This World We Live In

Published in 2010 by Susan Beth Pfeffer, This World We Live In is the third book in the Last Survivors tetralogy. It takes place one year after Miranda Evans’s life—and the lives of everyone on Earth—were irrevocably altered when an asteroid collided with the moon, drawing it closer to Earth. This catastrophic event caused a chain of disastrous consequences, including tidal waves that submerged coastal cities and entire island nations, volcanic eruptions that blanketed the sky in thick ash, and drastic climatic changes that have made the world a perilous place marked by scarcity and danger.

Miranda keeps a record of these events in her diaries, mourning the loss of life (as well as of normalcy and privacy), celebrating the return of her father and his band of travelers, and worrying about what the future might bring. Hunger is omnipresent, but so is hope, and her blossoming romance with Alex Morales—a young man who travels with Miranda’s father—changes her priorities. As a coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic world, This World We Live In explores The Tension Between Responsibility and Independence, Finding Hope Amid Scarcity and Loss, and The Challenge of Accepting a New Reality. 

This guide refers to the 2010 Harcourt hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss a tornado and death, including deaths of loved ones and assisted death.

Plot Summary

In the aftermath of the asteroid’s collision with the moon, the world has become a very different place. Nearly a year later, no sunshine is yet able to penetrate the thick cloud of ash enveloping the Earth, and food has become ever scarcer. Miranda’s hometown of Howell, Pennsylvania, has lost most of its residents, some to migration and others to death. She writes in her diary about the dire situation that her family—her mom; her older brother, Matt; and her younger brother, Jon—must confront every day. Still, when it begins to rain rather than snow, Miranda feels an inkling of hope. The family puts out pots to collect the rainwater, sensing a shift in the cold and darkness that have been the reality for too long now.

The final day of April is a Sunday, Miranda’s least favorite day of the week. Food deliveries from City Hall arrive on Monday, and the family fears that each week will be the last week they receive these indispensable supplies. These fears prove accurate when, on the first Monday in May, the deliveries stop. While the family is initially fearful, Miranda and Matt bike into town to check on the situation. There is still food, but there will no longer be deliveries; they must come into town each week to pick up their share. While this is good news, it also indicates that supplies are dwindling.

Mom allows Miranda and Matt to search empty houses for food and other household items. It is one of the few times wherein Miranda feels optimistic, finding consumer goods that seem like treasures and spending a few precious hours in solitude. Miranda, for all that has happened to this world, is still a teenager and longs for the uncomplicated pleasures of young adulthood, like proms and flirting with boys. At the same time, she has had to mature quickly, helping to care for her family and coping with the omnipresent reality of death.

In mid-May, Matt asks Mom if he and Jon can go fishing: The shad should be running, and this can supplement their food supply. They leave, much to Miranda’s envy, while she and Mom conduct a spring cleaning of the few rooms in the house they can use (with no heat, they must congregate near the woodstove in the sunroom). When Matt and Jon return, they bring with them two trash bags full of fish—and a young woman, Syl, who Matt claims is now his wife. While Mom is understandably upset, she is also kind and welcomes the young woman into her home. When she tries to make sleeping arrangements that segregate her and Matt, however, Matt threatens to leave. Mom must relinquish some of her authority. Her children are inevitably growing up faster in this unprecedented world.

Miranda and Syl go out looking for more stuff that might have been left behind in the abandoned neighborhood houses. Miranda has an epiphany, realizing that happiness is fleeting, not an inalienable right. As she is thinking this, she hits a pothole and falls from her bike. She is injured but not significantly. Instead of feeling self-pity, Miranda thinks of how lucky she is. A broken leg, in this world, could easily become a mortal wound.

May turns into June, and the family is startled by the ring of the doorbell: Dad has returned, along with his wife, Lisa; their new baby, Gabriel; and several others who are traveling with them: Charlie, a friend they met at an evacuation camp, and the Morales siblings, 18-year-old Alex and 13-year-old Julie. While Miranda worries about the food supply, she is elated to see her father alive. After some discussion, it is decided that Dad and his group will live in the nearby Nesbitt house (Mrs. Nesbitt was like family before her death). He will pose as Mrs. Nesbitt’s son, and thus his group will receive food rations from City Hall.

This arrangement mostly works, though other tensions arise. Miranda and Alex go out searching for food, and Miranda realizes that Alex’s experiences have hardened him against any kind of hope or happiness. He is insistent on taking his sister to a convent 90 miles away; after she is settled, he will join a monastery, spending the rest of his life in penance. Lisa is outraged at this plan; she and Julie have grown particularly close. Though the entire family tries to talk Alex out of this plan, he refuses to listen. Fortunately, circumstances and weather prevent them from leaving immediately.

He and Miranda eventually become romantically entangled, which only exacerbates the situation. Still, even as their love grows, Alex cannot be dissuaded from his plan. He feels a responsibility toward his sister, and his older brother Carlos’s wishes, that outweighs anything else. Alex confesses to Miranda that he would do anything to prevent Julie’s suffering. He has tucked away some sleeping pills and will kill her if necessary to save her from suffering. 

Dad, Alex, and Miranda finally make their way to the convent. When they arrive, however, they find it abandoned. There is only one elderly nun left. They cannot leave Julie there. Thus, they turn around to return to Howell, but the van dies. They must walk for two days, without food, to make it back. Upon their return, they discover that Horton, the family cat, has died. This increases tension within the household, particularly toward Syl, who let Horton out to die in the woods.

In the arguments that follow, it comes to light that Alex has passes to a safe town that he has kept secret from the others. He asks Miranda to accompany him and Julie to a place where they can be married and the three can live as a family—though they do not know where such a place might be. Miranda finds the probable location of one of these safe towns, and she and Alex scour the Howell suburbs looking for bikes. When they head back toward Mom’s house, however, a tornado has touched down, destroying everything in its path.

Miranda runs to the Nesbitt house to retrieve Alex’s missal, in which the passes are hidden, while Alex bikes furiously to warn Jon and Julie, who have gone into town for food. The tornado strikes as Miranda shuts herself into the closet underneath the stairs. When the storm passes, she is trapped by debris. Lisa, Gabriel, and Charlie are trapped in the cellar. Dad and Matt, who have been chopping wood, arrive and help release Miranda. The cellar, however, is buried beneath rubble. They must work fast to get the others out before the roof collapses.

Jon finally returns, winded from running and terrified. Julie has been injured; she cannot feel or move her limbs. Dad and Matt follow Jon to retrieve Julie, and her condition is grim. She is clearly paralyzed from the neck down; the injury, in this world, is undoubtedly fatal. The family members take turns watching over Julie while everyone else works to free Lisa and the baby—Charlie has died of a heart attack while trying to wrench open the cellar door. Alex is still missing. When Miranda takes her turn to look after Julie, she feels all the responsibility that Alex has shouldered. She feels that it is her duty to comply with his wishes. She gives Julie the sleeping pills that were also tucked away in Alex’s missal and gently smothers her with a pillow after she has fallen asleep.

Alex returns the following day, and Miranda is consumed with relief and guilt. She knows she will one day have to tell Alex the truth about how Julie died—but not right now. Though the group has successfully freed Lisa and Gabriel, mostly unharmed, Mom’s house is starting to collapse, and the Nesbitt house is completely destroyed. They cannot stay there. The family, including Alex, will leave together in the morning. Miranda will leave her diaries behind as a testament to the resilience of her family and friends.