If you haven’t been in a war and are wondering how long it takes to get used to losing everything you think you need or love, I can tell you the answer is No time at all.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff won the Printz Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. I really enjoy ‘end of the world as we know it’ books and this was no exception. However, I did take exception with Daisy’s relationship with her cousin Edmond. Although relationships between cousins used to be acceptable, it just isn’t today. At least by my standards.
Daisy’s father has remarried and she is shipped off to England to stay with her cousins. When her Aunt Penn is away on business, war breaks out and the children are left to fend for themselves, and they survive for awhile admirably. As the war goes on, though, it becomes increasingly difficult for the family to stay together and find the supplies they need. The goal of survival begins to take its toll.
I did enjoy this story, except for the situation noted above. I normally don’t like books written in a run-on, free-form style as this one was, but as it was narrated by a teenager, it didn’t bother me as much as it usually does. I really empathized with Daisy and her situation, and I admired how she was able to see one of her problems in a new light toward the end of the book.
But why did they have to be cousins? The answer isn’t ‘because of the war’ as they began their relationship before it started. I just wish it could have been a friend of the cousins instead.
2004, 194 pp.
Hi! Good to see you today.
This is the second (mostly) good review I’ve read today of this book. It’s a sign.
I know it’s supposed to be futuristic, but it also sounds like ww2, with the kids in the English countryside during the war.
I’ll look for this book.
Elizabeth, I’m really glad I read it, but it has a much darker tone than the also good Life As We Know It. I really liked that one, too.
I really enjoyed this one when I read it a few months back, the ‘cousin’ thing didn’t bother me as much as I though it might, going in – I thought it might be there just for the shock factor, but thankfully it wasn’t – it did provide some internal doubt for Daisy at least, but yeah it could have been achieved in other ways.
Bart, right — it wasn’t graphic so I was thankful for that. Still, I do wish it had been a friend instead. Glad you enjoyed it, too!
I felt the same way about the cousin thing too. Just didn’t get why she felt she had to make it the cousin. The run on sentences were something I got used to — kept reminding myself that it was a teenager’s voice. I linked to your review on mine.
Terri, the whole run-on thing used to bother me soooooo much. It still does a little, but not as much as it would have in an adult novel.
Thanks for linking!
This was a strange book. I mostly enjoyed it, but at the same time it was a bit weird!
Kailana, exactly! I enjoyed it as well, but a little strange…
I just got this one last week, I can’t wait to read it! I’m puzzled a little by the need for them to be cousins too, but I don’t think that will keep me from enjoying the story!
Hope you like it, Kay!