Reviewed by Nessa Luna on
About a year and a half ago, I read a book called Life As We Knew It. I loved it so much, I finished it within twenty-four hours after starting it. I went to check Goodreads and found out there were two other books in the series, and I quickly purchased them and read them as well. Then I found out there was going to be a fourth book, but at that time it would only be released in hardcover. In September this year, The Shade of the Moon was finally released in paperback, and at the beginning of this month, I finally purchased it and read it. I have to say, it is not my favourite book in the series.
This fourth book is told from Jon's point of view. Jon is the little brother of Miranda who was the main character of the first and third book. It has been nearly four years since the moon came closer to the earth, three years since they've left their home in Pennsylvania to travel to a safer place to live. Jon, his stepmother Lisa, and baby Gabriel are now living in an enclave - where they have enough food, domestics cleaning and cooking for them, and plenty of breathable air. The rest of Jon's family - his mother, his sister Miranda (who is eight months pregnant), her husband Alex (who we met in The Dead and the Gone), his brother Matt and his wife Syl - live outside of the enclave, having to work six days a week, twelve hours a day to earn enough money for food.
Jon is not my favourite character of this series, so I wasn't really looking forward to be reading from his POV. Actually, this was the only book in which I was actually hoping for a multiple POV story, but alas, we only got Jon. I actually just wanted to know more about Miranda and Alex, especially now that they are married and expecting a child. As I was reading this book, I started to dislike Jon more and more. I even actually started hating him at one point. After he basically admitted he'd tried to rape Julie, and that that was the actual reason she got paralised at the end of the third book, and then he tried to justify it. No. If a girl says 'no', she means 'no', she doesn't mean 'oh Jon please do continue doing whatever you are doing'. Even though she'd been saying 'yes' the time before, NO MEANS NO. But Jon didn't listen and he still tried to do stuff to her in that empty house. No wonder Julie got frightened and chose the storm rather than staying in a house with him. Asshole. (Pardon my words). He also kept on being a bitch about the 'Grubs', the people who don't live in the enclave, who need to work six days a week to earn their food. His family were grubs, how the hell can he talk about them like that? I really wanted the little Jonny back from the first book, I liked him a lot more than this privileged 'Claver' Jon.
He also got so mad at his sister who'd 'murdered' Julie at the end of the previous book (She'd given Julie sleeping pills and then pressed down a pillow on her face to make her stop breathing). Because sure, Jon, Julie would have miraculously healed from her injuries and then you could have forced her to marry you and then you could have sex with her whenever you wanted because that's what you wanted right? Jfc. I personally think Miranda did the right thing because Julie was paralised, she couldn't move anymore from the neck down. They were about to leave Pennsylvania to travel to the enclave by BIKE or perhaps even by foot and Julie would have to be carried. YOUR DAD DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT, he died along the way and do you really think a girl like JULIE would have survived? Honestly Jon, think about it.
The storyline didn't really interest me that much, apart from the parts where we saw Miranda, Alex and Laura (Jon's and Miranda's mum). I was not at all interested at the things that Jon did, which was basically playing football, defeating all the 'grubs' and getting wasted on potka (potato vodka, lol). And then doing whatever he wanted to grub girls, yeah that made me hate him even more. The only part where I actually started 'liking' Jon a bit more was near the end, when he did something for Miranda and Alex that just made me extremely happy.
In the end, I liked The Shade of the Moon, but I wasn't satisfied at all. The ending was a bit abrupt and I yeah I still don't have the feeling the series ended. Though I am not really interested in a fifth book, perhaps just a short story to find out what happened to the other characters (I would love to know what happened to Opal, to Miranda and Alex and their baby, to Matt and Syl and Gabe/Gabriel, yeah a short story would be nice).
If you loved the Last Survivors series, you should just read this book, because it's still a book in this series, and it's still about that same world, but I wouldn't expect something awesome to come out of this if I were you.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 27 October, 2014: Finished reading
- 27 October, 2014: Reviewed