Book Review HOW I LIVE NOW

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rosoff, Meg. HOW I LIVE NOW. 2004. New York: Random House. ISBN 0385746776

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Daisy, a fifteen-year-old girl, is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her Aunt Penn and cousins she has never met: Osbert, 16; 14-year-old twins Isaac and Edmond; and 9-year-old Piper. She is glad to leave Manhattan though because she can’t stand her distant dad and “wicked” step-mom. As she spends more time with her cousins, Daisy starts falling in love with Edmond. When Aunt Penn travels to Oslo, Daisy begins a sexual relationship with Edmond. During this time, an unnamed force is also invading England. Initially, Daisy and her cousins enjoy the freedom of having no adults around or rules. However, a group of soldiers come force the children out of their home and separates them. Daisy and her cousin Piper are sent to another village. After this is the horrors and struggles Daisy and Piper face and Daisy’s determination to return to find Edmond and her other cousins.

Daisy and Piper stay with a couple’s home, Mr. and Mrs. McEvoy, and do farm chores for them. After the war is over, Daisy is forced to return back to America and enter a hospital. Six years later, she goes back to England to stay with Edmond who suffers from post traumatic stress from the war.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
To be frank, I believe Meg Rosoff’s book How I Live Now was terrible. Many things, such as lack of details, made me unable to connect with the book. For example, Rosoff never mentions who England is invaded by. I spent half of my time reading this book trying to figure out which war in history this was, as well as the time period this book was set it. I didn’t realize until later on in the book that this war was a fictional war.

In addition, some elements in the story’s plot are unbelievable. To begin with, what sane mother leaves her teenage children and niece alone in a house with no adult supervision? Also unbelievable, if nothing else creepy, is the sexual relationship between Daisy and her cousin. I don’t feel that their relationship added anything to the story. Daisy’s relationship could have been substituted with another person, and the story would have remained the same—except it would have eliminated the incest factor. I feel the author simply added this to make the book controversial.

However, not everything in Rosoff’s book is bad. Daisy’s character (excluding her relationship with her cousin) is someone teenagers can relate to. Daisy is unhappy with her life because she feels like her father had chosen his wife (her step-mother) and new baby over her. She struggles with anorexia and feels like therapy for it is useless.

Overall, I would not recommend this book.


4. AWARDS WON AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
Michael L. Printz Award

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “This riveting first novel paints a frighteningly realistic picture of a world war breaking out in the 21st century.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “Daisy's voice is uneven, being at times teenage vapid, while elsewhere sporting a vocabulary rich with 50-cent words, phrases, and references. In addition, Rosoff barely scratches the surface of the material at hand.”

5. CONNECTIONS
Readers who enjoyed How I Live Now might be interested in other Rosoff’s books.

Rosoff, Meg. JUST IN CASE. ISBN 0452289378
Rosoff, Meg. WHAT I WAS: A NOVEL. ISBN 0452290236

Image Credit: ala.org