Review trigger warnings: discussion of sexual assault (paragraph will be hidden in a spoiler tag for those that want to read the review but don't want to read that part)

TL;DR: Don't read this. If you liked the first three books, leave it at that. You're not missing much, because this book didn't add anything worthwhile, and the story is no more resolved than it was in book 3. Do not recommend.

I want to start off by saying that if I didn't reserve 1 star reviews for books I DNF'd but got close-ish to finishing, this book would have been a 1 star. As it is, I feel like even a 1.5 is too generous, because this book was not good.

The first three books in the series were decent. They followed a plotline that seemed realistic and easy to track. I had some issues with them (you can read my reviews on them through my page), but overall they served their function of looking at this horrific thing that happened and making it into a readable plotline. The characters were, for the most part, pretty dull to me, but they still had a function in the story. I didn't feel outright rage that the characters even existed, or that we were being dragged along through the story by someone who isn't a reliable narrator, but the author is trying to pretend they are. That type of writing is fine when the author chooses to acknowledge that their character is probably a sh*tty person, but Susan Beth Pfeffer doesn't do that in this book.

This one follows the story 2 years after it left off in This World We Live In. I was intrigued. I was interested to see how the world had grown and changed after the initial shock was over, and people had made it through in one piece. And then we got this trash. The hierarchical system set up in this book doesn't make sense. You're telling me that a soccer player is considered more important to this body of people than a greenhouse worker? Sure. Sports right now have a certain aspect associated to them that gives prestige. But in a world devastated by the moon, I don't think that would hold up. The explanation given for this is lazy at best.

There was one (singular) positive experience I had reading this book. Now, if you've read my other reviews for this series, you'll know I've had a pretty big issue with the lack of character development for characters, especially Miranda. I can wholeheartedly say that Miranda had the biggest arc, and she wasn't even the main character. I do appreciate that part. I think Alex finally got the depth he deserved. That being said, we didn't actually get to see any of that development. It happened in the two years between books 3 and 4. We just get to see the characters after this time.

Next, let's talk about the absolute worst part of this book. The sexual assault.

For some people who are victims of SA, it can be healing to read a story through the eyes of someone who has undergone that experience as well. Not for everyone, but sometimes it can be. However, this book isn't like that. This book forces the reader to look at the assault through the eyes of the rapist. Let's call it what it is: Jon was going to rape Julie, and he probably would have raped Sarah. But not only do we a) not see any consequences of this, b) have to go through Jon coming up with excuses to justify his behavior, c) have Sarah at the end of the book just falling into Jon's arms, but ALSO have to do it through Jon's POV. This book could have probably gotten bumped up a half star for me without this portion. It wasn't necessary to the plot. It wasn't necessary to explain anything in the previous books. It didn't add to any character development of anyone, and it didn't have a place. There was no justifiable reason to include that, and yet there it was.

If that wasn't bad enough, we also are forced to see Jon objectifying the girls around him. This is a regular occurrence. This is another example of something that didn't add to the plot and had zero consequences. To be totally honest, it feels like SBP chose to write this part in just so she could write it from the POV of an abuser and be able to get away with it.

But there's also the tiny issue of why this book was even written? After finishing it, I chose to read the author notes at the end, where SBP writes "I wrote an entire fourth book and sent it off to Karen." Karen is the editor. "She read it. Everyone at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt read it. And although they never actually said so, they hated it. That should have stopped me. But I loved my characters and I loved the world I'd created [...]. I tried again, and ended up writing the book you're holding in some format or another at this very moment, The Shade of the Moon." SBP, you should have listened to your editor and your publisher and never written this book. This was horrendous.