The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

They struggle to care for each other and deal with their own emotions. Except for one brief phone call from older brother Carlos, letting them know he is being deployed to Texas, and a static-filled phone call that may have been Papi from Puerto Rico, Alex and his sisters are completely abandoned. Days pass, and Alex and his sisters begins to realize they are alone. When he gets home from work, the power is out, the cable is out, and no one is broadcasting on the radio. Alex is concentrating on maintaining his good grades, getting into college, and trying to look after his two younger sisters. Like Miranda in Life As We Knew It, Alex is wrapped up in his own problems- his mom is working overtime at a hospital in Queens, Dad is at a funeral in Puerto Rico, and his older brother is deployed in the Marines. He is working at a pizza parlor when the asteroid hits, and because it’s cloudy out, isn’t even aware of what is happening. In the dead and the gone we meet Alex Morales, a seventeen-year old high school junior who lives in New York City when the asteroid hits the moon.

Neither novel is a quick, fun read and I had to be prepared to deal with the frightening plot that I knew was in store for me. I didn’t read it right away, because I had to make sure I was able to handle the heavy material. I was recently lucky enough to get a copy of the UK edition of the novel (aside here- why are some books published in the UK, in paperback, first?!). The story continues to haunt me to this day and I looked forward to reading the companion novel, the dead and the gone, as soon as it was available. The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratzīack in January I read and reviewed Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It, which scared the bejeezus out of me.

World Literature That High School Students Actually Want to Read- Share a Story, Shape a Future 2012.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer