an amazing second book in the trilogy, was very exciting the whole way through but very sad when bri died!! was not expecting that, somehow i thought she would survive! :( can't wait to read the third book!!!! :)

Great story addition to the first novel.

This series is amazing, I'm surprised there aren't any comments yet. I can see it becoming a movie, at least the first book.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, read by Robertson Dean A companion novel to Life as We Knew It, this novel takes place over the same time period only in a different place, New York City. Here we have 17-year-old Alex Morales, dealing with the chaos unleashed by the asteroid hitting the moon offcourse. Alex lives with his parents and two sisters in an apartment in upper Manhattan. His father is in Puerto Rico for his grandmother's funeral and Alex has no idea whether he has survived. His mother works at a hospital in Queen's and was called in to work after the event, but hasn't been heard from since. Alex doesn't know for sure what happened to her, but is worried that she may have been drowned in the subway. His older brother Carlos is a marine, stationed in California and manages to communicate to the family that he has been mobilized. Alex is left alone with his two younger sisters, Brianna and Julie. They do have some things going for them. They are strong Catholics, with all three going to Catholic schools and involved in their local church, which offers some respite. They also have an uncle who owns a bodega and get some food initially from him. Since Alex's father is the apartment building manager, they also have limited access to some of the other apartments in their building. As Alex struggles to take charge of his family and do what is necessary for their survival, he also struggles with his faith and how that impacts on the things he needs to do. This is a story of desperation and hope, of community and change. Alex is challenged, but finds the courage and support to deal with those challenges.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! In Life As We Knew It we found out how the world ended in a small town, and now in this companion novel we get to find out how it happened in a big city. In Life As We Knew It, the crumbling of the world is limited to the experiences of one girl and her family, confined in a single room of their house. Their struggles must reflect everyone else’s, their experiences mirror what must be going on elsewhere, and through their personal suffering we feel the plight of the world. In The Dead And The Gone, the collapse of the city gets our attention, and while we see what’s happening to New York and say holy crap this is bad, there is very little connection to the main characters or their trials. The book says they go through a lot, but I don’t feel it the way I did reading Miranda’s diary entries in Life As We Knew It. The main character rarely knows what is going on, which is frustrating because he’s top of his class and plans to be President someday. He barely knows what caused the end of the world, he has no idea what’s coming in the near future, and he has no plans – only reactions. He survives mostly because of luck, which does not make for a compelling story. When most of his family is dead by the end, he barely shows he cares and as a reader I can hardly be expected to do more than that.

Every flip of the page you are hoping things, life for these survivers will get back to normal.

The writing is wonderful and the characters are completely fleshed out. I literally couldn't put this book down and read it all in one sitting, I had to know what was going to happen. The landscape in these novels is a desolate feature and brings much terror and sadness but there is also hope. A definite must read!

BEST BOOK EVER I LOVE IT.

best book ever read

I love the way the author makes it seem so realistic, with the meteor hitting the moon and the after effects of it. But this is really scary too, seeing as her sister died so easily.. I think this one and the last one were the best ones.