I'M BACK!

Hello everyone! I'm back! I really want to continue this blog but I've decided to try a new direction! I want to give my honest opinion on books. I'm still new to this whole blogging concept so bear with me as I try to work out the kinks (well my currently nonexistent readers need to bear with me) my name's Allie and I like fiction. I like any sort of fiction you put in front of me. I like books and TV shows and anime and movies, and manga and comic books and radio shows (yes a few of those actually still exist) and pretty much anything that can help me procrastinate at any time.

 Today, I have determined that I am going to review one of my least favorite genres of books, despite me being within the target age group: young adult fiction, or YA for short.I don't know what it is about the genre that bugs me. It could possibly be the way they seem to underestimate teen intelligence, or oversimplify teen desires, but I think when it comes down to it its the protagonists.
Today, I am reviewing Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. The book is about an apocalypse stemming from a rather unrealistic (however interesting) lunar disaster. it is from the point of view of

Miranda, a...GRATING PROTAGONIST at best, as she and her family are trying to survive the consequences. To be honest, I was excited about this book, it provided a view of the apocalypse that isn't a popular one: the point of view of a teenage girl. NOW I KNOW WHY.
I found the idea of the book good, although very unrealistic. However when I read the book, I found it dull and Miranda and her family were annoying to me. Miranda got to me the most. I hate how she is portrayed.

She is whiny, selfish, and immature. I know other teenagers like that, but I hate the whiny teen writing in a diary theme. I'll admit it, I'm a teenage girl and at one point I kept a diary, but a diary isn't really a good way to carry out a story like this. You can't expect a teenage girl to be a brilliant writer, but it wouldn't be a continuous monotone either. She's more focused on writing about food and Prom than about really describing the life that she now must lead, and its annoying that all she seems to do is complain about what she's lost.

The right wing and religon bashing was uncalled for and doesn't really have anything to do with the story, it seemed to just be the author's views coming through. I'm more liberal (even though I'm technically not old enough to vote) and I'm not very religious, but I try not to let that show through in my work.
Another thing that annoyed me is how a family in a suburban neighborhood with no guns who didn't loot survives. In reality, they would be easy pickings for anyone with a few guns and fewer morals. The family never does anything, and the potential plot lines like leaving go to waste. No one attacks them, no one tries to steal from them, and none of them have the thought to go attack or loot someone else. Wouldn't it have even crossed their minds? No, instead they're spending their apocalypse cosying up in their home, counting peas.

I would have preferred to follow Miranda's friend Sammy (If I remember her name correctly) as she travels with a forty year old man, or Dan as he tries to find a place on a motorcycle. That would have been more exciting.

Now I'm back to complaining about Miranda's brattiness. She whines about there not being a prom when it was really not important and she's just plain stupid. Anyone that stupid wouldn't live long in an after the apocalypse scenario.
Therefore, I give this book one star. I found the companion novel more interesting, but the last novel wasn't worth reading in my opinion.

So. How was my very first review?