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    The Dead and the Gone
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    The Dead and the Gone
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    The Dead and the Gone
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Dead and the Gone

    Written by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    Narrated by Robertson Dean

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated listeners with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.

    With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 10, 2008
    ISBN9780739363690
    Author

    Susan Beth Pfeffer

    Susan Beth Pfeffer is the author of many books for teens, including the New York Times best-selling novel Life As We Knew It, which was nominated for several state awards, and its companion books, The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon. She lives in Middletown, New York.

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    Reviews for The Dead and the Gone

    4/5

    830 ratings96 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The Little BookwormThe companion to Life As We Knew It is told from the point of view of 17 year old Alex. Worried about college, he and his family are unprepared for life after the moon is pushed out of its orbit by a asteroid. With his parents missing and his older brother gone, Alex must take care of his younger sisters and navigate a new and dangerous world for the three of them.I'm going to say that this was a very impressive book. Usually sequels and especially middle books don't live up to the first book. I think The Dead and the Gone completely lived up to Life As We Knew It. There was very little rehashing of the events leading up to the moon crash and we get to the complex problem of living with hardly any resources very quickly. I found it a little hard to believe that Alex's family didn't really know about it since Miranda's school made such a big deal about it, but maybe since they were in NYC they didn't think it would affect them. I don't know. But, while Miranda had her mom, Alex doesn't have any adults living with him to make the hard decisions so he has to make them for himself and his younger sisters and he questions his choices all the time. And while Miranda's family had very little religion, Alex's family are devoted Catholics. The Catholicism is very heavy in this book and while it bothered some people, I know families who are very Catholic so it was okay with me.*spoilers*While I don't normally look at other reviews right before I write one, I did for this book. It seems a lot of people had a problem with the switch from first person diary form to third person narrative. This didn't bother me like it did others. Only because I know that the third book (This World We Live In) will involve the characters from both books and I'm hoping that it is written from Miranda's POV. To me that would make sense and the change of POV in TDTG won't matter since I don't like moving one person's head to another in a trilogy. The only way I will care about the shift is if the POV alternates between Alex and Miranda and then I will call bull. The OTHER big problem that people had so the stereotypical portrayal of a Puerto Rican family. Now I will admit that I can't comment one way or the other on whether this is true or not. But I will say that I remember wondering if this was really how Puerto Rican fathers acted towards their families and sons, especially. But it played out since I know that a lot of fathers expect their sons to act a certain way, no matter their nationality and that since it was Alex's impression of his father, it might not be the most accurate. Sometimes what we think people think about us is not the actual truth.As dark as LAWKT was, it was nothing compared to TDTG. Dead bodies, rats, riots and violence permeate this book and it seems completely natural given that all this takes place in a large city. The threat of violence in LAWKT is almost non-existent since Miranda is sheltered and separated from the rest of her town, but living in NYC increases Alex and his sisters contact with others and, of course, they are teenagers living alone so it heightens the reality of their situation. One of the good things is that you get more information on what is happening worldwide and more about the cause and effect of the moon crash. And while the ending was sad and abrupt, it was also hopeful. TDTG could almost stand on its own. Meanwhile, I can't wait for the third book to come out. I have high hopes.
    • 2/5
      New York experiences the ramifications of an astroid ramming into the moon - knocking it out of kilter. The focus is on Alex, 17 and his younger sisters Bri, 15 and Julie, 13.Last year, Life As We Knew It was a "Best Read" for me and so, The Dead and the Gone was a highly anticipated read. Boy did it fall short. I am a believer, so a little spirituality sprinkled here and there isn't bad, but GEEZ - this book was oozing Catholicism. I didn't like it or appreciated it in the least. Also, the characters were just not believable.What I did like was the general plot - how the city would respond to the devastating changes and the plans that would unfold. That was what kept me interested.Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy
    • 3/5
      Second book in the Life As We Knew It series. Not a bad storyline, but was a bit boring since it was the same time period as the first. A good placeholder to develop some backstory for the third book though.
    • 3/5
      The characters this one followed ranged to painfully boring (Alex) to painfully annoying (Bree). This particular entry in the series added no new information. Aside from a tidal wave we never actually see, Alex experiences the exact same things Miranda went through (plus he continues school for a while longer than she did). I wish I'd seen all the over reviews that warned readers to skip this one.
    • 3/5
      I didn't like this second book as much as I did the first book. However, I think a lot of that was the narrator for the audio book. He had a very "manly" voice, and his impersonation of the girl's voices rubbed me wrong. If I had been reading it, I would probably have read through much more quickly. I do enjoy reading books like this in a horrid sort of way. I suppose I use them as observation for what to do in those kinds of situations. But I think I am done with this series. Apparently the next book brings Alex from this second book and the character from the first book together, but I can see that it's going to be more of the same. Instead I'll find another book series.
    • 3/5
      This book is about Alex Morales. This book talks about alex's side of the story when the astriod hit the moon. Alex lives in New York City. Mostly everyone is dead in his city. Everything happened just lilke Pinsalvania. It was snowing and sleeting everyday and it never rained.I didn't really liked this book because it just repeated like like as we knew it. I didin't make sence to me becase it was choppy and going different topics.It really had know piont to it. Its just they should went on with Marada's story of what happened to her and her family. THis book made me bored and i thought that it would get better but it didn't. Its ending was bad too. I wouldn't recamind this book.
    • 3/5
      I loved this book! I didn't realize though that it was the 2nd book, so I can't wait to read the first book also. Such an interesting read.
    • 3/5
      I was honestly disappointed with the sequel to Life As We Knew It. I wasn't even worried when the beginning was slow, dull, and uninteresting, because that's how the first book was and the first book ended up getting SO GOOD by the end. The Dead And The Gone, however... It got better, but never made me feel like I couldn't put it down, never made me read hastily in terror, and did not give me a sense of "wow" when I finished the last page.
    • 4/5
      My review on the book The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer is the is a book full of suspense and death. This book is about the moon getting hit by an asteroid. In New York there are people running around trying to get prepared for the hit. Then there are gunshots and people are dying. Next the main characters' parents get sent away for the sake of their job. Then Alex is left parentless and has to fend for his two sisters and himself. Finally, at the end of this story Alex has one sister alive and almost kidnapped and they live on for the rest of their days. My opinion on this book is this book is a horror book. However it is very interesting. This book is also suspenseful. I gave this book a rating of four stars because this book was very gory. Also because there was too much suspense. If there was less death and suspense this book would be better. Lastly, I hope to read the first and third book of this series.
    • 5/5
      Wow! This book was just as good as the first one. This book took us into the lives of people in New York. You are with The Morales family. You have Mami, Papi, Brianna, Julie, Carlos and Alex. Papi is in Puerto Rico, Mami gets called into work at the hospital and Carlos is in the Marines when everything starts to change because of the moon. So Alex, Bri, and Julie are left by themselves.This is a heart wrenching story. They are a religious family and the children are attending Catholic Schools. This really makes them wonder why God would let this happen. I found the religion very honest and truthful. As things get worse Alex does what he can for his sisters, going so far as sending the oldest Bri to a convent to help work on a farm. Until she returns because she has asthma and the farms have all died. Now Alex needs to get food for his sisters and him. They have food given out on Fridays. The schools are open and serve lunch. But how long will that last? Will they be able to survive in New York?I was crying by the end of the story. The loss and devastation that Alex, Bri, and Julie see is enough to change anyone and make you think about God and humanity. I can't wait to read the next book in this series!!
    • 4/5
      As I understand, each book in the series can be read as I stand alone. I picked this book up from my library on a whim and I am glad that I did. This young adult series is best described as a Christian book about a family dealing with a apocalyptic event. The young man of the family has to step up and become a grown up over night to protect himself and his 2 sisters. A very different apocalyptic event than a lot of other books currently available. Overall, a very well written book. I could feel the frustration, and teenage angst, along with the emotional connections in the family.
    • 3/5
      Okay, I am seriously going to have to stop reading these very realistic apocalypse stories! This is my third in a month, and I am starting to freak out.

      The second in The Last Survivors trilogy, I was not as ... tense ... as I read this one (probably since, like I said, it's the third I have read in quick succession). However, I was more invested in these characters, once I got into the storyline, over those in book one.

      While I liked the maturation of Miranda over the course of the first book, as well as the fierce protection of the mother for her children, the characters here seemed to be more real to me. Alex is a 17 year old boy whose parents and older brother are gone, leaving him responsible for his two younger sisters. Julie is a pain in the rear brat, but she (like Miranda) matures throughout the novel nicely and very believably. Bri, the older of the two girls has her head in the clouds, and while she is calm in the beginning, her denial of everything and Pollyanna attitude become grating as the story goes on.

      There was a heavy dose of religion in this one. The characters relied heavily on their faith, their religious leaders and prayer to get them through the most trying times. I found this to be very refreshing in that it was not in any way demeaning, ridiculed or taken lightly. Faith is central to many, many people and the portrayal here was very nicely done.

      This is a very compelling storyline, an extremely clever way to write it, and I am looking forward to the third and final book.

      Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Somehow I missed the publication of this entirely; only when the release of the third volume was being publicized did I know there had been a second.
      While set in the same world, the characters are markedly different,the most memorable distinction being the faith-based outlook of the protagonist. His Catholicism colors and informs every decision he makes. It is such an unusual literary device in this day and age that it is unsettling at first before, in the end, becoming the most comforting aspect of the story.
    • 5/5
      Fan... tastic. I picked this up as a departure from what I've lately been reading-- I was in the mood for something a little dystopian, and that's exactly what this book promised.

      This book is heart-rending. It makes you hungry, it makes you tired, it makes you cold and frightened and tense. This post-apocalyptic journey is so incredibly evocative-- the kind of book that makes you feel suddenly grateful for your home, your family, your school, your life.

      I recommend this to everyone, *especially* if this is not usually your cup of tea.
    • 4/5
      A great companion piece in the series. Not necessary to have read the first to enjoy this books, but from what I can tell both books are important for the third in the series. Pfeffer does a great job of describing the terrible situation her characters are in, and in a very limited number of page. Readers should steady themselves for the shock they'll feel about the lack of preparation (economic, body, and mind) they have for a world changing event.
    • 5/5
      When the moon is struck by an asteroid, just like Miranda in "Life as we knew it, " 17 year old Alex Morales' life is turned upside down. Both of his parents are gone, and he is responsible for his younger sisters Brianna and Julie. Their struggles, fears, and sacrifices as they try to survive in a world gone mad will make readers wonder anew how they would respond if our moon suddenly created chaos in the world. A tear or two may be shed reading Alex's struggles to provide for his sisters.
    • 2/5
      The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer is a companion book to Life as We Know It. The book revisits the original event but from the vantage point of New York City.Alex Morales has to keep his family together after his parents go missing in the huge tidal waves immediately following the change in the moon's orbit.On the one hand it was nice to see that the cities did actually stand. In Life as We Knew It the fate of the cities is left in the air. But I didn't really want to go through the same events again. I didn't want to get emotionally tied up with another family and watch key loved ones get injured, sick, and die.The third book returns to the original plot and I do plan to read it. The Dead and the Gone though can be skipped.
    • 3/5
      I didn't like this book as much as the first. I know it was another account of what happened in a different part of the USA when this disaster hit, but I just didn't feel as connected to any of the characters in this book.
    • 3/5
      The moon-off-kilter-messing-up-the-world plot is scary but Pfeffer has the characters tell you they are scared rather than allowing the language and the story create the mood. Some serious editing issues with 14 candles on the thirteenth birthday cake. I am sure she hoping for movie rights.
    • 4/5
      Wow, this one was tough. It's a companion novel with Life As We Knew It. It's set in New York City in a grimly believable future. As with the LAWKI, there are a few minor plot holes but the narrative pulls you along without a ripple. There are some pretty gruesome scenes, so be warned. The main characters' continual praying in the face of relentless disaster seemed to me to highlight the essential futility of prayer, or maybe the author just plays to my bias. Either way, it worked for me.
    • 3/5
      I seriously love reading this series. I get so enthralled with books that are set in a post apocalyptic world--well, at least one where natural disasters are going crazy. I'm not sure which one I enjoyed more, this one or the companion (Life As We Knew It). Both had their highs and lows...but this one KILLED me for two major plot points:

      Alex's dad was the super of the building. He would've had keys to every apartment. And, even if he didn't have the keys, EVERYONE IS FREAKING GONE OR DEAD LIKE THE TITLE SAYS, BREAK DOWN THE WALLS OF THE DOZENS OF APARTMENTS AND STEAL THEIR SH&T Alex and his sisters are starving to death (literally) and there was probably tons of food and supplies in the other apartments. People in the convoys could only take a bag of stuff--there would be lots left over.

      The world is going to sh*t? There would be major looting and shooting. I know this a young adult book but Pfeffer isn't afraid to bring in harsh subjects (selling a young girl into basically sex slavery, anyone?)so it surprised me that she left out such an element. I think it would be human nature to rip buildings apart and strip them of everything. It is basic survival.

      Don't get the idea that I didn't really enjoy this book; I totally did. I have some sort of sick obsession with survival stories.

      P.S. I thought this ending was sort of a letdown
    • 4/5
      This was a very enjoyable post apocalyptic fiction. I liked reading about the struggles that this 17 year old boy went through to keep what was left of his family as healthy as he could. I think that the description of the suffering that they must have gone through being down to one meal a day was a little bit lacking, but then it would have gotten tedious reading about them complaining about being hungry all the time. Perhaps this is not such a bad point of the book.

      I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys post apocalyptic fiction.
    • 4/5
      For some reason, Harcourt has started sending me ARCs at work. I'm not complaining, especially when one of them is a companion to a book I really enjoyed.

      The Dead and the Gone picks up right after the moon has been knocked closer to Earth, so we lose the preparation we had in Life as We Knew It. Alex and his two younger sisters sit home, waiting for their dad to return from Puerto Rico and their mom to get home from work. And they wait. And wait.

      The story isn't radically different from Miranda's--food supplies are scarce, government-sponsored handouts are dwindling, families are leaving for greener pastures down south. What's different is that Alex is 17 and responsible for his sisters, and there is no one else for them to lean on. Where Miranda railed against the unfairness of it--she couldn't go skating, or see her friends!--Alex is struggling to keep his sisters warm and fed, and has to take on responsibilities that his college-bound mind had never entertained. For a young man who has worked to the top of his class, that he resorts to looting corpses in the street for anything he can trade is a huge, crushing fall--but he does it anyway.

      I'm hopeful that this isn't the beginning of a series of books on "what's happening in _________". It's enough to see the contrast between rural Pennsylvania and New York City. The Dead and the Gone would be a little hard to follow without having read its predecessor, given that the story immediately gets underway without addressing the catastrophe (other than a brief "that happened"), but it's interesting to see the other side of survival--the families that are just hanging on, rather than the ones that are passing the time.
    • 4/5
      I liked this story much more than the first, possibly because I preferred the third-person narration. Also, the characters of Alex Morales and his sisters were more sympathetic.
    • 3/5
      This book is what I would imagine they would've twisted Life As We Knew It into had it been made into a fim. Based on the same cataclysmic event, but unworthy ipof the big screen unless we can show New York City being destroyed. The only redeeming parts of this story were Alex's trip to Yankee Stadium to view the dead bodies, and Alex's fever dream near the end. Absolutely none of the characters wew likable in any way, and I found myself wanting them to die just to make it stop.I understand why the author might have wanted to tell this part of the story, but it was a huge disappointment after reading the first book.
    • 5/5
      I have to admit that I liked this book as much as the first one in this "series" (it's not really a series, this story occurs at the same time as the other book, it's just in a different location, with characters from a different socio-economic background). It is a YA title and I thought that might take away from my enjoyment of the story, but it did not feel like a young adult novel at all. The content is serious (very serious) and the dilemmas were even more worrisome because the characters were so young. It's not gory even though it's disturbing (death is, I suppose) and it's frustrating to read what they have to go through because you end up wondering if there were things they could have done differently to avoid all the tribulations they went through. (I'm not sure there were.)I read this on the weekend of the "Supermoon" (May 5, 2012) and I have to admit that the whole thing just plain creeped me out. It's horrible to think how such things could/would play out and makes you wonder how you'd make it through.
    • 5/5
      Excellent.. Love this book from start to end. Wanting to know what is going to happen next and how they are going to survive make me finish the book in a day.
    • 4/5
      This is the second of three books in the The Last Survivors Series. Alex Morales lives in New York with his two sisters when it happened. His mother had been called in to work and her father was still in Puerto Rico. Alex cannot get hold of either of his parents. What should be do now? A wonderful, beautiful at times, scary and gross at other times. Overall a great read.
    • 5/5
      17-year old Alex Morales is a normal teenager, he attends the St. Vicent de Paul collge-prep school in New York City, worries about whether he will be class president, has two annoying sisters, and has a job at a Pizzeria.All of this is shattered one day when a cosmic event causes chaos and destruction on a global scale. His mother who works at the hospital doesn't come home that day, his father who is visting with relatives in Puerto Rico can't be contacted, food prices rise overnight and panic floods through the people of New York City. Alex struggles to keep him and his sisters alive when the entire city starts to fall apart. Throughout the book he is forced to make extremly difficult decisions for survival that compromise both his moral ethics and that of his religios beliefs. He does things that he would have never thought himself capable of doing.Although, the Dead and The Gone focuses on the aftermath of the same disaster mentioned in the first Last Survivors book: Life as We Knew It,this book is definitely more raw and gritty. Desperation and the need for survival are all conveyed more sharply than in the previous book. One of the items that adds to the more cataclysmic tone of this novel, is the setting. In the previous book where the reader was in the country mor opportunities were present for survival and less danger was evident. In the Dead and The Gone, in the city there is less room for error and less opportunities, resources are harder to come by,and help is less likely to be gained. As the book progress the main charcter Alex becomes increasingly desperate in his quest to send his sisters to a safer place. The Dead and The Gone doesn't have a first person Narration like the first book, however the day by day format is still there, which allows a sharp contrast to be drawn between the intial days after the disaster and the months following. This is a excellent Post-apocalyptical book, and a must-read, especially if you've read the first book or love post-apocalyptical reads. The Dead and The Gone would also make a great books for discussion.Age Groups: 14 and older.Content: References to a shopkeeper wanting to buy a girl, references to people commiting suicide, references to piles of bodies and similar descriptions, characters talking about religious figures in a derogatory manner, adult characters consuming alcohol, references to characters stealing, references to global disasters.
    • 4/5
      I came really close to giving this book five stars (I think I need to get over my reluctance to be generous with star ratings ...) because, like "Life as We Knew It," this is a book that sticks with you long after it's finished. What Susan Beth Pfeffer does so well in LaWKI -- describing all the minute details of a catastrophe's effects within a familial context that absolutely humanizes them -- she does here, too. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say she outdoes herself, she certainly didn't disappoint.I wondered how one could write about the same cataclysm in a way that still felt new. This time around, I knew all the effects the moon would have, and I knew just how devastating it could get. Still, by setting this story in a totally different geographic area with a totally different type of family unit, she's able to explore possibilities left untouched in LaWKI. In particular, the urban New York setting means that there are more people, and therefore more human-related dangers (sexual predation, etc.), as well as a better infrastructure and communication that allows the characters to continue holding on to some kind of "system" well into the disaster. By taking parents out of the picture, she also explores the effect of having a teenager take on adult roles in this new world. And probably most notably, by making Alex's family religious, she invites the reader to grapple with issues of God and faith in the face of catastrophe, giving the entire book a different tone. [As an aside, the Morales' family's Catholicism felt a little old-fashioned, as if the author had built it purely from research without tempering it with the experience of modern Catholics, or as if she may have been building it based on pre-Vatican II memories. Still, it wasn't *inaccurate* per se, and it didn't bother me too much because I know there are pockets within Catholicism of this sort of totally immersive Catholic culture. On a related note, the benign sexism in the Morales family also irked me just a bit, but again seemed like it could be true to this particular family's dynamic.]LaWKI brought me into despair with Miranda's family, and yet had an ending that was positive enough to give me "hope," to make me feel that it really would be worthwhile to stay alive as long as possible, to believe that things really would get better. I kept waiting for this kind of turnaround in The Dead and the Gone, and one of the biggest differences between the two books is that that sense of redemption never quite comes through in this one. It's more bleak than Life as We Knew It, but just as vivid, and this book, too, will stay with me a long, long time.