The Dead and the Gone, 2 (Last Survivors, #2)

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

[nannah]

This book's trigger warnings:
domestic abuse, incredible amount of sexism.

Seriously, can publishers start putting trigger warnings on the beginning pages of books? It would be incredibly helpful, and I (and probably many others) would be spared unnecessary pain.

The worst thing about this book is its protagonist: Alex. Not only is he an incredibly sexist and ultimately close-minded douchebag, he barely changes throughout the novel. His outlook on his sisters and their role in the household does not change. It DOES NOT CHANGE. As things get worse, he takes on their chores and helps out around the house because they no longer have the strength (and even then it's done with some level of annoyance, like it's not supposed to be by a man's hands), not because he understands their roles are equal, especially when things become the way they are in those terrible times. He constantly referred to his sister's sorrow and suffering as "you know how girls are" and that attitude also NEVER CHANGED.

He was a sorry thing, and I never once liked him. It made the book hard to get through.

This book was a different side of Miranda's plot: the city instead of the country. But the basic plot points were the same: the meteor hitting the moon, the tides, the volcanic ash, food shortages, stocking up, the cold, blah blah, the major things were easy to predict so that it made everything kind of dull. The characters weren't enough to keep things fresh here, at least for me.