Life As We Knew It ★★

Life As We Knew It is written in a journal entry format from the perspective of a teenage girl named Miranda. In the beginning she's just a normal teenage girl but her life gets turned upside down when an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it closer to the Earth.

From that point everything is thrown into chaos; there's tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, viruses, power outages, etc. After the initial shock of the moons change in orbit Miranda's mom makes her and her brothers go to the store and they stock up on as much nonperishable foods as possible.

The story follows Miranda as her and her family struggle to survive. It's an interesting story however there's not much of an actual plot beyond the moon getting hit into a closer orbit with the Earth and a bunch of natural disasters occur.

Beyond that, there's some confusing inconsistencies that don't quite add up. For one, it is stressed how dangerous the streets are and Miranda even encounters a few people raiding an abandoned house, yet she herself is never once attacked. Secondly it is made out to be like there is very little food yet at the end of the book Miranda finds out that the city hall is giving out food.

Another big issue is the science behind the book. The moon controls the tides but it is not explained nor likely that the moon could create earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Also it is stated that the scientists didn't know that the asteroid would hit the moon yet the power and trajectory needed to hit the moon into a closer orbit would be glaringly obvious to any competent scientist.

A smaller issue that bothered me was Miranda's friend, Megan, who is religious; however, she twists religion into something that it isn't. Megan stops eating because she believes that God will provide for her and most people who know anything about religion know that God will provide what you need, but food will not just fall from the sky and Megan would not suddenly need to stop eating. She eventually dies of starvation and her mother hangs herself due to the loss.

The idea behind the story sounds interesting, but it does not sound like there was any research or realism to the book. The concept itself could be very real, but everything afterwards is far fetched and unlikely.

Putting all the logistics aside, it was an enjoyable book with some interesting events (that don't really lead anywhere).