If you are a member of the Adbooks listserv and haven't been keeping up with your messages recently, you might want to check them now. This month they've been discussing Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. And who should show up to share some very interesting information about the book but Ms. Pfeffer herself.
She has given me permission to pass on the news that she recently finished a "companion volume," though she is going to refer to it as a parallel book because the action parallels what is happening in Life As We Knew It. The new book is called The Dead and the Gone, and it takes place in New York City with a male protagonist. The book is written in the third person--no diary format this time. The story begins on May 18th when the moon is struck by the meteor and continues until...well, I don't believe in giving too much away.
The Dead and the Gone won't be coming out until next spring at the earliest.
A lot of adult readers never got over the disaster-induced anxiety of Life As We Knew It. We've got some time to try to toughen up for the next installment.
3 comments:
Oh, exciting news! Thanks for posting it. I loved Life as We Knew It, but you're right it was anxiety-inducing! It made me want to run the grocery store and stock up.
According to the conversation on Adbooks, it had that effect on many readers. It would be interesting to hear from a teen reader. The book certainly freaks out adults.
I'm supposed to do some booktalks at the CLA convention, and LAWKI is one of the titles I'm nearly certain I'm going to do. I couldn't believe it when I mentioned the book to my book discussion group a couple of months ago. They basically yawned and said "another global disaster book?" I was so disappointed, because I really wanted to read it with them and see what they thought about it. I guess it's not to be. But this group is mostly upper high school kids, so we're going between YA and adult fiction. They still like a lot of the YA books we read, but it is a harder sell and they do tend to be just a bit more skeptical about events or characters than they are with adult fiction. I'm going to have to reload my group next year, so I'll probably wind up with more younger teens. I swear we're going to read this book!
(Gail, you're making me laugh with the identifying library comments!)
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