Tag Archives: Young Adult

Book Review

Review: Life As We Knew It

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Life As We Knew It
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 2006
352pp

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

The Short of It:

After reading just a few pages, you won’t be able to put this one down. It’s scary at times but hopeful too.

The Rest of It:

I have read a lot of books about the end of the world. I’m not a morbid person but deep, deep down I do believe that something horrible could happen to the world as we know it. Fires, earthquakes, tsunamis (oh my!)…I had to toss that in there to lighten it up a bit. Anyway, with the weird weather patterns and the fear of a pandemic, Life As We Knew It is not all that farfetched. Really.

After the moon’s position is compromised by a meteor hit, Miranda and her family do their best to survive in a world that is completely different from what they’re used to. There are lots of things that I liked about this novel so I thought I’d stray from my usual format and make a list:

  • Miranda, at age 16, is very much a sixteen-year-old but emotionally strong when she needs to be.
  • Miranda’s mom is a sensible woman. I’ve read so many of these types of books where the mom is just the stereotypical “mom” and lacks any kind of common sense. Not the case here.
  • The family works together as a unit and it’s believable.
  • The other characters are actually important to the story and not just there to create conflict.
  • Pfeffer paints a realistic picture of what could happen given such a catastrophe. These characters are hungry and you feel it. As Miranda longs for a hot shower, you are reminded of how wonderful hot water can be. I mentioned above that it’s scary at times, scary as in “This could happen!”
  • Even though the subject matter is grim, there is a strong sense of hope throughout the story. This is incredibly hard to do but Pfeffer does it effortlessly.
  • Since this is a young adult book, I could easily see a teenager reading this and really thinking about how good they have it. As an adult, I know I spent many moments pondering what was on the page.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected it to be a page-turner, but I didn’t expect to care about the characters as much as I did and I didn’t expect to think about it days after reading it.

Life As We Knew It is book one in a series. The Dead and the Gone is book two and book three, The World We Live In comes out in April!

Source: Borrowed

Book Review

Review: The Hunger Games

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The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
Scholastic, Inc.
September 2008
384pp

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival.

The Short of It:

Well paced. Very readable. Vivid characters. Vaguely familiar.

The Rest of It:

This is where I become unpopular.

After hearing all of the hype over this book, I expected great things, but what I got was good, but not great. I know, the planet has come to a grinding halt and birds have stopped singing everywhere!! Here’s the deal, I am a 40-something female and I watched a lot of movies in my youth, but as I was reading,  I couldn’t help but compare this book to The Running Man and Logan’s Run. I’m not saying that The Hunger Games is exactly like these two movies, but the whole game show aspect…THAT, that to me was very similar. In the case of Logan’s Run, age is a factor too. Much like in The Hunger Games. Hasn’t anyone else noticed the similarities? If not, watch the movies and get back to me. Actually, The Running Man was a story by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) which was later made into a movie.

However…

Did I enjoy the book? I did. I liked Katniss a lot. It was nice to see a young girl, with a good head on her shoulders. One who is a bit insecure yet quite capable at the same time. I thought some of the other characters were quite memorable as well. Who wouldn’t love Rue? Oh, and Haymitch was quite interesting. Funny at times, but serious when he had to be. I’m not quite sure how I feel about Peeta and his affection for Katniss though.

I can see why this book appeals to all different age groups even though it’s geared towards the young adult set. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, Catching Fire which came out this past September. The university that I work for was considering The Hunger Games for their Freshman Common Reading book for 2010, but they decided to go with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I missed the meeting though so I can’t tell you why!