"The Dead and the Gone"- By Susan Beth Pfeffer

The genre of this book is fiction. There are a total of 321 pages in this book and I finished the whole book. I chose this book for third quarters outside reading book because the book cover had a really big moon and I wondered how it relate to its title- The Dead and the Gone. In addition, I was totally fascinated by the book after reading the summary of the book on the back cover. The story of The Dead and the Gone was set in New York City at the modern time. The main theme in this book is how a young man, Alex Morales, takes on unimaginable responsibilities for himself and his family. The author is trying to tell us that we have to be prepared for any unbelievable catastrophic events that might happen and everyone will have some sort of responsibility afterwards.

In this book, the main character had to go through a lot of internal and external conflicts throughout the book. Some of the internal conflicts the main character, Alex, had to face include keeping his mental strength that allowed him and his two sisters to stay alive. Some external conflicts include how Alex had to deal with his two sisters and make them do what he says since he was the next in charge of the family after their parents are gone and his older brother, Carlos, in the marines. I personally dont like the ending of the book. Why does Alex sister, Brianna, have to die? My favorite character in this book is Kevin. Even though Kevin died at a part in this book, he was a thoughtful person for Alex. Kevin always gave Alex food that he didnt need and helped him get one more bag of food at the food line every morning. After reading this book, I learned that making more friends will make a lot of difference once you are stuck in a difficult situation. I will recommend this book to any people that are interested in catastrophic situation.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. The Dead and the Gone. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,