Susan Beth Pfeffer’s the dead & the gone (Harcourt 2008) is a companion story to her previous YA novel Life as We Knew (Harcourt 2006). The novel takes the same cataclysmic disaster, but this time tells the story from the perspective of Alex Morales, a seventeen-year-old boy living in New York City.
When a meteor hits the moon and pushes it closer to the Earth, the change in gravitational pull causes massive worldwide destruction. Tides rise, magma surfaces, tectonic plates shift, and soon the earth is enveloped by natural is –tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes. Volcanic ash darkens the sky, temperatures plummet, crops fail. There are evacuations, power outages, food and fuel shortages, deadly epidemics. Lines of communication shut down–no radio, internet, cell phones, tv.
Thousands of people are dead, and most of Alex’s family are among “the gone,” as Alex refers to them. These include Alex’s older brother Carlos who is deployed with the Marines, Alex’s aunt and uncle who evacuate soon after the disaster, Alex’s mother who has never returned home from her shift at the hospital, and Alex’s dad who has never returned from a family funeral in Puerto Rico. They are “the gone”–never confirmed dead but nonetheless absent. Just like Alex’s aunt and uncle who evacuate NYC soon after the disaster.
Thrust into the role of protector and provider for his two younger sisters, Alex second-guesses his decisions and struggles to come to terms with overwhelming responsibilities (including a nightmarish visit to Yankee Stadium–now morgue–to look for the body of his mother). Dreams of being elected senior class president and getting accepted to a good college are totally irrelevant in a world where survival is the only goal.
What is essential? What is important? If life all changed tomorrow, what would really matter? Author Susan Beth Pfeffer offers another great novel that makes you question your needs, your wants, and your priorities.
