Book Review: The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Last Survivors #4)

Title: The Shade of the Moon

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pages: 288

Format: Hardback

Goodreads Average Rating: 3.11/5

My Rating: 5/10

Synopsis from Goodreads

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

Review

There's no denying the fact that when this book arrived I did a little happy dance. The last survivors series is one of my all time favourites, and I loved the first three books in the series. So I was both eager and excited to read this final part, however it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to be the strongest book in the series.

My first thought when I started reading it was something like 'oh it's about Jon and not Miranda or Alex, that's odd' and then my second thought as I got further into the book was 'huh these characters are really hard to like, this story doesn't seem to be in the same vein as the others' and then finally after reading the first seventy or so pages, my reaction was to put it down and read nine of ten other books before finally picking it up again.

Now though that I have finished it, I'm glad I did, because though it starts slow and takes a good half of the book to improve, it does improve.

I did find it odd that I don't think the events from the first book, which set off the whole chain of events that led them here, was mentioned at all, or if it was it wasn't mentioned much. I also thought that although I liked the title of the book, it didn't really have anything to do with the contents of the book.

As I said above, I didn't like any of the characters to begin with, although they did grow on me by the end of the book, and I was glad that we got to see glimpses of Alex and Miranda's life.

All in all it was a pretty good book, but I would say it's the weakest in the series which was a shame, but I did enjoy it by the end, and the series is fantastic.

Perhaps when I reread this series in the future, I may read it as a trilogy instead of a quadrilogy. However if you haven't the series before, I would suggest you read all four books.

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