HaikuReview: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Cold, hungry, and scared,
I shivered on my plush couch.
Fully transported.

It’ s impossible to leave this book at just a HaikuReview. I read the story pretty much straight through in one day, staying up until 3 in the morning because there was no possible way that I couldn’t finish reading it. But it was more than just a gripping read, it did what all books strive to do. It made you live the story.

As I personally hate spoilers, I will desperately strive to give away no more about this book than the jacket flap does. Actually, since I try not to read those, I’ll try to give away much less than that. Mostly, I want to talk about the ability to truly draw a reader into a world, engaging all their senses, emotions, and being.

As the title reveals, in this book, life is altered from the reality that we know. The characters are thrust into a survival situation. I’ve always loved survival books, from the first time I read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen in 6th grade. The way people react when challenged has always made me wonder how I would react. Would I be brave? Scared? Would I crumble under pressure or learn to be as resourceful as the characters? I love how ingenious characters become. How lonely. And ultimately, how determined. But back to the topic.

Susan Beth Pfeffer manages to cocoon you in her world, wrapping layer upon layer, until you can no longer escape the reality she creates. And you don’t want to. As I read this book, I grew hungry and cold. I started thinking about how many canned goods I had on my shelf. How much water was available to me. But even while feeling this, I was exhilarated by the challenge of the situation, my mind whirled, thinking what would I ransack from the grocery store in an emergency.

I’ve been trying to understand how Pfeffer accomplished this total absorption of my world. When I paused from my reading to take the dogs out or eat dinner with Tony, I would look around my whole and plentiful life in wonder. It hadn’t changed. There was still food in the cabinets.

I think the key, aside from good writing, is that Pfeffer eases us subtly into her world. In the beginning we see the life of a normal teenage girl. If I hadn’t seen the cover or scanned the back, I’d have no idea something bad was going to happen. This is so different from the usual approach, with early foreshadowing to warn us, ‘hold onto your hats’. It allowed me to sink into everyday with the characters, to trust them, to believe their lives. Then when things change, it is also subtle, inching the rug out from under us. Pfeffer brings on chaos so slowly that we don’t even recognize it until we are surrounded. By then we’re completely committed. There’s no turning your back.

You can only go forward, and the character makes you want to. You almost never feel depressed or hopeless. You want to survive. To forge on.

What Pfeffer does is so difficult that I’ve only experienced it a few times in my reading life. I deeply appreciate her careful storytelling. I hope that one day, I will be able to draw people in with the same totality that she does. Three cheers for Life As We Knew It.

Posted in Haiku review, I heart this book

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