Life As We Knew It

Life as We Knew It is the harrowing tale of a family trying to survive in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world. A young adult novel, the story is told from the point-of-view of sixteen-year-old Miranda and takes the form of her journal entries. Miranda finds her world thrown into complete chaos when an asteroid hits the moon and shifts it out of orbit, moving it closer to Earth. Though the event is expected, scientific calculations about the event are somehow misread and dire consequences follow. The increase in the moon’s gravitational pull immediately causes massive tidal waves and tsunamis that decimate most of the world’s coastal cities. With the erosion of coastlines, even inland cities are soon destroyed. Power is disrupted, phone and cell lines work only sporadically and the nation’s supply lines are affected as well, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, presumed dead and/or missing.

Realizing that things will not return to normal anytime soon, people enter survival mode, including Miranda’s mother, Laura, who takes Miranda and her brother Jonny out of school to stockpile food and other basic necessities, in case things get worse.