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Loading... How I Live Now (original 2004; edition 2006)by Meg Rosoff
Work InformationHow I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (2004)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. FROM AMAZON: "This is a story about love. "It's also a story about hate, which is why I left New York in the first place. You don't fly halfway across the world to live with a bunch of people you never met, just for a laugh. "I guess if I'd known where it was all going to lead, I might have thought twice about stepping onto that plane. I might have worried a little more about Edmond being my cousin. "And me being 15. "But I didn't. And in the end, those things didn't matter as much as you think they would. "In the end, the world had bigger things to worry about than us." Because the events and the writing are quite surreal, and there are aspects of the story that don't quite make sense, I spent a lot of the time wondering whether Daisy was a reliable narrator. (She is) Even though it is set in the future, the novel has a Kids Evacuated to the Country in WWII feel to it. Contemporary technologies such as mobile phones and emails exist, but none of them work because of the war. I found the abrupt transition into Part 2 unsettling and thought it jarred with the flow of the story. For me, in the overall, Part 2 didn't work as well. But it's definitely original and memorable and I enjoyed the writing very much. So 4 stars.
Fifteen-year-old Daisy, an anorexic, acerbic New Yorker, falls instantly in love with her English cousins' farm and with her English cousin Edmond. Idyllic love story abruptly becomes horrific survival tale when an unnamed enemy power invades the country. A captivating and deeply satisfying first novel. Review 9/04. "How I Live Now." The Horn Book Magazine Jan.-Feb. 2005: 16. Belongs to Publisher SeriesPenguin Celebrations (28) Is contained inAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Historical Fiction.
Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML:"Every war has turning points and every person too." Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy. As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way. A riveting and astonishing story. From the Hardcover edition.. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Really any list of things that happen in this book (incest, eating disorders, terrorism, an evil stepmother, magical psychic children) can make it sound terrible. What makes it not terrible is the voice of the narrator, the quality of the writing, and this overall unapologetic attitude the book gives off. It doesn't apologize for the incest, the anorexia, the terrorism, or the magical psychic stuff. And because the book is strongly written I didn't find myself questioning the author's choices or being grossed out or offended.
I really really liked this book. ( )