Quick Guide: The Last Survivors

The Last Survivors is a trilogy by Susan Pfeffer. Set in the current day, the series details the effects on the world when the moon is knocked out of orbit, closer to earth.

Life as we Knew it, the first volume, is written in diary format by a teenage girl, Miranda. She lives in rural Pennsylvania with her mother and younger brother, Jonny. Older brother Matt is away at college, and her father's new wife has just announced her pregnancy.

The diary starts up a week before the expected meteor strike on the moon. At first it's a typical teenage diary; Miranda talks about friends and school, about her imminent step‐sibling and the tiny dramas that make up life. On the day of the meteor hit, though, everything changes.

The immediate effect is tsunamis. The tide happens to be in along the east coast of America, leading to reports of major cities being devastated. And when those waves finally die down they start up on the west coast as the tide moves around. Tsunamis are only the beginning, however; the changed gravitational pull leads to earthquakes and, a little later on, volcanoes erupting fiercely enough to throw a blanket of ash into the air, cutting the sunlight and destroying any chance they had of growing a crop.

Miranda faithfully chronicles all of these changes in her world, including all her reactions and everything she and her family discuss.



the dead and the gone, the second title, follows a teenage boy, Alex, in New York during the same time period. Alex finds himself the head of the household when his father, mother and older brother are all, in different ways, lost to him. He struggles to keep his sisters alive in a city that seems more than half dead.



This World we Live In brings the two story lines together, as Alex and his sister are brought to Miranda's home. Each is a survivor in their own way, but they teach other to be strong and to face whatever happens.


For a review of Life as we Knew it, go here.

For a review of the dead and the gone, go here.

For a review of This World we Live In, go here.


Incidentally, the author is very friendly and loves hearing from fans from around the world. Visit her blog and tell her Aoife sent you.