The protagonists of Pfeffer's novels <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Dead and the Gone and <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Life As We Knew It join forces in this third installment of a harrowing saga set in the not so distant future. A year after the moon was thrown off course by a meteor, natural disasters and climate changes on Earth are still making mere existence a challenge. Miranda's family is barely scraping by on food rations when Miranda's father, stepmother, their baby, and three other refugees show up unexpectedly. Despite there now being more mouths to feed, Miranda's mother welcomes them, and Miranda finds herself falling in love with Alex, one of the refugees, as they spend hours together, scavenging abandoned houses for essentials. Pfeffer masterfully evokes the cold, colorless world in which her characters reside. Moments of relief are frequently tinged with horror, as when Miranda and Alex must bypass a rotting corpse to get to a horde of food. Still, hope is never completely extinguished. Throughout, readers will be moved by displays of compassion, strength, and faith as characters endure grim realities and face an uncertain future. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)

In Life as We Knew It (2006), readers met 16-year-old Miranda, living in rural Pennsylvania when a meteor hits the moon, causing chaos and carnage throughout the world. In The Dead and the Gone (2008), the same event in New York City is chronicled through the eyes of Alex Morales. Now, through rather improbable circumstances, the two teens meet when Alex and sister Julie, tagging along with Miranda's father, wife, and infant, show up in Pennsylvania. It's been a year since the meteor hit, and though there's a new normalcy, it involves hunger, a lack of sunlight, and "redistributing" goods from the homes of the dead. This seems a more rushed effort than the previous books. Whys and hows are barely answered (the newcomers have done quite a bit of traveling, considering it's by foot), and Alex and Miranda's relationship goes from dislike to romance in literally the turn of the page. Still, fans are invested by now, and though this could (and probably should) be the last book in the series, the door is open for more.

The final installment in Pfeffer's dystopian trilogy (following Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone) about how an asteroid-strike on the moon devastates Earth brings Alex, from the second book, to teen narrator Miranda's house. As usual, Pfeffer skillfully builds tension while showing how characters survive--or don't--in a world of dwindling resources.

Palpable despair is dappled with tiny flares of hope in this third entry in Pfeffer's enthralling series about the aftereffects of a meteor strike on the Moon that has altered the earth's gravitational pull. Set a year after the cataclysmic event, the back story is efficiently summarized and readers are reintroduced to Miranda, the teen whose journal entries formed the narrative of the first installment. When her missing father returns, he brings many others with him, including Alex, the protagonist from the second in the series. The author once again creates an extremely satisfying blend of human drama and action. Grimly frightening imagery and spot-on depiction of day-to-day bleakness are emotionally potent. Unfortunately, the inevitable romance between Miranda and Alex is less so. Given the circumstances, it is believable that their relationship would be rushed, but the initial antagonistic tone set up between them still seems too easily resolved, resulting in a formulaic feel. However, fans of the first two will thrill to this latest and the loose ending will leave them hoping for more. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Gr 7 Up-This companion to Life As We Knew It (2006) and The Dead and the Gone (2008, both Harcourt) brings together the teen protagonists of those books when Miranda Evans's father and stepmother arrive with their new baby and a trio of strangers, including Alex Morales. For the past year, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother have been living in the family home in Howell, PA, struggling to survive since an asteroid hit the Moon, destroying the Earth's climate and causing millions to die. Deeply religious, Alex is determined to see his younger sister, Julie, safely to a convent before joining a monastery himself. When Miranda and Alex fall in love, she tries to persuade him to stay with her. Then a tornado hits Howell with tragic consequences, and Miranda must make a choice that may drive Alex away forever. As the narrator, Miranda dominates the book, but both she and Alex are sympathetic characters with her independence a nice complement to his sense of honor. Characters such as Miranda's brothers, parents, and Julie play less of a role but are still likable and fully three-dimensional. It is a testament to the author's skill that This World We Live In can be read as a stand-alone novel. In fact, new readers might not even realize that the earlier titles exist. Fans of Miranda and Alex, however, will keep this installment flying off the shelves, and the ambiguous ending will make them clamor for a fourth book. Leah J. Sparks, formerly at Bowie Public Library, MD

A year after the moon has been thrown off course by a meteor, Miranda from Life as We Knew It (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006/VOYA October 2006) continues to write journal entries. Climate changes and natural disasters persist in making survival a daily ordeal. Miranda, her mother, and two brothers, Matt and Jon, are scraping by on subsistence rations, so when Matt brings home a new wife, Syl, and her father and stepmother show up with their baby and three other travelers, excitement is tempered by tension. Two of the travelers, Alex and Julie Morales (Dead and Gone, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008/VOYA April 2008), have made their way back north still in possession of three passes to one of the elusive safe towns. Alex, however, plans to take Julie to a convent to keep her safe. He decides he should dedicate his life to God too, but as the relationship between Alex and Miranda changes from antagonistic to loving, tension and questions abound. A catastrophic storm changes everything, leaving more loose ends tinged with suspense and leaving room for a fourth installment in this series. Teens who have read the first two of these compelling apocalyptic novels will eagerly reach for the third. The coincidence of Miranda and Alex’s lives crossing paths seems farfetched, but the main focus of survival amid the unending challenges spawned by the moon’s shift supply plenty of suspense. The compassion and strength of individuals, questions of faith, and connections of the heart in the midst of constant turmoil combine to make this a thought-provoking read.—Mary Ann Darby.