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This World We Live In
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Read This World We Live In
The Last Survivors: Book 3

This World We Live In (2010) (edit title/settings)

by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

It's been nearly a year since a meteor collided with the moon catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce. The struggle to survive intensifies... read more

Summary edit see section history

It's been over a month since Miranda Evans has written in her diary, a month of relative calm for her and her family. It's springtime, and with warmer weather comes rain, and the melting of the winter's snow. The shad are running in a nearby river, and Miranda's brothers Matt and Jon leave... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

It's been over a month since Miranda Evans has written in her diary, a month of relative calm for her and her family. It's springtime, and with warmer weather comes rain, and the melting of the winter's snow. The shad are running in a nearby river, and Miranda's brothers Matt and Jon leave home for a few days to see if they can catch some to supplement their food supply.

When they return, Matt brings with him a girl named Syl, who he introduces as his bride. But that's not the only shock Miranda and her family have to deal with. A few weeks later, Miranda's father, stepmother, and baby brother show up at her door. Accompanying them are three strangers, a man named Charlie Rutherford, and two teenagers, Alex and Julie Morales. These five people have crossed America together, becoming, in their own way, a family.

Miranda's complicated feelings about Alex, curiosity, resentment, longing, and passion turn into love. Alex's feelings are equally complex. His plans to escort Julie to a convent where she can be taken care of, so that he will be free to enter a monastery, are destined for failure. He wants desperately to live up to his moral code, but his desire for Miranda is too strong. He proposes to Miranda that they take Julie and go to a safe town.

But before Miranda and Alex can go off together, a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and in its aftermath, Miranda makes a decision that will change forever her life and Alex's, and the world that they live in will never be the same.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Miranda Evans: Miranda is the main character who writes about her life in her diary. she is a seventeen year old teenager who lives a hard life, trying to survive each day with her family.
  • Alex Morales: Main Character from book 2, is in book 3. Has 1 younger sister and an older brother.
  • Alex: Julie and Carlos's brother. He and his family are traveling and stop by Miranda's house on the way. He plans on having his family do work for the church, he wants to become a monk. Becomes interested in Miranda.
  • Matt: Miranda's older brother. He is very headstrong, and determined. He takes after his mother, who only wants to see her children alive and well, despite this catastrophe
  • Jon: Miranda's younger brother. Romantic interest with Julie. He hates being treated like a baby, and is very independent. He loves being friends with Julie, and would hate to see her go.
  • Lisa: Miranda's step-mom. Mother of the baby. She is a little flighty, and sometimes happy-go-lucky, but the apocalypse, for obvious reasons, stressed her out, and made her a little high-maintenance.
  • Charlie: Friend of Miranda's dad.
  • Gabriel: Half-brother of Miranda, son of Lisa and Miranda's dad.
  • Mrs. Nesbitt: Deceased neighbor and close friend to Miranda and her family
  • Horton: Jon's cat.
  • Carlos: Alex's and Julie's older brother who is in Texas with his Marine regiment.
  • Mr. Danworth: Man in charge of handing out food supplies to those who are still left in town.
  • Diana: Goddess of the moon and of war.
  • Hal: Miranda's father.
  • Miranda: The main character, the one that you are viewing the story through. Miranda expresses her view of the story by writing a diary. She is the middle child, the only daughter. She is sixteen years old and is very adventurous like her brothers but due to her mom she is limited on the things she can do verses her brothers.
  • Baby Rachel: This is the baby Miranda dreams that her father and Lisa have before they come home with Gabriel.
  • Sally: Bob Nesbitt's wife, that Lisa pretends to be.
  • Syl: Matt's wife.
  • Bobby Nesbitt: Mrs. Nesbitt's son who lived in San Diego.
Show all 19 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Julie began to cough, and when she did, her body shook. I lifted her so she was in more of a sitting position and had her rest against my chest until the coughing stopped. There were three pillows on the mattress already, but I asked if she'd like another. She said no. "Your like the princess and the pea," I said knowing what was coming but posponing it for another hour, another minute. I remember hoping that Alex would somehow fly in and Julie would be mirculously cured.”
    Diary Entry by Miranda Evans
  • “There's a difference between charity and love," I said. "What we're offering is love. Love lasts forever.”
    Miranda Evans
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • 'You think you know how tomorrow is going to be, you've made your plans, everything is set in place, and then the unimaginable happens. Life catches you by surprise. It always does. But there's good mixed in with the bad. It's there. You just have to recognize it.'
    Highlighted by 98 Kindle customers
  • But moments of happiness can sneak up on you, like pairs of unworn blue jeans, and you need to cherish them because they're so rare and so unpredictable.
    Highlighted by 92 Kindle customers
  • the darkest sky is filled with stars, that the sun casts its warmth on the coldest day.
    Highlighted by 87 Kindle customers
  • all the life on all the other planets throughout the universe as unaware of our lives, our suffering, as we are of theirs.
    Highlighted by 65 Kindle customers
  • There've been times in my life when I thought I knew everything worth knowing, the sweetness of a robin's song, the brilliance of a field of dandelions, the exhilaration of gliding across the ice on a clear winter's day. This past year I grew to know hunger, grief, darkness, fear. I began to understand how lonely you can feel even when all you want is to be alone.
    Highlighted by 64 Kindle customers
  • 'You have to believe in the future,' Alex said. 'Otherwise there's no point being alive.'
    Highlighted by 63 Kindle customers
  • 'Trust in tomorrow,' Alex said. 'Every day of your life, there's been a tomorrow. I promise you, there'll be a tomorrow.'
    Highlighted by 56 Kindle customers
  • I almost burst out laughing. The last living boy in America drops into my bedroom only he wants to be a monk. I think that pretty much sums up my life.
    Highlighted by 51 Kindle customers
  • someday, somewhere, we'll be part of a mountain of bodies reaching up toward the sunless sky.
    Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers
  • He taught me to trust in tomorrow. 'Yes, Alex,' I say. 'I'm coming.'
    Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers
Show all 12 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

I'm shivering, and I can't tell if it's because something strange is going on or because of the dream I had or just because I'm in the kitchen, away from the warmth of the woodstove.

Table of Contents edit see section history

There are 19 unnamed chapters divided into four sections (a month for each section): April-July.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 3 of 4 in The Last Survivors. (standard series)

Preceded by The Dead and the Gone, and followed by The Shade of the Moon: Life As We Knew It Series, Book 4.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Susan Beth Pfeffer (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 0547248040
Page Count: 256

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Non-graphic kissing and violence. Also includes graphic scenes.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Life As We Knew It
  • The Dead and the Gone
  • The Girl Who Owned a City
  • The Road

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Life As We Knew It
  • The Dead and the Gone

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • Life As We Knew It
  • The Dead and the Gone

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