Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Susan Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
Life as We Knew It: Introduction
A concise biography of Susan Pfeffer plus historical and literary context for Life as We Knew It.
Life as We Knew It: Plot Summary
A quick-reference summary: Life as We Knew It on a single page.
Life as We Knew It: Detailed Summary & Analysis
In-depth summary and analysis of every chapter of Life as We Knew It. Visual theme-tracking, too.
Life as We Knew It: Themes
Explanations, analysis, and visualizations of Life as We Knew It's themes.
Life as We Knew It: Quotes
Life as We Knew It's important quotes, sortable by theme, character, or chapter.
Life as We Knew It: Characters
Description, analysis, and timelines for Life as We Knew It's characters.
Life as We Knew It: Symbols
Explanations of Life as We Knew It's symbols, and tracking of where they appear.
Life as We Knew It: Theme Wheel
An interactive data visualization of Life as We Knew It's plot and themes.
Brief Biography of Susan Pfeffer
Susan Beth Pfeffer declared her intention to become an author when she was just six years old. She wrote her first published novel, Just Morgan, while still an undergraduate at New York University. Since then Pfeffer has gone on to write more than seventy novels for children and young adults. She lives in Middletown, New York with her cat, Scooter.
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Other Books Related to Life as We Knew It
Pfeffer published three sequels to Life As We Knew It: The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon. Books with similar themes of survival amidst natural disasters include Ashfall by Mike Mullin, Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
Key Facts about Life as We Knew It
- Full Title: Life As We Knew It
- Where Written: New York
- When Published: 2006
- Literary Period: Contemporary Young Adult
- Genre: Science Fiction / Post-apocalyptic, Young Adult fiction
- Setting: Howell, Pennsylvania
- Climax: Miranda walks into town, knowing she doesn’t have the strength to return, and finds the flyer for food distribution.
- Point of View: First person, written in epistolary form of Miranda’s journal entries
Extra Credit for Life as We Knew It
Holiday inspiration. Pfeffer was inspired to write Life As We Know It after watching the movie Meteor on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2004.
Lofty influences. Miranda Evans is named after the character Miranda in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
