Reviewed by nitzan_schwarz on
While The Dead and the Gone is categorized as a sequel to Life as We Knew It, it would more accurately be described as a companion novel as it actually follows the same time span of the original novel, only chronicling the world-ending disaster through the eyes of 17 years old Alex Morales all the way in New York.
Despite this, The Dead and the Gone is fundamentally different than it's predecessor, and all because the eyes it's told through, and the place it's being held.
Alex is a less likable character than Miranda, I'll admit that. This is the main reason that, while I enjoyed this novel, I didn't love it as much as the first. It's not that I hated him or anything, but I also didn't like how he thought and acted with Julie, and he was sometimes overly righteous. It just didn't sit all that well with me, even though God knows I don't condemn him for any of it.
Because Alex sees death, everywhere, all around him, from the very first moment things go array. His experience is much darker and traumatizing than Miranda's, especially as all the responsibility falls on his shoulders. The things he has to do and see are horrifying... and he has to do it all alone.
I do wonder how I would've felt about this novel if it had been told in the intimacy of first person pov like Life as We Knew It, instead of third person. That said, I think this distancing in perspective is done quite intentionally.
Where Life as We Knew It is an isolated story, about a family who is cut off from everyone else, but still has each other, The Dead and the Gone is far wider in its scope and shows much greater detail of the disaster, and is far more brutal about it. And Alex himself needs to distance himself from all the horrors around him, or else he might collapse.
The one thing that really bothered me in this regard was that Pfeffer clearly relied on people having read the first novel to fully understand the natural disaster afoot. Alex very rarely focused or cared about the larger things that were happening around him - it was simply glossed over. Oh, yeah, the moon's closer to the earth. Now there are earthquakes and floods. Hmmm... volcanoes erupting ? cool.
I understand why - Alex is focused on saving his and his sisters' lives. There is no space in his life for anything else. But at the same time, this grates because of how much this novel reads like a companion novel.
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Original, unedited thoughts
Well, I liked this slightly less than I did the first, but it was still an excellent story.
The Dead and the Gone follows a similar time span to Life as We Knew It, chronicling the events of the world crushing disaster through the eyes of 17 years old Alex.
The reason I liked this less than book one was because I found Alex to be a less likable character than Miranda. It wasn't that I hated him or anything, but I didn't like how he thought and acted with Julie. I don't condemn him for it because god knows he has a horrible time and is entitled to act this way sometimes, but it just didn't sit too well with me.
I think I kind of missed the first person point of view. This novel is third person through Alex's eyes, and it lacked the intimacy of the first novel.
I also felt like Pfeffer relied on people having read the first novel to fully understand all the natural disaster that was going around. Alex very rarely actually focused or cared about the disaster. It was almost glossed over. I'm not sure that without the first novel I would've understood what was happening because Alex seemed hardly interested to, and this reads so much like a companion novel that I feel like it should've covered a bit more ground, if only for the audiences sake. People who start with this novel instead of Life as We Knew It might be totally lost.
I did love how Pfeffer managed to create a completely different experience to that of Life as We Knew It, even though it was following the same natural disaster and timeline. Alex and Miranda's experiences are completely different. Alex sees death. Everywhere, all around him. From the very first moment of things going array, he has experienced a heap of death.
It started with his parents never coming home, as the synopsis indicates and continued with seeing dead bodies on the streets daily, pilfering from the dead to survive, seeing his best friend die, than his food supplier, and finally, one of the sisters he worked so hard to keep alive. It was honestly harrowing.
Alex's experience is so much darker and traumatizing than Miranda. Miranda is one of the lucky few, and she knows it. She has had her entire family with her, and always had someone to count on, whereas Alex was the one who had to be counted on. Alex was the one responsible for his two younger sisters... at seventeen years old, with barely any guidance. All alone, in this huge city that is slowly dying.
*Shudder*
These books are making me paranoid. I want to stock up on cans and invest in a wood-stove.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 5 November, 2016: Finished reading
- 5 November, 2016: Reviewed