How I Live Now

Bibliographic Information

Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2004. Print. 

Summary

How I Live Now is a speculative fiction novel imagining a future in which there is essentially a third World War, created through independent attacks and disparate terrorist groups. It follows Elizabeth, who goes by Daisy, from Manhattan to her aunt’s farm in rural England. She is sent away due to continuing disagreements with her pregnant stepmother, as well as her father’s frustration with her anorexia. Aunt Penn is part of a war council that is meeting in Oslo to try and negotiate peace, so she leaves Daisy and her four cousins alone on their farm shortly after Daisy’s arrival. The 5 children are able to maintain a relatively normal way of life, though Daisy and her cousin Edmond do end up falling in love and begin a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, the fighting progresses much more quickly than anyone expected and the farm is eventually taken over by the army and the children separated to live in other homes. Daisy’s love for Edmond and fierce protection of the youngest cousin, Piper, gets her through the war alive, though not unchanged. 

Analysis

The greatest strength of the story is the honesty found in Daisy’s own thoughts. She is 15 at the beginning of the story and never once do you doubt it. She focuses heavily on her romance with Edmond prior to the war separating them, just as many oblivious teenage girls would. She questions the morality of that choice and rationally recognizes the many problems society would have with them being together, both her being older and the more dramatic problem of being first cousins. She also mentions and struggles through the feelings of abandonment from her father sending her so far away, sadness at never properly knowing her mother, and the control she feels through anorexia. As such, the war becoming such a serious battle comes as a surprise to the reader, too. 

The greatest weakness was the romance with Edmond and it’s incumbent doubts and worries, which took away from the other issues Daisy faced. I speculate that Rosoff included it to show the degradation of society as a whole, but they never truly interact with society for that to be really true. Edmond could have been an adopted, orphaned family friend and the strength of the relationship would have functioned the same without the distracting element of being close relations. Sexual first cousin relationships are not something that need to be normalized in society, so it seems unnecessary. 

The story as a whole has a lot of appeal to YA audiences- and a lot of good that can come from it. Many teens feel abandoned by adults in their lives, have disorders of varying forms (such as Daisy’s anorexia), and feel too alone and defiant to change anything. This book helps show why it’s important to move beyond these struggles and begin to live again. It is definitely a book intended for older readers. While Daisy is 15, I would only suggest this be read by a mature readers. The sexual relationship with Edmond can be distracting to readers who will focus too heavily on it, but much more importantly, there are some graphic depictions of the war and the carnage that comes alongside such violence. It certainly deserves its place in the canon of YA literature and should continue to be read by both teens and adults. 

Activity

A great activity would be to have students speculate about their own future. This book makes the possibility of a world-wide guerrilla war situation seem like something that could be in our near future. It’s interesting that this book was published 13 years ago and seems like such a real possibility for the future we could experience. Having students work together to imagine a future- even a very dark one- could help them realize the possibility of this book becoming a form of reality. They could form this in a written format, such as a play or a story, or as a visual representation in art or media. Hopefully from this discussion and speculation students could see how the future go poorly and would be inspired to make the world move in a more positive direction. 

Related Resources

This book would certainly appeal to fans of the recent influx of apocalyptic literature set in realistic futures. Series such as Divergent and The Hunger Games are the most well-known of these recent block-busters, but there are a variety of other individual novels and series to get to know, too. I think it perhaps more closely relates to other YA books about World War II, since they have the same sense of realism and relationships that sometimes lack in the post-apocalyptic literature. Code Name Verity would be a great suggestion for a reader who enjoyed the war elements of the story, as well as having the relationship development, though it is not romantic. 

Wein, Elizabeth. Code Name Verity. New York: Hyperion, 2012. Print. 

For older readers, Children of Men  or The Handmaid’s Tale would be a great suggested read. They are both set in a speculative future, with average people at their center. Children of Men also includes the elements of war that come to the forefront in How I Live Now, while The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a time after society has been reestablished. Neither of these focus quite so specifically on developing relationships, however, so that should be considered in what the reader liked about How I Live Now.  

James, P.D. Children of Men. 1992. Reprint. New York: Vintage, 2006. Print. 

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. 1986. Reprint. New York: Anchor, 1998. Print. 

Published Review

“How I Live Now.” Review of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. The Guardian. Accessed at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/01/review-how-i-live-now-meg-rosoff. 

This review from The Guardian covers the book in depth from a popular British culture standpoint- which is, after all, the audience it was originally written for.