Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.com

Alex Morales is a 17-year-old Puerto Rican boy living with his family in New York. He has two younger sisters, Briana and Julie, and his parents, who he calls Mami and Papi. Everything is going pretty normally for Alex. He's the vice president of his school council and he's looking forward to getting into a great college.

But in one moment everything changes. Something huge hit the moon and knocked it out of place. It's now closer to Earth, causing a lot of horrible changes, including tidal waves, flooding, blackouts, and overall panic. According to many people, the Earth is coming to an end.

Alex's father was in Puerto Rico when it happened and they haven't heard from him since, and his mother was called in to the hospital where she works. Alex is afraid that since she hasn't contacted them that she died when there was a flood in the subway.

All of a sudden, Alex realizes that he is the sole caregiver to his two sisters. He has no idea when his parents will be back (if ever) and he's terrified.

People all around New York are dropping like flies. Bodies line the streets. People are going crazy trying to get their hands on food. Nothing that seemed important before is important now. All that matters is staying alive. And Alex is determined to care for his sisters and keep them alive no matter what.

But is that really possible with what has happened to the Earth?

Wow, this book was intense! It's scary in all ways possible. Reading about the bodies lining the streets of New York brought shivers to my spine. It's hard to explain in words how crazy this book is. If you like really intense books then this is definitely a story for you.

Also, be sure to read Ms. Pfeffer's previous release, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, which deals with the same issue that's discussed in this book but with different characters. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure it's just as good and frightening as THE DEAD & THE GONE. ( )

The Little Bookworm

The companion to Life As We Knew It is told from the point of view of 17 year old Alex. Worried about college, he and his family are unprepared for life after the moon is pushed out of its orbit by a asteroid. With his parents missing and his older brother gone, Alex must take care of his younger sisters and navigate a new and dangerous world for the three of them.

I'm going to say that this was a very impressive book. Usually sequels and especially middle books don't live up to the first book. I think The Dead and the Gone completely lived up to Life As We Knew It. There was very little rehashing of the events leading up to the moon crash and we get to the complex problem of living with hardly any resources very quickly. I found it a little hard to believe that Alex's family didn't really know about it since Miranda's school made such a big deal about it, but maybe since they were in NYC they didn't think it would affect them. I don't know. But, while Miranda had her mom, Alex doesn't have any adults living with him to make the hard decisions so he has to make them for himself and his younger sisters and he questions his choices all the time. And while Miranda's family had very little religion, Alex's family are devoted Catholics. The Catholicism is very heavy in this book and while it bothered some people, I know families who are very Catholic so it was okay with me.

*spoilers*

While I don't normally look at other reviews right before I write one, I did for this book. It seems a lot of people had a problem with the switch from first person diary form to third person narrative. This didn't bother me like it did others. Only because I know that the third book (This World We Live In) will involve the characters from both books and I'm hoping that it is written from Miranda's POV. To me that would make sense and the change of POV in TDTG won't matter since I don't like moving one person's head to another in a trilogy. The only way I will care about the shift is if the POV alternates between Alex and Miranda and then I will call bull. The OTHER big problem that people had so the stereotypical portrayal of a Puerto Rican family. Now I will admit that I can't comment one way or the other on whether this is true or not. But I will say that I remember wondering if this was really how Puerto Rican fathers acted towards their families and sons, especially. But it played out since I know that a lot of fathers expect their sons to act a certain way, no matter their nationality and that since it was Alex's impression of his father, it might not be the most accurate. Sometimes what we think people think about us is not the actual truth.

As dark as LAWKT was, it was nothing compared to TDTG. Dead bodies, rats, riots and violence permeate this book and it seems completely natural given that all this takes place in a large city. The threat of violence in LAWKT is almost non-existent since Miranda is sheltered and separated from the rest of her town, but living in NYC increases Alex and his sisters contact with others and, of course, they are teenagers living alone so it heightens the reality of their situation. One of the good things is that you get more information on what is happening worldwide and more about the cause and effect of the moon crash. And while the ending was sad and abrupt, it was also hopeful. TDTG could almost stand on its own. Meanwhile, I can't wait for the third book to come out. I have high hopes. ( )

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Companion to Life As We Knew It. I really cannot say enough about this book series. In the first we met Miranda and lived with her through her diary as she coped with the horrible conditions she was forced to deal with. In "The Dead and the Gone" we are given the story of what happened in New York Cit ( )

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Companion to Life As We Knew It which has to be one of my top ten YA books, but not neccesarily for young adults. The moon has fallen into an orbit closer to earth and the dominos fall as geophysic events cascade. LAWKI graphically describes the aftereffects of the event in a rural/suburban landscape while TDATG occurs in an urban setting where information seems less easy to obtain. For a good freak-out high, read LAWKI first. ( )

This is a companion to Pfeffer's "Life as We Knew It" which was an intense, compelling story about a teenage girl's life after a world wide natural disaster changes everything. In "the dead and the gone" the main character is a teenage boy living in New York City going through the same sorts of tragedies, but somehow this story is nowhere near as compelling and riveting as the first one. Perhaps this is because "Life" was written in the first person, while "dead" is written in third person, which makes the story less immediate.

Review by Ms. DuVall