The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer

 

Published: August 13th, 2013

Publisher:  HMH Books For Young Readers

Pages: 304

Copy: Edelweiss

Summary: Goodreads

The eagerly awaited addition to the series begun with the New York Times best-seller Life As We Knew It, in which a meteor knocks the moon off its orbit and the world changes forever.

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

The Last Survivors series was a favourite of mine, so I was thrilled to bits to discover that Ms. Pfeffer has written a companion novel that continues the story of Alex and Miranda, two years after the close of The World We  Live In.  A very class conscious society has developed with grubs basically slaving for clavers.  I would like to have had a little more info on how this situation  developed so strongly in such a short time, but I took it on faith and was reasonably ok with it after a bit. 

While I enjoyed the story as a whole and it was interesting to see what had happened to the characters from the previous volumes, I had a big problem with the main protagonist in The Shade of the Moon.  I just didn't like Jon as a person at all.   I fully understand that he is feeling tremendous guilt over Julie - sorry you need to read the series to find out why - but I could not understand his reaction when he found out a certain detail he was unaware of.  He is by far the best off of all of the siblings and he seems totally unworthy of everything he has. It was hard to put my finger exactly on why he annoyed me so much, and he did redeem himself a little towards the end, but not enough in my opinion.

Overall though, if you have read and enjoyed the rest of the series, then I would definitely try this one. It's kinda nice to be able to see what happens 'after'.