DNF
Meh... ( )

I stayed up until two this morning to finish this book, and then I couldn’t sleep thinking about what would really happen if the moon was knocked out of its orbit by an asteroid. Would tidal waves (not tsunamis, they’re caused by seaquakes) really get big enough to wash out the Hawaiian Islands and West Coast? Would I, a single person with little or no resources, be a survivor? Would it bring out the worst in humanity? By far, this is the most depressing YA book I have read yet. ( )

The premise was interesting, and carried me through the end of the book. But the protagonist didn't seem to really struggle with anything that was happening to her. Every time some obstacle appeared in her life, it was resolved with no glitches or lasting complications. There was no hamartia or irony or twist to make the narrator's relationship with the global collapse interesting beyond the snooze inducing "anyone would be upset if this was happening to the planet" (except, is she even upset?)

A set of dangerous diseases somehow traverses the Atlantic ocean without any human travel. The protagonist learns about the danger, does the teenager thing of saying that she'll be fine and disregards the new rules that are meant to keep her alive. I expect consequences for that kind of decision making.

Without repercussions for bad choices, a post-apocalyptic story can take on the air of text in a cereal box puzzle. ( )

A fairly interesting story about the terrible effects the earth and its inhabitants experience after a meteor strikes the moon. With the moon being throw off its regular orbit the earth suffers terrible consequences, which a brave 16 year old girl describes in her journal. I immediately got behind this girl and her family and it was sad reading how she and her family gradually descended to the point of near death. But I was in no way pleased with the happy ending. It came out of nowhere and just didn't ring true. ( )

Written by 16 yr old Miranda via journal entries, who -along with the rest of the world- watches an asteroid slam into the Moon. Yet (typical for her age) her entries are mainly preoccupied with high school friends, potential boy friend, & upcoming class exams. Living with her divorced mom and two brothers (one away at college) she also maintains a good relationship with her dad and his new, much younger wife, who live in Boston. Only as weather changes, cataclymsic storms, & huge ocean shifts begins to destroy parts of continents does her entries begin to become more focused on events, & the reaction of the gov't, that is -before they lose contact with the outside world- TV, internet & radio signals drop.
Understandable tensions arise between Miranda and her mother, but the forward thinking actions/dictates (she quickly goes into mamma bear/survival mode pretty fast) builds an intense, but believable "plan" to make it through. For better or worse, because of that, she and her brothers hunker down to "survive" in their Pennsylvania home with the earliest winter on record, and strange weather events everywhere. Definitely a page turner - as conditions worsen, readers want to know: will they survive the year?? In its own way, a quiet take (one teenage girl) on a growing apocolyptic world, it's realism and poignancy are grounded in Miranda's growing up, much too fast, in order to help her family survive, no matter the cost. ( )