“This World We Live In” and “The Shade Of The Moon” are the 3rd and 4th books in this young adult series. The series began with an asteroid hitting the moon. This results in the moon being knocked out of its normal orbit and moved closer to the earth. Tsunamis, earthquakes, and tornadoes spring up.
The first book focused on Miranda’s family in Pennsylvania. The second book centered on Alex’s family in New York City.
In the third book Alex and his siblings flee the city, and end up living next to Miranda’s family. There seems to be hope in the air. I truly enjoyed the first half of this book, but then things turned dismal in the end. I considered not even reading the last book, but thought perhaps some group of scientists would find a solution to the lack of sunlight and clean air and food. So I read the fourth book, but found it to be terribly depressing. It appears that there is really no hope, and the majority of the human race will die. The ones who survive won’t be much better off.
This series was written for teens/young adults. While it did show young people working tremendously hard to survive, it also showed a brutal, non-caring world with a few at the top and the rest being treated almost like slaves to survive. I cannot recommend this series, either for adults or teens.
If you like disaster/survival stories, a far better series is the “Tomorrow” series by Australian author John Marsden. A group of high school students go camping in a remote area of the country for a few days. When they return home, they find that their country has been invaded, and their family members either killed or held prisoner at the county fairgrounds. Their country is at war, and attempts to fight back are being made by little groups of rebels. Over the course of seven books, the teens fight to gain their country and their families’ freedom back. While there are some grim sections, there is also a lot of action, humor, camaraderie, friendship and love. It was a great series!
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