It took me a little while to really get into the book, but once I did I was completely sucked in by everything. It is not the story of the apocalypse. It is the story of one girl's struggle for survival. It is a very personal story, even more so because of the form it takes (her personal diary, in case you forgot.) There's a lot of small details about their daily comings and goings, but for me that just added to the personal story rather than making it a 'disaster on a large scale' story. 
 I found the book to be very thought provoking. I felt like I was going through everything that the character was going through. When I read it we had terrible weather here: the wind was going mad and it was constantly dull - this just added to the feeling that her world could well be my world. I felt guilty every time I ate a full meal instead of just a tin of mixed veg or something. I had an urge to go and stock up on tinned and jarred foods, to make sure my pantry was full, to make sure I had enough pet food for the animals... 
 At times I felt like the author deliberately wrote the character as dense rather than naive. The scene where she learns about all the volcanoes in the world erupting being one such example. I would have thought that at 16, you'd know that every single one of the world's volcanoes erupting at the same time spells big trouble, but Miranda seemed to be stuck in the belief that because there are no volcanoes near where she lives, she would not be affected. 
 There were some scenes that didn't add to the story. They should either have been cut or expanded upon. One such scene was the one where Miranda met Brandon (her idol) at the lake and went ice skating with him. It is never touched upon again. Did Brandon really exist? Or did Miranda have one hell of a hallucination? We, as readers, do not know. It should either have been cut from the final version of the story or something should have happened later on to confirm that Miranda had dreamt it all up. Instead, we're just left with that one random scene that never went anywhere. 
 Although at times she is annoying or exasperating, Miranda is a very relatable character. The way that she lashes out at her mother in particular is something I know I did myself at that age. 
 (There are two other books in this series, but after having researched their content, I've come to the conclusion that no message of hope can be offered in such a world and I'd rather remember the characters as they are now, rather than as their personalities will be shaped in the last book.)