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I am so not as prepared for the end of the world as I thought I was!

Years and years ago, I had a massive platonic crush on a girl named Micheala. She was awesome�. She had bright orange dreadlocks and rode an orange, sparkly motorcycle (and knew how to fix it!) She grew her own veggies, canned them, made pottery, knew how to knit, how to make paper, how to make her own cat food, she was making a loom so she could make her own cloth for clothes... not that she actually did all of this stuff on a regular basis. But she had the equipment and the knowledge. One day, she confessed to me that she had a day dream about the end of the world and being able to be totally self sufficient while everything else was a shambles. She was my hero, I thought she was amazing. (Did I mention that I smoked a lot of pot when I was younger?? ;))

It’s been years since Micheala & I have hung out, and I’m lately too busy with regular life to continue learning all of these crazy handmade crafts that I used to be so fascinated in. But I still love dystopian, apocalyptic stories. So, of course Life as We Knew It is right up my alley. The moon being knocked into a different orbit & irreversibly changing conditions on earth is just about as big of an apocalypse as there is. Susan Beth Pfeffer provided plenty of natural disasters to make life in northeastern PA pretty grim and crappy. Miranda is a likeable character with a voice that is easy to read. She is an incredibly realistic teenager ~ self involved, not too aware of the world around her. But as others have pointed out, this story, while mesmerizing, falls a little flat. There is no climax, no controversy. Although I appreciate the realness of Miranda not knowing or caring to know the condition of the world around her� I want to know! Even so, I enjoyed reading about the trials Miranda & her family faced and how they dealt with them.

I am definitely reading the second in this series. Hopefully Miranda and her family will learn more about becoming self-sufficient (I wonder why they didn’t turn to the library for survival books?)Maybe there will be some tension, a love interest, and more natural disasters. But if not, I’m sure I will continue to read and use this as both a reference and a check list� better safe than sorry, right? ;)