the dead & the gone
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Life for Alex Morales, a New York City Puerto Rican teenager, changed forever without a second of warning. An asteroid collides with the moon, moving it closer to the earth. As a result, the moon's gravitational pull adversely affects the tides, causing worldwide flooding of low-lying areas. It also causes an increase in volcanic activity, so that the air becomes filled with ash, blocking out the sun's rays. Within months, New York City is constantly freezing, breathing is difficult, and nothing will grow. Alex's father was in Puerto Rico for his mother's funeral when the asteroid hit, and his mother was called in to the hospital to work. Neither one ever comes home, and 17-year-old Alex is left to care for his two younger sisters alone with food more and more difficult to come by. Alex is forced to take extreme actions just to survive. This is an unrelentingly bleak look at one possible future on an earth with severe climate changes. I wanted to quit reading, on every page because it was so depressing, but I just couldn't. This book is filled with small kindnesses and unselfish acts on the part of several characters, in spite of their need to survive, and I just had to know what happens to everyone. The Dead and the Gone is a companion book to Life as We Knew It, the same story told from the viewpoint of a small-town teenaged girl. Both books are thought-provoking reads with characters worth caring about, and very timely themes in light of the current global climate change debate.
--Reviewed by Mrs. Sams
No comments:
Post a Comment