This World We Live In

Title: This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3)
Series: The Last Survivors #3

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer (author's blog)

Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, Publication Date: April 1, 2010

Hardcover: 256 pages
Original Language: English (American)

Audiobook or physical book: Overdrive Audiobook (6:53:04)

Official Description:

It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth's climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda's father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda's complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

I recently read  Life As We Knew It, the first book in the series and started reading the second book, The Dead and the Gone. But the Dead and the Gone is a parallel timeline to Life As We Knew It, and I was looking forward to learning more about how the characters are doing a year after a asteroid hit the moon turning the planet into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. So I didn't finish the second book before starting the third book.

In This World We Live In friends and neighbours have died, food is getting scarcer, and the sky is still clouded over from the volcano ash. We return to the first person diary of Miranda's life. Her experience in the suburbs leaves her dreaming of a place where "normal" still exists. Although their experience has actually been a great deal easier than some. In this book, Miranda's household swells to 10 people as her father and stepmother arrive with 4 others including Alex Morales from The Dead and the Gone.

This book goes into greater detail about how the survivors are managing. Eating slim rations and supplementing supplies by breaking into abandoned homes. It talks about how relationships have changed. Miranda develops feelings for Alex most likely because he is "the last boy alive", the only boy she has met that isn't related to her.

There are rumors of secret safe towns that require special passes to enter. Characters must make decisions to stay put or try to travel towards a possibility of a safer place. When disaster strikes again, the residents must make life and death decisions.

I love this book for it's gripping portrayal of a perspective of how people might live if the World changed so drastically. Especially through the eyes of a teenager.

My only wish would be more focus on the mechanics of how survival actually happens. The family gets occasional spurts of electricity, but I'm not sure what kind of power plants are still generating power, or who is maintaining the lines. Also, how is the town getting food deliveries to distribute rations with?

Overall: Worth the read, but I think I would have benefited from reading both the previous books in the series first.

Locations: Howell, Pennsylvania