Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

[description from Amazon]

It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

Review:

I cannot find a way to start this review, so the rest of this review will consist of a list of good things about the book. (Well, many of my reviews contain lists and regular paragraphs, but this one will be pretty much a whole list.)

1. The characters were very easy to relate to. This made the book much each to get into and made the book's point come across clearer and more powerfully.
   
2. The diary writing made the book even easier to get into. I really got into the mind of Miranda, the narrator.
3. The book moved quickly, but not too quickly.
4. This book is very effective in making you appreciate what you have. After I finished it, I was thinking "We have food. There's electricity. And it's warm outside. Thank goodness."
   

I can't think of any bad things about the book, except for the fact that Miranda irritated me a lot. She always managed to get into fights with her mom over silly things.

This book receives 9/10, and I command you all to read it and gain a new appreciation for all the things in the world most people don't usually appreciate.