How I Live Now

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Book 40 of 50 for the New Author Challenge
Book 10 of 55 for the Countdown Challenge (2004)
Book 1 for the YA Dystopian Challenge
Awards: ALA Best Book for Young Adults; Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Michael Printz Award; Guardian Children's Fiction Prize; Horn Book Fanfare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How I Live Now is a dystopian YA fiction novel about a girl named Daisy from New York. Daisy has an eating disorder and she can't stand her stepmom-to-be, so she is sent to live in England with her cousins. There is a great fear of war, and her aunt leaves the five children alone to travel to Oslo for political reasons right before England is invaded. As the unthinkable happens, the children are left alone to fend for themselves until they are split up, relocated, and eventually forced to find their way back home.

I mostly enjoyed the innovative writing style which is real stream of consciousness with lots of Capital Letters. But it really captured Daisy's 15-year old voice beautifully. Conceptually I found this book interesting and scarily plausible. There is an, ahem, inappropriate cousin relationship between Daisy and her cousin Edmond which made me a little squeemish. But I absolutely fell in love with 9-year old Piper.

I found this tale of survival and familial relationships to be unique and could provide some interesting discussion. But, it is only a book I would recommend for the upper grade crowd because of its thematic elements.

Also reviewed by:

• The Book Nest
• The Bluestocking Society
• Becky's Book Reviews
• Leafing Through Life
• Stephanie's Written Word
• Presenting Lenore
• Fleur Fisher Reads
• Confessions of a Bibliophile
• Bending Bookshelf
• 1morechapter.com

Have I missed yours?

Source: BookMooch