many questions were left unanswered. I thought it was just plain dumb when Miranda smothered Alex's little sister. That action does not fit with her personality. AND SHE DID IT WITH TEARS IN HER EYES!!! She barely even knew her. Who cries over killing someone they barely even know? Charlie's death was stupid. He died of a heart attack while trying to open the basement door. Stupid and disappointing. These are just a few of the things that are wrong with this book. And believe me, there was a lot more.

The author's return to the diary entry literary device also heralds a return to the solid but less satisfying level of writing offered readers in Life As We Knew It. Whereas in Dead and Gone, Alex and his surroundings were painted in vivid detail and the difficult philosophical questions he dealt with drew the reader in, this time I felt more like a moderately interested bystander who found a stranger's diary in a zip-lock bag in some rubble. The fact that I knew the characters already and wanted to see how the story ended kept me interested enough to read on, but I was disappointed that the new characters who were introduced were barely developed, and that the new relationships that seemed to be the pivotal issues of the book were given very little time and attention. The fact that the book is about 100 pages shorter than the two previous ones makes me wonder if the author got a little bored with the story and characters herself, and simply tried to tie up the loose ends and put the tale out of its misery. It's a shame as well, because after Dead and Gone, I had begun to care greatly about Alex and Julie, and wanted to see where life would take them, both physically and emotionally. I'm just sorry it took them to Pennsylvania.

This book is so painful. I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, but I was intrigued enough to read the last book. I read one chapter of the second book and stopped. I just couldn't relive the whole thing through the eyes of a different family. I wanted some resolution to Miranda's sad story so I stuck it out finishing the third book. As others have said--so disappointing. Spoiler Alert: Mrs. Nesbitt is already dead (btw wouldn't they call her "Betty" or whatever if she was such a big part of the family?) Dr. Boyfriend is dead. Megan is dead. Horton dies. Julie dies. No, wait, Julie is murdered. No, wait, she's paralyzed first and then murdered. death death death and some misery for good measure... Okay, maybe the point is to find that bit of hope midst all the despair and heartache, but I don't think the writing is that good for some kind of deeper existential meaning. I think the writing falls pretty flat. Miranda just doesn't talk like a real 17-year-old (in this not so 17-year-old's opinion). The glimmer of a safe town isn't enough to offer me some kind of hope. At least their house is destroyed. I couldn't stand the thought of them staying in that crowded, mattress-filled sunroom one more day! I feel trapped thinking about it. The endless details about how Miranda cleaned the house...omg. This book is not sci-fi at all. This book is musings of a not so real adolescent girl midst tragedy. One more rant--why in the world would her mother care that she's ransacking houses when everyone is dead?!! Miranda needs to read Hunger Games and learn how to survive already!

After really enjoying Life As We Knew It and then strongly disliking The Dead and the Gone, I was really hoping this book would redeem the series. I was wrong. I disliked this about as much as the second one. I wanted to give up on this book several times, but I pulled myself through it only because I wanted to know what was going to happen with the world and I have a thing about abandoning books. While I loved dystopian world Pfeffer created, it was kind of pushed to the background in this installment, and I absolutely hated the characters and they way they were acting. This book merges the storyline of Miranda and Alex, which is cool, but the negative aspects from both books and characters come with it. Alex is still very stereotypical and filled with religious fervor, and it kind of spreads to the whole group. Miranda is just as whiny and bratty as ever. Many other other family members were also annoying and I was so perturbed by some of the things they did. I also thought that the romance that developed between Miranda and Alex seemed forced and out of the blue; I didn't feel any connection between them, not one bit. Besides that, there were other minor plot points that were unrealistic and really annoyed me. I think I spent this book rolling my eyes, putting it down and wanting to abandon it, but then making myself finish it because I wanted to hear more about the world - except it was all about the whining out-of-character people. The ending was just as disappointing. However, that's not to say that there wasn't any good. What I did enjoy about this book was the tornado disaster; it kept their struggled fresh when it could have easily gotten same-old, same-old. I also still love the scenario of a moon disaster, that is one of the coolest apocalyptic scenarios I have come across in a while.

I heard a rumor that Pfeffer wants to write a companion novel that will be set 16 years in the future. I don't know how I feel about that. Will it be as good as first or as sucky as the last two? If she does write one, I'll probably give it a read just because students love this series and I do like hearing more about the world she built.