The Dead and the Gone

"The Dead and the Gone" is book 2 in a 4-book (so far) series by Susan Beth Pfeffer which she has named "The Last Survivors." I knew from book 1 that the other books in this series would be a treat but I didn't expect Book 2 to be even better than the first. Miranda, the heroine of "Life as We Knew It," is revealed to be very lucky. She comes from a family of four (a mother and three children) all of whom are able to survive in a village in northeast Pennsylvania for ten months. Alex Morales, the hero of "The Dead and the Gone," is part of a family of six (he is the second of four children) living on the Upper West Side in Manhattan of which only three members are alive at the end of the book. The parents drown on the first night, as a result of the very high tides that result from the moon being closer, and the death of one of Alex's siblings (I won't say which one) represents the climax of the book.New York goes to hell in a handbasket; death rises around the protagonists like one of the super-tides pulled by the moon. The collision that pushes the moon closer to the earth takes place in mid-May. By mid-July bodies are being left on the street in the Upper West Side. The last delivery of emergency rations to that part of Manhattan takes place on December 9. The last day chronicled is December 29, by which time New York is almost completely abandoned, as opposed to Howell, Pennsylvania, which still had between a quarter and a sixth of its pre-collision population the following March. Things are worse for Alex than for Miranda because while her family had an enormous stockpile of food, his must leave the house constantly to get food.I thought both the role of both violence and religion during a period of social breakdown were depicted more realistically in this book than in the first, which is the reason I give this book a full five stars. Alex's family is deeply religious and their faith sustains them both literally (they are fed at the parochial school they attend) and spiritually. God and His representatives on earth become the only people Alex can talk to about what he is going through, as he tries to protect his sisters from the full implications of what is happening. Alex's first sister rarely leaves the house after an ill-fated attempt to join a convent, but his second sister becomes a target of men with base desires and nothing to lose by fulfilling them. You know society hasn't completely broken down, however, because social class becomes even more important than it previously was, with the rich and well-connected not having to creep past dead bodies all the time in their part of New York (apparently Midtown), foreshadowing the fourth book, in which (the reviews tell us) a rigid caste system has set in in Tennessee.Book 3, "This World we Live In," brings together the surviving characters from Book 1 and Book 2 and I can't wait to read it. Fortunately, I ordered all of the last three books in the series at the same time from Amazon, so I don't have to. Five stars.

First things first...I am totally enjoying the 2nd installment of the series. However, as well thought out the author has done regarding the "weather events"....she is in a 180 degree difference when it comes to the people-oriented events.If you have not read any of these series...stop right here.....buy them...read them...and if you want to come back and read my only challenges...do that...If you have read the books ...well read on and see if you agree:I have a hard time believing that there was hardly ever an event where these kids walked out the door in desolated NYC and no "bad people" awaited them. ONCE...that's it...once....and the guy never came back...hmmmmmmm...reality check. But let's explain that off that all the bad people have left that section of NY (where they went is anyone's guess)But the thing that totally eludes me (and my co-listener, Cynthia) is this.....they are on the 12th floor of an apartment building and are only able to get into a handful of apartments in order to grab whatever food is in there. As the story progresses they are teetering on the edge of starvation. If there were just 5 apartments on each floor there would be 60 apartments. They invaded ..a few.So let's say there are 50 apartments that they didn't go into because they didn't have keys and the doors were made from steel. Um, uh.....the doors may be steel...but the walls are most likely Dri Wall! If anyone reading this has any experience with DriWall...you simply take a hammer or any thing hard and smash it right in. So here we have three kids starving to death....and all around them are apartments that have no one living in them and most likely a total of one year's food there...and instead they go out hunting for trinkets on dead people and stand in line for 5 hours in the freezing cold waiting to get a bag of food....HUH????OK...So I pretended I was back in the 70s when I could puff on a magic cigarette and suspend all reality...and I get through this glaring stupidity of these kids..I still LOVE the story!!!

Book 2 in the Life As We Knew It series. This follows another family during approximately the same time as book one. One of the things that I kept wondering about while I read book one, was, how could other people survive if they weren't as wise as Miranda's mom was? In book one, her mom stockpiled canned goods (enough to last well into winter), and made other very wise decisions to keep her family alive. Book 2, The Dead and the Gone deals with Alex, a 17 year old in New York. When the moon is hit, he is living in New York City with his family. His father was out of the country and presumably dead, and his mother most likely died in the flooding of the subway. He finds himself responsible for his 15 year old sister Bri and his 12 year old sister Julie. They don't stockpile canned goods or do the things that Miranda's family does. He still manages to find ways to survive in the city, and they're not always pleasant to think about. His family is far more religious than Miranda's, at least in expression, so this presented another view point, how they looked to the church for help and what help the church could offer. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Alex's sisters grated on my nerves with their reactions to every thing, including his sister Bri's absolute refusal to believe that her parents were dead, but I suppose it was a realistic portrayal. I look forward to reading book 3.

The second book in the series, couldn’t put it down!

I enjoyed this book. Not as much as Life As We Know It, but enough to be gripped to the pages and invested in the story of the Morales family.This book was definitely darker than than previous, more gruesome, brutal and violent but surprisingly I found it less believable. This is New York right? One of the most highly populated cities in the world. So I found the three Morelas kids isolation in an apartment block a little odd. I saw Pfeffer's aim at showing how the rich and 'important' and the poor would be treat differently, but I didn't believe they'd be so immediately forgotten about.I also struggled with the constant religion in this book. Particularly from Alex's sister Brianna. Her blind faith annoyed me, especially when it put herself and others in danger. Yet everyone in this book pampers her. Julie on the other hand is seen as an annoyance, a liability. Personally I'd prefer her resourcefulness and fighting spirit in the face of the Apocalypse..she was my favorite character.I think the biggest issue was that there's no expansion on the first book here. We don't learn anything new, it's just another persons version of events. I sound like I actually hated it, I didn't. It's still a good read, and the idea behind it is awesom

After learning there was a sequel to Life as We Knew It, I immediately purchased The Dead and the Gone and I am very happy that I did. This book is a wonderful follow up that shows what is happening in New York, from the perspective of Alex Morales. I much prefer this book in 3rd person, rather than in diary format. I thought that these characters were much easier to get attached to, (that is not to say that Miranda and her family were unlikable) because they were very much alone and Alex was a much more likable lead character. I only wished that we could have got to find out more about Kevin, as I thought that there was something more going on with him which would have been interesting to explore. Also, though I understand why Susan Pfeffer did not explain in greater detail what happened with the moon, anyone reading this book without reading Life as We Knew It, would probably have been a little confused. All in all, a fantastic emotional book (I'll admit I did cry at it). It is worth reading.

Everything is as expected

Gripping

i brought the first book and couldnt put it down, im not a teenager but a grandmother, (not that old though).just got a kindle and have the last two books on this, ive read a book in two evenings, can't put it down, waiting for the next one.