book review how i live now

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Book Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Title: How I Live Now

Author: Meg Rosoff

Genre: YA/ Dystopian

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (US)/ Puffin (UK) Publication Date: April 2006 / June 2010 (UK – re edition) Paperback: 194 pages

“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.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone.

How did I get this book: Bought.

Why did I read this book: It has been on our radar for a long, long time.

I had been waiting to read How I Live Now for a long time now, especially after reading reviews by some of my favourites bloggers (and by a few newspapers too, but who cares about those? I trust my favourite bloggers so much more. Angie even NAMED her adorable child after a character in this book) and finally the time came with YAAM.

It’s not hard to pinpoint what makes How I Live Now such a compelling read: its evocative, atmospheric narrative with its lack of both punctuation and dialogue speech marks and the non-stop-I-can’t-breathe-must-keep-reading pacing more than anything else are what kept me turning the pages voraciously. How I Live Now is not flawless but it is SO beautiful it hurts.

Daisy is our protagonist and narrator. A 15 year old New Yorker who has been sent by her father to live with her late mother’s relatives in England. Daisy recounts her life in England with her weirdly magical cousins, from the idyllic first days gallivanting in the countryside, without adult supervision after her aunt goes on a trip to Oslo, to falling in love with her cousin Edmond. The narrative progresses with the ensuing chaos after England is invaded, the War starts and the cousins are evacuated and separated; the high point is Daisy’s relentless strive for survival alongside her youngest cousin Piper and her attempts to reunite with Edmond.

Once How I Live Now starts, I found it difficult to put it down. Part of this reaction comes from its nonstop narrative. I think the best way to describe is: it reads as though Daisy took a deep breath one day and decided to tell me, the reader, how she lived in those days in England and didn’t stop until she was done. The result is a rapport between the reader and Daisy that is hard to break because the narrative is inviting and intimate.

I also find that is almost impossible to separate plot and character when it comes to this book. I think that both plot and narrative ARE essentially Daisy. And Daisy is, and consequently the narrative as well, self-absorbed and unreliable but also: funny, resilient, compassionate, and spirited. She is a doer and a survivor and among cousins that are almost mythical creatures (they have weird abilities like being able to talk to animals and communicate silently), she is also almost the most REAL one too. She is a force , a propelling force.

I think this quote summarises everything that Daisy is:

“I don’t get nearly enough credit in life for the things I manage not to say. Of course in order to survive, Piper and I needed to have a plan, and I was the one who was going to have to make it because Piper’s job was to be a Mystical Creature and mine was to get things done here on earth which was just how the cards were dealt and there was no point thinking of it any other way. Our major plan, which we didn’t even have to discuss, was to get back together with Edmond and Isaac and Osbert by hook or by crook. So far, I was pretty hazy in the details.”

Does she do it? You will have to read to find out. But know this, the second part of the book is starkly different from the first part and it is heartbreaking and heart-warming and the final lines of the novel are incredible.

There is also an aura of mystery surrounding the story because Daisy is a certain type of unreliable narrator – one who is self-absorbed and won’t look further than its own nose, at least to begin with. And this presents a twofold result.

On one hand I felt utterly frustrated by this. And this is a very personal reaction to the story itself and how Daisy reacts to what is happening around her. A war is looming in the horizon, their country is invaded, the only adult they can count on is gone and yet Daisy doesn’t seem to be asking a lot of questions. Because of that, I couldn’t tell you WHO invaded England, WHEN or WHY. The story also has a certain “old days” feeling – the kids are homeschooled, they live off the farm but it is in fact some point in the near future . There are mentions of emails and mobiles and so I found it hard to believe that these kids would be so naïve and so insulated as to not ask simple questions, especially at their age. Daisy starts a sexual relationship with Edmond and although I have zero problems with the fact that they are cousins, and I actually loved their connection and love story, I do have a problem with how she never thought of contraception (I kept waiting for her to get pregnant).

So this is on the one hand. On the other hand, the fact that the narrative is so destitute of certain realistic details it allows for the story to be stripped down to its bare essentials, to what is crucial: the people and how they survive in times of war. Because of that, the pesky details don’t really matter because all you need to know is how Daisy lived then and how she lives now. And what she has to do to get from one point to another. And THAT my friends is a story worth reading.

Notable Quotes/Parts:

My name is Elizabeth but no one’s ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go. But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins everything changed. Part of that was because of the war, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can’t remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn’t count in my book, which this is. Mostly everything changed because of Edmond. And so here’s what happened. **** I’m coming off this plane, and I’ll tell you why that is later, and landing at London airport and I’m looking around for a middle-aged kind of woman who I’ve seen in pictures who’s my Aunt Penn. The photographs are out of date, but she looked like the type who would wear a big necklace and flat shoes, and maybe some kind of narrow dress in black or gray. But I’m just guessing since the pictures only ever showed her face. Anyway, I’m looking and looking and everyone’s leaving and there’s no signal on my phone and I’m thinking Oh Great, I’m going to be abandoned at the airport so that’s two countries they don’t want me in, when I notice everyone’s gone except this kid who comes up to me and says You must be Daisy. And when I look relieved he does too and says I’m Edmond. Hello Edmond, I said, nice to meet you, and I look at him hard to try to get a feel for what my new life with my cousins might be like. Now let me tell you what he looks like before I forget because it’s not exactly what you’d expect from your average fourteen-year-old what with the CIGARETTE and hair that looked like he cut it himself with a hatchet in the dead of night, but aside from that he’s exactly like some kind of mutt, you know the ones you see at the dog shelter who are kind of hopeful and sweet and put their nose straight into your hand when they meet you with a certain kind of dignity and you know from that second that you’re going to take him home? Well that’s him. Only he took me home. I’ll take your bag, he said, and even though he’s about half a mile shorter than me and has arms about as thick as a dog leg, he grabs my bag, and I grab it back and say Where’s your mom, is she in the car? And he smiles and takes a drag on his cigarette, which even though I know smoking kills and all that, I think is a little bit cool, but maybe all the kids in England smoke cigarettes? I don’t say anything in case it’s a well known fact that the smoking age in England is something like twelve and by making a big thing about it I’ll end up looking like an idiot when I’ve barely been here five minutes. Anyway, he says Mum couldn’t come to the airport cause she’s working and it’s not worth anyone’s life to interrupt her while she’s working, and everyone else seemed to be somewhere else, so I drove here myself. I looked at him funny then. You drove here yourself? You DROVE HERE yourself? Yeah well and I’M the Duchess of Panama’s Private Secretary.

Verdict: Even though I was slightly frustrated with the not-knowing, I fully appreciated the book for what it is: an engrossing, beautiful story of survival and love.

Rating: Ana: 8 – Excellent

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Ana Grilo is a Brazilian who moved to the UK because of the weather. No, seriously. She works with translations in RL and hopes one day The Book Smugglers will be her day job. When she’s not here at The Book Smugglers, she is hogging our Twitter feed.

15 Comments

I LOVED this book, so I’m really glad to see it getting a review here. The only other book by Rosoff I’ve gotten around to is What I Was, which is also very good but even more character-driven. (By which I mean almost nothing happens for most of it, but you won’t care.)

Karen Mahoney

Oh, I LOVED this book! I read it when it first came out in hardback over here & I just sunk into the voice and let it carry me away. Beautiful.

I fully agree with you, though, that there is a frustrating element of not knowing the Where, When, How, Who, Why? of the war, etc. But it just doesn’t matter – not with the bigger picture.

This is one of my favourite books, and I can’t believe I haven’t talked to you about it more! 🙂

Anne M Leone

I love How I Live Now, too, though I had many of the same frustrations reading it as you did. Meg Rosoff is a very daring, admirable writer who has taken lots of risks with her books. Some pay off more than others, but I love the thought that goes into each one. Her recent Bride’s Farewell is amazing.

Oh, I really enjoyed this one, too! Definitely a different, compelling read, and one I couldn’t read fast enough. I stayed up until the middle of the night to find out what happened to Daisy. One of my favorite dystopian reads ever.

Mrs. DeRaps

Nice review. I loved the book, though I was a tad grossed-out by the cousin thing. But, I guess that they didn’t grow up together, so it’s okay. Thanks for reviewing this awesome book.

Tahlia Newland

Looks like this one’s going on my TBR list. I wonder about the lack of speech marks though. I saw another book like that and I found it a bit ocnfusing. That won’t stop me reading it though. I love books that are as moving as this one sounds – I call it the M-factor and it sounds like this one has heaps of it.

I did a post on the M-factor you might like http://publishersearch.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/what-makes-good-fantasy-novels-great-part-1/

Rosoff is a fantastic writer. Just In Case stuck with me for days afterwards. I’m dying to get my hands on her latest one when it comes out in paperback.

Book Review: There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff | The Book Smugglers

[…] did I read this book: I read and loved How I Live Now by this author and kept meaning to read other books from her. When I was offered a copy of There is […]

I need to know what for character every person in this book has, cuz I’m doing a presentation about this book on thursdayyy 😕

i need a paragraph saying why these books are good because i am doing a presentation about it. plzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i hate the book -__-

I loved this book so much. I read it in one day and I’ve read it thousands of times since. At first it was quite annoying and I wasn’t used to the fact that there wasn’t speech marks for any dialogue and I found it hard to separate speech from Daisy’s thoughts. However, I managed to get it. Sometimes I thought parts were too rushed but in a way that showed you Daisy’s character if you understand what I mean. Part two was my favourite I have to say. I cried throughout the whole of it and suspect I’ll be reading just that section of that book over and over for the rest of my life. I hated the ending but at the same time I loved it. I was glad it wasn’t what I was expecting, which was a soppy happy ever after. Which at times I love but now, after reading it, I’m glad isn’t in the book. It’s a clever ending and it doesn’t tell you everything and leaves some parts a mystery that you have to figure out yourself. I suppose it’s sort of a happy ending but it’s not the whole romantic, back together with your true love and a happy family sort of happy. I won’t spoil it all though. You will only like this book if you can put the time into it and have patience. If you can’t really be bothered with it and don’t put your mind to it, you’ll find it boring. If you don’t give up on it, it will be a fantastic read. -N

I need 10 quotes from this book with explanations please

i love this book too. But can anyone tell me why is this book a dystopian story, i can’t find the one who has power or other things related to dystopia…

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HOW I LIVE NOW

by Meg Rosoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 2004

An epilogue, set six years after the conclusion, while war still lingers, ends Daisy’s story on a bittersweet, hopeful note.

Manhattanite Daisy, 15, moves to London to stay with an aunt and cousins she’s never met.

Without preamble or fanfare, an unidentified enemy attacks and war ensues. Her aunt is abroad on a peace mission, meaning that Daisy and her three cousins, with whom she forges a remarkable relationship, must survive almost entirely on their own. This is a very relatable contemporary story, told in honest, raw first-person and filled with humor, love, pathos, and carnage. War, as it will, changes these young people irrevocably, not necessarily for the worse. They and readers know that no one will ever be the same. The story of Daisy and her three exceptional cousins, one of whom becomes her first lover, offers a keen perspective on human courage and resilience.

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2004

ISBN: 0-385-74677-6

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2004

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Share your opinion of this book

More by Meg Rosoff

BOOK REVIEW

by Meg Rosoff

by Meg Rosoff ; illustrated by Grace Easton

INDIVISIBLE

by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021

An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.

A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.

Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

More by Daniel Aleman

by Daniel Aleman

More About This Book

PERSPECTIVES

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

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by Laura Nowlin

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Summary and Reviews of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

How I Live Now

• BookBrowse Review:
• Critics' Consensus:
• Readers' Rating:
• First Published:
• Aug 1, 2004, 208 pages
• Jul 2005, 208 pages
• Literary Fiction
• Young Adults
• UK (Britain) & Ireland
• Adult-YA Crossover Fiction
• Immigrants & Expats
• Jewish Authors
• Publication Information
• Write a Review
• Buy This Book

About This Book

Book summary.

'Rarely does a writer come up with a first novel so assured, so powerful and engaging that you can be pretty sure that you will want to read everything this author is capable of writing'.

"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. A riveting and astonishing story.

My name is Elizabeth but no one’s ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go. But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins everything changed. Part of that was because of the war, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can’t remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn’t count in my book, which this is. Mostly everything changed because of Edmond. And so here’s what happened.

I’m coming off this plane, and I’ll tell you why that is later, and landing at London airport and I’m looking around for a middle-aged kind of woman who I’ve seen in pictures who’s my Aunt Penn. The photographs are out of date, but she...

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Michael Printz Award 2005

Media Reviews

Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

Daisy's voice is totally authentic and the story gripped and just wouldn't let go. More than any recent book, How I Live Now brought home how easily a country could be brought to its knees by a small invading force. As Daisy explains, 'when I heard how it happened I was pretty impressed by the cleverness of the guys who planned it, who as far as I understood basically waited for most of the British Army to be lured into crises on the other side of the world and then waltzed in and cut off all the transportation and communication sand stuff so basically they were defending Britain against its own returning armed forces rather than attacking.' Most poignant of all is a long postscript written by Daisy six years after the war, I have reread these particular chapters a number of times already and will likely return to them again.

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Read-Alikes

• Genres & Themes

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Parents' guide to, how i live now.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 13 Reviews
• Kids Say 15 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Matt Berman , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Powerful, violent tale about kids caught in a modern war.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this is a book about kids trying to survive during a war, and does feature some vivid violence, including descriptions of the decaying bodies of massacred children and adults. Also, Daisy has a sexual and romantic relationship with her first cousin, and their love is rekindled after the war;…

Why Age 14+?

Two bloody killings, and a graphic view of rotting corpses after a massacre, inc

Edmond smokes, and it is portrayed as cool.

An incestuous underage sexual affair, presumably unprotected, between first cous

A few expletives.

Any Positive Content?

This book could lead to many spirited discussions, starting with what the book&#

Readers will understand that it is Daisy's love for her cousins that makes h

Daisy isn't perfect -- she is anorexic at the beginning of the book and isn&

Parents need to know that this is a book about kids trying to survive during a war, and does feature some vivid violence, including descriptions of the decaying bodies of massacred children and adults. Also, Daisy has a sexual and romantic relationship with her first cousin, and their love is rekindled after the war; this is portrayed without judgment but it's hard to get too hung up on this relationship given the way civilization and morality crumble around them. Indeed it is her love for Edmond and his family that makes Daisy fight for her survival. Also Edmond smokes in the book, which Daisy thinks is cool, and Daisy is anorexic at the beginning of the book, mostly to get back at her father and cruel stepmother.

Violence & Scariness

Two bloody killings, and a graphic view of rotting corpses after a massacre, including the bodies of children. Daisy uses a gun to kill a starving pet goat. Edmond cuts himself after the war is over. References to rape.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

An incestuous underage sexual affair, presumably unprotected, between first cousins is portrayed romantically, though not graphically, and without consequences. References to rape, sex, molestation, masturbation, erections, kissing, skinny dipping, and dogs humping.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Educational Value

This book could lead to many spirited discussions, starting with what the book's title means. Parents and teachers may want to look at the publisher's discussion guide (pdf), or look at the questions in our "Families Can Talk About" section.

Positive Messages

Readers will understand that it is Daisy's love for her cousins that makes her fight for her survival during a terrible war -- and it is what continues to sustain her in the war's aftermath, when she -- and the rest of the damaged world -- begin trying to rebuild.

Positive Role Models

Daisy isn't perfect -- she is anorexic at the beginning of the book and isn't too clued into the goings on of the outside world -- but ultimately she draws on her "stubbornness and ignorance and an insatiable hunger for love" in order to survive and protect the family she has chosen.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

• Parents say (13)
• Kids say (15)

Based on 13 parent reviews

Not a book for children

Who gives a book like this an award ugh, what's the story.

Daisy, angry and anorexic, is sent by her father and pregnant stepmother to England to stay with cousins she has never met on their farm. Almost immediately her aunt has to travel, leaving the kids alone, and then, as war breaks out all over the world, is unable to return. Daisy and her cousin Edmond, meanwhile, have fallen in love. For a while, as war, anarchy, and famine spread throughout the world, the children live a peaceful idyll in the country, unencumbered by adults. But soon enough the war comes even to their remote village, their house is taken over by the military, and they are separated. As conditions deteriorate, and Daisy tries to find Edmond, she draws on her "stubbornness and ignorance and an insatiable hunger for love" in order to survive.

Is It Any Good?

This book was awarded the Printz honor and earned numerous starred reviews, and it's easy to see why it is so popular with critics and readers. It combines so many powerful elements: The book at times takes on elements of magical realism in Daisy's near psychic connection with Edmond, and the scenes of her idyllic life in the English countryside, even after the war begins, contrast sharply with the vivid realism she is forced to deal with as she faces the horrors of starvation, exhaustion, and murder.

This is a book that teens will quickly devour -- and then spend a long time thinking about. There's much to consider, from what they would do in Daisy's place to the portrayal of modern war to what they think will happen to the survivors in the post-war world. Some readers may find the jump to six years later a bit jarring -- and others will no doubt be troubled by the sexual relationship between Daisy and her cousin -- but most teens will find this a powerful, moving tale about kids caught in a war beyond their control -- and the ways it scars them, and bonds them forever.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about some of the book's more mature material, including the vivid descriptions of the war's devastating violence. Were you surprised by any of this content or did it seem necessary to tell Daisy's story? Is reading about violence different than seeing it in a movie or on TV?

This book offers a pretty bleak look at our future world. How does it compare to other dystopian novels, such as The Hunger Games or Little Brother ? What can we learn by looking at these possible futures?

Book Details

• Author : Meg Rosoff
• Genre : Contemporary Fiction
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Random House
• Publication date : January 2, 2005
• Number of pages : 194
• Last updated : June 17, 2015

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Book Review: How I Live Now By Meg Rosoff

By: Author Laura Hartley

Posted on Published: 10th January 2014  - Last updated: 5th September 2024

Categories Books , Book Reviews

Title: How I Live Now Author: Meg Rosoff Genre: Young Adult Publisher: Penguin Books Publication Date: 2013 Goodreads Summary:  “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 targetted and then 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.

How I Live Now Book Review

I was a little reluctant to start reading How I Live Now as I was convinced that at 18 years old, I had already passed the prime age for reading a novel such as this.

I had listened to friends ranting and raving about this novel since I was around the age of eleven so I expected to find a really good novel, but one that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to entirely relate to as I was too old. Fortunately, I was completely wrong and I greatly enjoyed the book.

How I Live Now is written from the first-person perspective of Daisy, an American teenager forced to move to England by her new stepmother as there’s a new baby on the way and the move is deemed what’s ‘best’ for her.

Thrust into an unknown world where she is surrounded by animals, nature and family as opposed to the cold city blocks of Manhattan, Daisy begins her new life in England. Whilst things seem to be going great for Daisy at first, war is brewing across the nation and her life gets turned upside down once again by its devastating effects.

Although this book is classified under ‘teenage’ fiction, I would highly recommend this to people of all ages. It is a touching story and the feistiness of Daisy, our protagonist, makes it easy to forget that she is only fifteen years old when these events take place.

Daisy writes in a stream of consciousness style and there isn’t a single line of reported speech in the entire book which takes a bit of getting used to. It’s a little hard at first to figure out who’s saying what and some sentences are so long that I feel like I’m running out of breath just reading them, but this is all part of the style.

The writing is so naturalistic that I really feel like I’m in Daisy’s head and her narrative is definitely what I would say the shining feature of this book is.

However, something that I found incredibly confusing whilst reading the book was the time period in which it was set.

Whilst it seemed fairly authentic in terms of its war setting there were references to Friday 13th (1980) and Lassie (1940) which made me question which war this book is set in. I firmly believed whilst reading it that this was set during WWII but it turns out it’s set in a fictional third world war. This was not clear at all.

As far as I can remember there weren’t any references to the Internet or modern technology so there wasn’t really any indication at all that the story is set in the twenty-first century.

Perhaps there were some clues when Daisy describes her old life in the States, but the majority of the scenes of this book could’ve been taken straight out of WWII England in my opinion.

The trailer for the film adaptation of How I Live Now , as well as the movie book cover will make you believe that a large chunk of this novel is about teenage romance, which it isn’t really. There are a few elements of romance between Daisy and one of her cousins, which, now that I know this book is set in the 21st century, seems all the more creepy.

When I believed this book to be set in the 1940s, it seemed slightly more acceptable for cousins to fall in love, but in the century we’re currently living in, it is a topic that would most almost certainly be considered inappropriate in a young adult novel such as this.

All in all, How I Live Now is a well-written novel that isn’t exactly filled with ‘action’, but it’s a story you grow fond of and it touches your heart.

When I finished reading it I thought it was an excellent book, but the fact that I didn’t pick up that this novel is set in the 21st century makes me question it a little, as does the slightly incestuous relationship between Daisy and cousin.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to all readers as it is a fascinating portrayal of how a teenager’s life is affected by war though, in my opinion, it is more likely to appeal to young-mid teens.

For more war books, check out these reviews: Of Love and Other Wars by Sarah Hardach Look Who’s Back by Timur Vernes The Book of Aron by Jim Shepherd Restless by William Boyd

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Kayla Arnold

Monday 19th of October 2015

I loved this book- I thought the movie didn't portray the story well enough but was still enjoyable. I always found the end to be particularly heartbreaking.

Gabbie Pintac

Tuesday 29th of April 2014

Awesome review! I've been wanting to read this book for a while now. I better read it soon so I can watch the movie right after :) thanks for sharing!

Dorothy Ellis

Saturday 8th of February 2014

Hmm interesting premise through not my kind of book, but I'm glad you liked it :)

fatma shahin

Monday 27th of January 2014

this book sounds so coool! I love Sairose ( i know i spelt it wrong :P) Ronan! :D

Cali Willette

Friday 17th of January 2014

Great review! I love this author and I haven't read this book yet,but I can't wait to give it a try. ;)

Saturday 25th of January 2014

I really liked this book but the inconsistencies were really annoying! Not sure I'll be reading anymore Meg Rosoff because I think I'm a little past the age you read her books :(

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REVIEW: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Dear Ms. Rosoff,

Here I am regardless, writing this open letter mainly to say that I think the folks who hand out these prizes were on to something, and readers with a taste for young adult fiction with a touch of romance, or who like their dystopias served up with a scoop of wry humor on the side, might enjoy this book as much as I did.

Whether How I Live Now takes place in an alternate present or in the very near future isn’t clear, but it doesn’t matter, because the world it is set in feels so familiar that when things start to go wrong they’re disturbingly convincing. The book begins when Daisy, its fifteen year old American narrator, arrives in England. Daisy tells her story in long sentences and a wry tone.

Anyway, I'm looking and looking and everyone's leaving and there's no signal on my phone and I'm thinking Oh great, I'm going to be abandoned at the airport so that's two countries they don't want me in, when I notice everyone's gone except this kid who comes up to me and says You must be Daisy. And when I look relieved he does too and says I'm Edmond.

Daisy’s voice takes a little taking used to, but it wasn’t long before I was caught up in her story. Daisy and her “wicked stepmother” Davina don’t get along, and now that Davina is pregnant, Daisy’s father has sent Daisy to live with her maternal aunt and her cousins. The cousins are nine year old Piper, fourteen year old twins Edmond and Isaac, and sixteen year old Osbert.

Daisy’s relationship with her dad is clearly complicated (she starves herself partly because it forces her father to spend his money on psychiatrists), but the cousins and her aunt Pen welcome Daisy so warmly that she feels wanted for the first time in her life. The family lives in big country house with dogs and chickens and ducks and goats, some of which are pets and some of which are there for decoration. To Daisy, who has lived in Manhattan all her life, the place seems exotic and strange, but in a good way.

There’s a wasp in the ointment, however, and that is the fact that everyone expects war to break out soon. Daisy and the other kids see this mostly as a lark, but Daisy’s aunt Pen is a diplomat, and takes it very seriously. Shortly after Daisy’s arrival, Pen leaves for Oslo, where a last ditch attempt at diplomacy is to be made. But while she is away, London is attacked, England’s borders are closed, and the kids are left on their own.

In the beginning they are glad to be free of parental supervision. Being on their own is exciting, and even the war is thrilling since it doesn’t yet touch them. Osbert dreams of spying on the enemy, a country whose identity is at first unknown and later unnamed.

Daisy and Edmond have another reason to be happy with the present state of affairs. It’s very nearly love at first sight for them, despite the fact that they are first cousins. At first they try to resist their feelings, but eventually they give in to them. They are, as Daisy puts it, starved for each other, and the absence of adults makes it possible for them to try to satisfy their endless hunger.

But this idyll can’t and doesn’t last long. First the countryside is quarantined due to a rumored outbreak of smallpox, and then British soldiers commandeer the house, recruit Osbert, and send Daisy and Piper west, to live with a military family. Both girls are miserable at being separated from their family, and Daisy promises Piper that she will reunite them with Edmond and Isaac. But she will have to ensure her own survival and Piper’s first.

How I Live Now starts out intriguing and gets better from there. Some readers might be squicked out by the fact that Edmond and Daisy are cousins. I was a little bit discomfited at first, but their love scenes took place behind closed doors, and as the book progressed I saw that their love was one of the things that kept them whole in an unstable world with jagged edges, and I came to appreciate how much it meant to them, and to want them to be reunited.

Although the book gets quite dark, Daisy’s wry commentary got me laughing out loud in the midst of moments that might otherwise have been grim. What unfolds during the war is at times surreal, but Daisy is so grounded in reality that the book remains believable even when elements of the fantastical are introduced. You weave together threads from several genres to create a beautiful fabric of a book, something new and not quite like anything I’ve read before, though I was reminded a bit of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower .

The only reason this book won’t get a straight A from me is that a time transition near the end felt abrupt and choppy, and for a little while there were too many unanswered questions that Daisy knew and could have supplied the answers to circling in my head and distracting me. One in particular I still wonder about. Was Piper left completely alone before Isaac returned? But the fact that it niggles at me shows how involved and I became in this wonderful tale. I laughed, I cried, I turned page after page, and was left thinking about how our world has changed since September 11th, and how we live now. A-.

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Janine Ballard loves well-paced, character-driven novels in romance, fantasy, YA, and the occasional outlier genre. Examples include novels by Ilona Andrews, Mary Balogh, Aster Glenn Gray, Helen Hoang, Piper Huguley, Lisa Kleypas, Jeannie Lin, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Naomi Novik, Nalini Singh, and Megan Whalen Turner. Janine also writes fiction. Her critique partners are Sherry Thomas and Meredith Duran. Her erotic short story, “Kiss of Life,” appears in the Berkley anthology AGONY/ECSTASY under the pen name Lily Daniels. You can email Janine at janineballard at gmail dot com or find her on Twitter @janine_ballard.

Yay, this is available as a ebook.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this book, Keishon.

I study literature and for a long time, this was the first book to cause me true pleasure. It’s beautiful. I am twenty-three now, and I was struck by the fact that being in love for the first time exactly felt like as it is depicted in this book.

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Heart Full of Books

Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

I wanted to read this book for  ages.  It wasn’t until after I watched the movie, starring Saoirse Ronan, that I really wanted to read it. I’m not going to talk about the differences between the movie and the film, as I don’t want to spoil anyone but if you’re interested in a ‘based on’ movie, instead of a very faithful adaptation, then definitely watch the movie!

So, the premise of this book is that a girl called Daisy is shipped off to the UK to live with her rag-tag cousins because of family conflicts. (More accurately step  family conflicts.) The cousins, Osbert, Edmond, Isaac and Piper (Rosoff had to choose the most unusual names for the family!) have been living without adult supervision for a while because their mother is an important figure in the war circuit. It just so happens that Daisy’s UK excursion happens the same time World War 3 does. Go figure.

I really enjoyed the first…third of the book where we got to know the relationships between the characters, and what role they all played in keeping the family alive and together. A romantic relationship forms between Daisy and Edmond (which, if read into, is weird, but Game of Thrones is weirder) and Piper is a little cutie. The cousins easily accept Daisy into their clan and they have a jolly old time together in pre-war country Britain, running around in field and swimming in lakes.

One thing I  will  say for the film is that it is all much more dramatic. The book could potentially be described as slow paced (and it did take me a while to read, despite in being just over 200 pages) but there  is  always something going on. I think the book improved once Piper and Daisy were on the move, trying to return to their country paradise. Our survival seemed realistic (although I haven’t had to live in the woods for days), as did their chances of returning home.

I like Part Two of the novel, which offered some closure and a conclusion to the story, ending with ‘that’s how I live now’, so you really understood where the title came from! All the characters had personality and everything felt somewhat resolved with as little heartbreak as possible. For a debut novel, it was fantastic. I would definitely read this again, which is the highest of praises. Overall, I’d give this book 4 stars, the fifth star removed as I was expected more, but that’s what comes with watching the movie first!

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How I Live Now

What an odd, unsettling little book How I Live Now is. Should I be surprised that this received the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult fiction? It seems all of the YA award winners these days are for stories that push the envelope. And this one does. It really does.

Daisy has spent her entire fifteen years in New York City and is a full-fledged sullen teenage urbanite. She and her new step-mom, who is newly pregnant, don’t get on, so Daisy’s father decides to send her to live in England with an aunt she has never met and a bunch of homeschooled cousins. All of them live on a dilapidated farm in the middle of nowhere. Whoopee, Daisy thinks.

It doesn’t take Daisy long to see that things in her new home are a bit different. Aunt Penn is an important member in the peace movement and is constantly busy. The remaining four cousins are an eclectic bunch, to say the least. Almost immediately, Daisy gets the strong feeling that her slightly younger cousin, Edmond, can somehow read her mind. Piper, who is nine, has a bit of a saintly, ethereal feel to her, and Isaac, Edmond’s twin, almost never talks. But they are friendly and Daisy finds herself settled in much sooner than she would have expected, living the farm life and taking things at a snail’s pace. Then Aunt Penn leaves to go on a short trip and terrorists bomb London, leaving thousands dead. England is at war.

The best part of the novel is how the author portrays war from a child’s perspective. At first, nothing much changes. It’s actually better for Daisy because there are no adults around and she and her cousins can do what they want without supervision. Then things start to get a bit more difficult. With the power infrastructure down, life gets more complicated. Since they are on a farm and it is summer, the kids do not face starvation, but their diet becomes less varied and procuring food becomes a cumbersome problem. Violence does not break out right away, and, buried in the country, the kids are at a loss to what kind of war this really is. But eventually people start dying, the violence accelerates, and all of their lives are thrown into limbo.

Rosoff’s angle on the war isn’t to expose the violence – although some scenes might upset younger teens – but to show the randomness and the pointlessness of it all. Good characters die, annoying characters die, animals die, but no one really benefits from any of it. Death just arrives, eventually, even though the terrorists aren’t particularly interested in racking up a big body count after their first big splash. Also, the author highlights how quickly today’s lifestyle breaks down in the absence of the electrical grid and modern communication.

More troubling is the author’s portrayal of adults. All of them are either distracted or pointlessly meddlesome. By contrast the children are remarkably self-sufficient. While the book’s perspective is that of a teenager looking at war – and the plot depends on Daisy’s lack of control of her life – it would have been nice if one of the adults in charge of these kids had been responsible.

What will bother more readers, however, is the relationship that develops between Daisy and her first cousin, Edmond. It is both intense and sexual, and, unchaperoned, they have a significant amount of time to explore it. While their physicality is pretty much off-screen, the fact that two such young (and closely related) teens are becoming sexual so quickly and so intensely – did I mention that the book pushed the envelope? I wasn’t just talking about the violence. What’s odd here is that Edmond as a character is pretty one-dimensional. He doesn’t do much except read Daisy’s mind. Their relationship isn’t really necessary for the plot either and the book doesn’t read like a romance. So one can only infer that Rosoff includes this stuff just because.

How I Live Now is most memorable in telling the story of Daisy’s survival and how she learns to take care of herself and others. The war detail is interesting, but there are moments I wish I could go back and unread. Still, Rosoff’s style is individual and humorous in spots and Daisy is a memorable character. Young and/or squeamish readers should steer clear of this one, but if you’re looking for something unique and affecting, pick this one up.

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Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Posted May 28, 2014 by Charlotte in Reviews / 1 Comment

"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. A riveting and astonishing story.

Written in the first person perspective, How I live Now is told as if Daisy is recollecting her thoughts and opinions rather than through a robotic format. Told with limited information, so that the reader feels as confused and lost as Daisy and her cousins in a world at war, adding to the atmosphere of the book.

Once you get over Daisy’s and Edmund’s uncontroversial relationship – they are both under-age and cousins!- then this is a brilliant story of how two lovers are torn apart by war and how love can not only break a heart but also mend it. The major theme for this book is survival-ship.

When I initially read How I Live Now , I didn’t really like it. Daisy was annoying, I hated the relationship between her and Edmund, and the way the book was narrated was frustrating – I wanted more facts. But after several rereads over the years I have started to love this book, and if I was in Daisy’s place this narration would be my own view. The tiny details hidden because they are not important, it is about being with the people you love and protecting one another.

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1 Comment Tags: Fiction , How I Live Now , Meg Rosoff , Penguin , Romance , Science Fiction , Young Adult

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[…] adore this book. When I first read it in 2004 I wasn’t exactly enamored with the book.  But over the years this book has grown […]

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Paperback review: How I Live Now, By Meg Rosoff

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This new edition of Rosoff’s 2004 novel, published in the year after the Iraq War had begun, is a chilling account of what happens when an enemy force invades your country and you’re separated from those you love.

Daisy is a 15-year-old from New York whose new stepmother doesn’t want her around. Possibly anorexic and deeply cynical, she arrives at her aunt’s country house in England full of suppressed anger, but quickly falls in love with her cousin Edmond. Her aunt leaves for a short conference in Oslo, but that’s when the war starts and the children are left alone, as a military occupation ensues and they are separated from one another. The horrors then begin, and this is where the transformation of Daisy begins – her narrative voice changes with the experiences she has, and she learns how to stay alive. There’s plenty of black humour at the start, but Rosoff moves with ease into a darker, more mature tone, as Daisy loses her innocence – the very innocence that, ironically, she never thought she had.

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