Book Review :: How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Published by Wendy Lamb Books
on November 30th 2004
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 194
Goodreads

“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

Last updated on 5 April 2022

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What is How I Live Now about?

How I Live Now is about Daisy, a 15 year old from New York who is put on a plane by her father to England, where she is to stay with her cousins. She’s greeted at the London airport by Edmond, her cousin of fourteen, and taken back to their farm. There she meets Osbert, Isaac and Piper, and their mother, Aunt Penn. Shortly after her arrival, Aunt Penn leaves on a trip, and the kids are left on their own. And then it happens. The War.

Living on their own on an English farm while there’s a war raging around them, Daisy and her cousins do the best they can. They tend to the farm, while taking trips into town to hear the latest news, and listen to the gossip of the townspeople to find out what’s going. Eventually, the army comes and takes them from their home, and the boys and the girls are separated. Daisy and Piper are taken to a couple and their young son to live with them. After a summer of mostly fine living, Daisy and Piper escape, for the simple want of going home and finding the others.

My thoughts on How I Live Now

This was an interesting book, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it, to be honest. I did enjoy reading it, but it was all just a little bit odd. I liked how it was about a war that hasn’t happened, and the very real sort of feeling and events that could actually happen should the Third World War begin one day, but from the perspective of a 15-year-old.

Daisy as a character I quite liked, though her narration throughout the majority of the book was strange. Up until Part 2 (which is only a few chapters from the very end of the book), there are no speech marks at all, and everything anyone says is sort of just capitalised within a sentence. It was a bit annoying at first, but once you’re used to it, it’s fine. I actually grew to quite like it.

It was though 15-year-old Daisy was actually writing these things, and it seems to me that kids probably wouldn’t write with speech marks anyway. It was more sort of stream of consciousness…but not in a waffly, rambling sort of way. It’s hard to explain, but I think it worked for the story.

What I did find weird and a little bit disturbing (and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal) was Daisy’s relationship with Edmond. Yup…they fell in love. “But they’re cousins!” you cry. I know. Weird, huh? And then at the end, it’s 6 years after Daisy first goes to England, and it’s about her getting back to Edmond…the love of her life. Weird weird weird.

Other than that weird element of the story, it was okay. It wasn’t really about their relationship anyway, it was about surviving. I liked Daisy and Piper’s journey back across England, trying to survive,  and while Edmond and Daisy had a weird relationship, the whole sense of family and belonging within the family of kids was really nice.

I’m going with 2.5 star rating; somewhere in the middle. But now I can see the movie. (Update in 2022: Still haven’t seen the movie. Probably won’t bother now.)