Companion Novel to Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer. Release date: June 1, 2008
As is the problem in Life As We Knew It, the moon has been hit by a meteor and is knocked off of its axis. The moon is now closer to the Earth which sets off a chain reaction of natural disasters throughout the world. Alex Morales lives in New York City which is devastated right from the start. The Statue of Liberty has been wiped out and many people were washed out to sea by huge tidal waves caused because of the change in the location of the moon. Water is slowly seeping its way farther and farther into New York and closer and closer to where Alex lives with his family on 88th Street.
Alex is working at a pizza place the night of the event that changes his life forever. When he gets home from his shift, he finds out that his mother has been called into work at the hospital in Queens, leaving his two sisters by themselves. Their father had already left for Puerto Rico to attend a family funeral so it is left to Alex to take care of his sisters until they return.
Alex and his sisters must deal with food shortages, random electricity outages, and extreme weather changes. They attempt to keep their hopes up even though their parents never make contact, information is hard to come by, and they are forced to do gruesome things just to survive. Alex and his sisters learn how important family is and that tragedy can sometimes bring people closer together than ever before.
While the dead and the gone covers the same event as Life As We Knew It, it is told in a different way. Where LAWKI is told in first person, tdatg is told in third person. The third person perspective gives the reader a broader look at the story, but was hard to get used to after reading LAWKI. All in all, the dead and the gone is a gripping tale of love, faith, and survival. It is a page-turner and will consume you when you start the book.
[...] the dead & the gone, by Susan Pfeffer (karin’s book nook) (tags: susan.beth.pfeffer the.dead&the.gone young.adult science.fiction moon post.apocalyptic great.balls.of.fire! the.sky.is.falling! new.york.city catholicism spirituality sibling.bonding) [...]
I loved life as we knew it so much, the only problem is, is that i wanted to hear what happened to Miranda..
i am disappointed i wont be able to know now…
:’( .
I read The Dead and the Gone, before, Life as We Knew It. I’m currently reading the Latter,a dn i’m about half way through the book. TDATG was an absolutly amazing book! I understood, Alex’s hardships, and I was devestated, at “certain” parts.
I loved the book Life as We Knew It soooooooooooooooooooooooo much, I read it over 20 times. I thought this book was a sequl to it.
Wish I new what happened next…. 
This book was really good & there is a sequel that has the characters from both LAWKI and TDATG. The only bad part for me was that there were some common sense things that I know would have happened that weren’t even touched on, such as people eating pets or cannibalism. Also, the characters seemed quite naive. I can’t imagine a 17 year old boy that doesn’t know how to boil water or not thinking to build a fire when everyone is freezing to death. No matter what their religion, it seemed that they just didn’t do enough to survive. The story idea is great, but the characters lacked true realism, even though I found myself very caught up in the saddest part. I will definitely reread the books and overall I’d put it on my favorite’s shelf, but will probably find myself thinking mostly about the things I’d do in that same situation.