Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda's life seems completely normal: she lives with her mom and brothers, she goes to school and is on the swim team. That is, until an asteroid collides with the moon, pushing it into the Earth's gravitational pull. Now the tides are messed up, causing tsunamis and massive flooding. Gas prices skyrocket to over over ten dollars a gallon, supermarkets run out of food, the world is in complete chaos, and that's not the worst of it. Miranda chronicles her life in journal entries, in which she struggles to survive and hold onto the last thing there is-- hope.

Wow, this story was actually pretty freaky. It was spot-on with all the apocalypse, end-of-the-world movies that are really popular. Even though the book was a journal, it was really well-written, with the right amount of despair and faith that everything will turn out okay. I was so engrossed in the story, that I did not want to put the book down. I needed to find out what happened! It even made me think about my own life; what if there was no school, food, or electricity? It's scary, but theoretically something like this could occur. The characters were well thought out, and I especially liked Miranda. She was a good narrator: hopeful, yet realistic; enduring, yet other times weak. All these traits made her human. She wasn't Superwoman, but she wasn't a coward either. I would recommend this to anyone who likes science fiction, or even just a suspenseful story.

8 out of 10.