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    Midnight at the Electric
    Midnight at the Electric
    Midnight at the Electric
    Audiobook6 hours

    Midnight at the Electric

    Written by Jodi Lynn Anderson

    Narrated by Jorjeana Marie, Bailey Carr and Fiona Hardingham

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    About this audiobook

    6 Starred Reviews and a New York Public Library Best Book of 2017!

    New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson's epic tale—told through three unforgettable points of view—is a masterful exploration of how love, determination, and hope can change a person's fate.

    2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate.

    1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.

    1919: In the recovery following World War I, Lenore tries to come to terms with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail from England to America. But can she make it that far?

    While their stories span thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined in ways both heartbreaking and hopeful. In Jodi Lynn Anderson’s signature haunting, lyrical prose, human connections spark spellbindingly to life, and a bright light shines on the small but crucial moments that determine one’s fate.

    “Deft, succinct, and ringing with emotion without ever dipping into sentimentality, Anderson's novel is both intriguing and deeply satisfying.”—Kirkus (starred review)

    “Each character’s resilience and independence shines brightly, creating a thread that ties them together even before the intersections of their lives are fully revealed. Anderson’s piercing prose ensures that these remarkable women will leave a lasting mark on readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “With quietly evocative writing, compellingly drawn characters, and captivating secrets to unearth, this thought-provoking, lyrical novel explores the importance of pinning down the past before launching into the mystery of the future.”—Booklist (starred review)

    “Anderson …allows her characters to shine through, with each distinct, nuanced, and memorable.”—BCCB (starred review)

    “Anderson deftly tackles love, friendship, and grief in this touching exploration of resilience and hope. A must-have for all YA collections.”—School Library Journal (starred review)

    ""In Midnight at the Electric, Jodi Lynn Anderson weaves a shining tale of hope in the face of adversity. "" —Shelf Awareness (starred review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 13, 2017
    ISBN9780062670243
    Author

    Jodi Lynn Anderson

    Jodi Lynn Anderson is the bestselling author of several critically acclaimed books for young people, including the May Bird trilogy, the Thirteen Witches series, and My Diary from the Edge of the World. She lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, and holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.

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    Reviews for Midnight at the Electric

    4/5

    107 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This left me wanting more yet what it delivered still managed to be such an engaging reading experience that I couldn’t rate it less than five stars.My lone complaint is that I feel like this could have and should have been expanded into a trilogy as each timeline, each character, each friendship, romance, and familial connection is worthy of exploring at greater length. It’s such an odd thing to feel as though a book had unfulfilled potential while simultaneously finding immense satisfaction in all three stories it told. The future where dementia is as heartbreaking as ever and family is found. 1919 with its take on beauty and the beast and finding your way out of grief. And my favorite, the dustbowl era tale with its sweet romance, tough choices, brave devoted sisters, and the best friend you could ever hope to find. Maybe this book isn’t everything it might have been as a trilogy but its an impressive standalone, heartfelt and bittersweet, evoking eras historical and speculative, and tying up just enough threads so that the reader won’t feel cheated of resolutions yet will still wonder about these characters long after the book is closed.
    • 3/5
      God I really wanted this book to be something it wasn't.

      You know when you're reading something and you understand everything that's happening, but you just don't get it?

      That was me with this one.

      Listen, each of the stories were really nice, and I liked them all individually, but for some reason, putting them together didn't make sense to me. I don't get the importance of the letters, or the diary, and why it mattered so much to the characters. Maybe it's because, personally, I don't care for family history of those who died long ago. Maybe I missed some important plot point. I don't know. All I know is that the stories, while tied together logically, didn't make sense to me metaphorically. I still don't get what they were trying to tell me.

      Maybe they weren't trying to tell me anything! Maybe I'm reading too into this and not letting myself enjoy the story! I don't know!

      But I did get one thing. Beyond being a story of family, this is a story of environmentalism. There are so many subtleties that remind us, throughout the book, that the world is being destroyed and we humans are responsible for it. In that sense, we are responsible for everything that happens to us. Maybe that's the real message, the one I was missing. We have the ability to make and change our own histories.

      Despite not particularly getting the story, I did feel emotional at the end. Like I said, I liked each story, and I liked all the characters, but I feel like it was missing for something and because of that, I can't say I liked the book as a whole all too much.
    • 4/5
      *silent weeping* the last few chapters had me humming "should I stay or should I go" - can you tell I've just rewatched the first season of Stranger Things for the 3rd time? I mean, I still haven't seen the second season (shocking right? considering how much I love the first one) anywho...that lyric just kept popping into my head.Adri Ortiz has been hand selected out of thousands if not millions of hopefuls to colonize Mars. She's kept her head, her guard and her grades up for a chance to have something matter in her life. The only problem was that the training facilities were in Kansas and her being in Florida was something that needed to be fixed asap. Luckily the director of the mission found her a place to stay at with a cousin she didn't even know she had (a dad's dad's mother's brother's daughter). It's at her cousin Lily's house that she finds a journal belonging to a girl named Catherine and some letters sent by a girl named Lenore, someone that used to be Catherine's mother's friend, that have nothing to do with her cousin or with each other for that matter. Meanwhile, in Adri's own life she's struggling with being so withdrawn from people. Even though she shares a last name with her cousin she still can't bring herself to make a connection. "I'm not really a friendly kind of person. I'm like, the opposite of that [...] I just want you to know it's not you or anything. It's just the way I am" - I have never related to a quote more than I did in that moment. But Adri's story was still my least favorite. Still, her willingness to leave behind the planet starts the recurring theme about a longing to leave the life you've always known.Once the next character was introduced I was glued to my book. Despite me relating so much to Adri I don't think I'd like to read a story based on my cold disposition towards human interaction. But the fact that the other two girls, that she would never meet, helped her own growth was well worth the read. I talked about this gem with a friend and she described as being an emotional read. In some ways it was, for example I found myself hungry for Catherine to finish her story. I smiled like an idiot when Ellis finally came around, and under the rain! I'm a sucker for under the rain...And when Lenore's heart was broken for her friend James, I just wanted to know more. And let's give it up for the underrated hero of the story a giant tortoise named Galapagos. That girl survived so much and made it out with her hard head held high.I only just realized looking up the book that it's the same author that wrote one of my favorites Tiger Lily but it wasn't as emotional for me. But it's still as captivating and a good story. Oh but before I forget teensy I know Adri and Lily were frantic to learn the ending of Catherine and Lenore's stories then sighed of relief when Adri found the letters I really wanted to know what happened to James darn it. Like, did he ever learn that he was a dad? Did he find love? *sighs* I'm okay T_T
    • 4/5
      It's 2065, and Adri has been selected to go to Mars. Her last stop on the way off the planet is the home of an elderly relative. While staying there, she discovers a mystery from the past, revealed through some old letters and journals. Despite herself, she feels a connection to Cathy from 1935 and Lenore from 1919. Unfortunately, the letters are incomplete. Can Adri figure out what became of these women before her launch date?Though a portion of this book is set in the near future, it's more a work of historical fiction as it focuses a great deal on England just after WWI, and Kansas during the Dust Bowl. I listened to the audiobook, which features three different female narrators, a good choice to differentiate the characters in the story. I felt like a few loose ends could have been tied up better (this looks like a standalone, I would be surprised to see a sequel), but all in all I enjoyed this and would recommend it to readers who like this type of story.
    • 3/5
      A nice story about the connections between people in your own time and generations. Realistic depiction of the dust bowl. Would have liked more depth. Generally do not read YA novels but this book was favorably reviewed. If you want a fast reading novel with a focus on the dust bowl with a little SF thrown in, this might be the book for you.
    • 5/5
      Even before I started reading I knew I'd appreciate this book because of the introductory quote 'Sweethearts sat in the dark and sparked.-- Woody Guthrie, "So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dust)," a dust bowl song.' A novel about the thread of time, this story so eloquently weaves the future with the past. The future is 2065 and Adri is a Colonist chosen to travel and to live on Mars. She must first go to Kansas to train and lives with Lily Ortiz, a very elderly (107 yrs.) distant relative, who was unknown to Adri before arriving on Lily's Kansas heartland farm. Adri discovers hidden-away letters from two women -- Catherine, who may or may not have survived the dirt poor farm life in 1934 during the Dust Bowl years, and another woman, Lenore, whose letters Adri also finds have a connection to Catherine. The thread that connects, Catherine (1934), Lenore (1919) with Lily and Adri is what advances the story. An added link, and character, is the ancient tortoise named, Galapagos, still living on the Kansas farm in 2065 that the reader learns early on was brought to America from England by Lenore. Those things, along with wanting to know the origin of the intriguing title, kept this reader hooked.This novel holds more than one theme. In the Dust Bowl sequences, there's a subtle message conveyed about humans being the earth's caretakers. Plus, the concept of self-determination as the characters find their way through their world also makes this book an exceptional YA read.
    • 3/5
      A sweet story about the movement of time. Also features a turtle.