Book Review: The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Am I reviewing one of my favorite post-apocalyptic series today? Yes, yes, I am. The Shade of the Moon book review will tell you all about Jon two years after This World We Live In takes place. Boy was it a whirlwind.
Book Information
Jon knows there are a lot of things he has to do to keep his family safe. One of them is to act like a claver, do everything he is told, and especially don’t side with anyone who may be a grub. Even when his entire family are considered grubs. With his dad dead, Miranda and Alex expecting a baby, and Lisa and Gabe being the only clavers along with Jon, Jon must decide if keeping his status is worth it or if being a claver means being something his family hates.
Review | Heidi Dischler
So, I started this series when covid first started. I seriously enjoyed the first two, semi-enjoyed the third book, and really am not sure how I feel about this forth one. My main problem with it is that I hate the main character. To me, he seemed like a sociopath, lacking all emotion and conscience. Jon was the worst almost the whole book. I started to see a little good towards the end, but man did it take forever to get there. Like I said, most of the time, I was just disgusted by him and his “friends.”
The plot went really well and I never had any problems with the writing. Susan Beth Pfeffer is amazing, but man I don’t know what happened in this novel. I really think it was mainly how much I disliked two of the main people, which was Jon and Lisa. Lisa annoyed the hell out of me most of the time and I couldn’t stand the two of them. I loved Miranda and Alex, Laura, and Sarah. Sadly, you never got to see a lot of them, though.
Spoilers ahead.
I don’t think there’s much that I want to say in the spoilers except that it felt so wrong what Jon tried to do to Julie. He tried to tell himself that he’d never assault her, but did I believe him? I’m not so sure. How did all of his siblings risk so much for someone who was so whiny, ungrateful, and just a horrible human being?
Also, Lisa killing herself seemed highly unnecessary and just kind of thrown in there for shock value.
Overall, I wish Susan Beth Pfeffer would have left this series at three. I was glad when it was over and couldn’t really say that I enjoyed it that much. If you want to look into this series, definitely read the first two and stop there. Maybe read the third. I wouldn’t recommend reading the fourth, though, unless you want the series to be ruined for you.
Source: Personal Copy
