Life as We Knew It (novel)

Life As We Knew It is a young adult science fiction novel by American author Susan Beth Pfeffer, first published in 2006 by Harcourt Books. It is the first book in The Last Survivors series, followed by The Dead and the Gone. The book follows a teenage girl named Miranda and her family, who live in northeastern Pennsylvania and struggle to survive after an asteroid hits the Moon and brings it closer to Earth.

Plot
Miranda is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Pennsylvania with her mother, Laura, and her brothers Matt and Jonny, with her worrying about her grades and becoming a godmother to her half-sibling, who her father and his second wife, Lisa, are expecting. Soon, the news focuses on an asteroid which is predicted to hit the Moon. People are excited about the opportunity to witness the event, including Miranda and her family. However, the asteroid is denser than scientists expected, and soon after the impact, it becomes clear that it has pushed the Moon closer to Earth, intensifying the tidal forces that it exerts on it.

After the impact, chaos ensues as tsunamis and earthquakes ravage the coasts, killing countless people. Miranda and her family go shopping to stock up on food, water, and supplies, and soon after Matt comes home from college. While they are safe from tsunamis because they live inland, during the summer tidal forces push magma to the surface and several dormant volcanoes erupt, filling the sky with ash. This causes temperatures to drop dramatically, making it difficult for plants to grow. As conditions become harsher, the family begins to eat less to conserve food, and Laura makes sacrifices to give Jonny, whom Miranda believes she considers to be the strongest of her children, a chance at survival, causing conflict between her and Miranda.

During winter, the family also deals with snow and a lack of running water, natural gas, or electricity as an outbreak of influenza spreads through town and kills many people, including Peter, a doctor whom Laura was in a relationship with. However, Miranda, who did not fall ill, nurses her family back to health. As their food supply is about to run out, Miranda ventures into town, which she claims is to see if there has been a letter from her father and Lisa, though in reality she is knows that she is dying of starvation and intends to die away from home to spare her family from having to watch her die. Miranda finds the post office abandoned, and as she is about to let the cold kill her, she notices a yellow piece of paper that leads her to the town hall, where the mayor is handing out bags of food. Her family is given four bags of food and promised to be given more in the following weeks. With a renewed will to live, on her seventeenth birthday Miranda reflects on why she keeps a diary, wondering if it is for the people who might read it in the future or for herself, to help her process life.

Characters
Miranda Evans: A 16-year-old girl. The novel is told from the point of view of her diary entries. She has two brothers: Jonny, whom she is jealous of, and Matt, whom she idolizes. Her favorite hobby was ice skating until she broke her ankle and was forced to take up swimming. However, she still has a passion for skating and idolizes Brandon Erlich, a famous skater from her town.

Matt Evans: Miranda's 19-year-old brother, who studied at Cornell University before returning to his family after the impact. He provides for them by collecting firewood and doing manual labor, bartering for supplies, and volunteering at the post office, and they look up to him.

Jonathan "Jonny" Evans: Miranda's 13-year-old brother, who loves to play baseball. The family considers him the most likely to survive, but he is afraid to live without them if he does.

Laura Evans: Miranda's mother, who works as a writer. She puts her family's life before her own, going without food so that her children will have more to eat. She dates Peter until he dies from influenza.

Mrs. Nesbitt: An elderly woman who is like family to the Evans, having taken care of Miranda's mother when she was a child. After she dies, she leaves them her food, water, and belongings.

Dr. Peter Elliot: Laura's boyfriend, who works as a doctor and visits the Evans several times, sometimes bringing food and giving medical advice. He later dies from flu and exhaustion.

Hal/Dad: Miranda's father, divorced from her mother and married to Lisa, who is pregnant with Miranda's soon-to-be goddaughter. He provides for his children, bringing them food he has bought on the black market when he and Lisa stop by while heading from Springfield to Lisa's parents' home in Colorado.

Lisa: Miranda's stepmother, whose child Miranda will be godmother to.

Megan Wayne: Miranda's devoutly Christian friend, who began going to church after their friend Becky died. She later begins to starve herself with the encouragement of her pastor, who tells the congregation that God is punishing humans for their sins.

Sammi: One of Miranda's friends, who has dated several boys and fights with Megan, who believes that she leads an immoral life. She later leaves town with George, who she believes will protect her.

George: Sammi's 30-year-old boyfriend, with whom she moves to Nashville.

Becky: Miranda's friend, whose death prior to the book's events caused her, Megan, and Sammi to begin to separate.

Dan: A boy on Miranda's swim team, with whom she begins swimming in Miller's Pond after the local indoor pool closes. They have a short-lived romance before Dan leaves in search of a better place to live.

Horton: The family's cat, who is particularly close to Jonny.

Mrs. Wayne: Megan's mother, who worries that she is starving herself, as she does not share her religious beliefs.

Brandon Erlich: An ice skater from the town who is training for the Olympics and whom Miranda later meets at a frozen lake, where they talk and skate together. Although she returns to the lake, she does not see him again, and it is implied that he either died or left.

Reverend Marshall: The pastor at Megan's church. By telling his congregation that God will sustain them and behaving in a falsely caring manner, he ensures that they will bring him food, which angers Miranda.

Mayor Ford and Tom Danworth: The town's mayor and a city employee, who organize a food distribution system.

Reception
Kirkus Reviews said that "death is a constant threat, and Pfeffer instills despair right to the end but is cognizant to provide a ray of hope with a promising conclusion. Plausible science fiction with a frighteningly realistic reminder of recent tragedies here and abroad." Ilene Cooper said in her review for Booklist that "each page is filled with events both wearying and terrifying and infused with honest emotions. Pfeffer bring's cataclysmic tragedy very close."

Awards
Pfeffer's book was named Young Adult Library Services Association's Best Books for Young Adults in 2007, and shortlisted for the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Science Fiction or Fantasy Book of 2007. In addition, it won the Booklist Editor's Choice Award for Books for Youth (Older Reader's Category) in 2006. It was nominated for the 2009 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award and won the Truman Readers Award of 2009.