A fairly interesting story about the terrible effects the earth and its inhabitants experience after a meteor strikes the moon. With the moon being throw off its regular orbit the earth suffers terrible consequences, which a brave 16 year old girl describes in her journal. I immediately got behind this girl and her family and it was sad reading how she and her family gradually descended to the point of near death. But I was in no way pleased with the happy ending. It came out of nowhere and just didn't ring true. ( )

Written by 16 yr old Miranda via journal entries, who -along with the rest of the world- watches an asteroid slam into the Moon. Yet (typical for her age) her entries are mainly preoccupied with high school friends, potential boy friend, & upcoming class exams. Living with her divorced mom and two brothers (one away at college) she also maintains a good relationship with her dad and his new, much younger wife, who live in Boston. Only as weather changes, cataclymsic storms, & huge ocean shifts begins to destroy parts of continents does her entries begin to become more focused on events, & the reaction of the gov't, that is -before they lose contact with the outside world- TV, internet & radio signals drop.
Understandable tensions arise between Miranda and her mother, but the forward thinking actions/dictates (she quickly goes into mamma bear/survival mode pretty fast) builds an intense, but believable "plan" to make it through. For better or worse, because of that, she and her brothers hunker down to "survive" in their Pennsylvania home with the earliest winter on record, and strange weather events everywhere. Definitely a page turner - as conditions worsen, readers want to know: will they survive the year?? In its own way, a quiet take (one teenage girl) on a growing apocolyptic world, it's realism and poignancy are grounded in Miranda's growing up, much too fast, in order to help her family survive, no matter the cost. ( )

There was something about this book that not only sucked you in but made you feel like you were living in the story and that the real world was a dream. I had moments of odd "not-quite-here" where I'd realize that there was still electricity, food, and that life was still normal. This is not an action-packed book. It was the story of a normal family struggling to survive in a world that was no longer the same. That made it more powerful to me than if the story had followed someone less ordinary. ( )

An asteroid hit the moon and knocked it out of orbit, closer to earth, creating natural disasters on our planet. Surprisingly, scientists didn't anticipate this possibility. Yes, Pfeffer's opening was terrific and some parts were almost believable, however, it quickly became a rant about how much the main character, teenage Miranda, misses chocolate chip ice cream or whatever. If there was any plot intended, it had disappeared mid-novel. The religious aspect was spectacularly mishandled. DNF ( )

Everyone's excited to see the meteor crash into the moon. In fact, there are block parties planned and everything. Miranda and her family are no exception, and it feels like a nice break from the normal routine of school and such. But the scientists miscalculated the force the impact would have, and the world is thrown into shock when it's apparent that the meteor knocked the moon closer to earth. First come the massive tidal waves, then the world-wide earthquakes and volcano eruptions, and then soon enough Miranda and her family lose contact with the outside world when the TV channels and radio stations become just static. Will they survive through the winter? Will things ever get back to normal?

I adore a good disaster story. And this one almost qualifies. It's a good story, for certain, and I definitely wanted to know how it all turned out for Miranda, but I want my disaster tales to have me constantly on the edge of my reading chair, and this one didn't do that for me. In fact, the middle seemed to drag a bit. Still, an interesting take on how one family deals with sudden and massive catastrophe. ( )