Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson Format: Hardcover
Published by HarperTeen on June 13th 2017
Pages: 272
Goodreads
Divided by time. Ignited by a spark.
Kansas, 2065. Adri has secured a slot as a Colonist—one of the lucky few handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house over a hundred years ago, and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. While Adri knows she must focus on the mission ahead, she becomes captivated by a life that’s been lost in time…and how it might be inextricably tied to her own.
Oklahoma, 1934. Amidst the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine fantasizes about her family’s farmhand, and longs for the immortality promised by a professor at a traveling show called the Electric. But as her family’s situation becomes more dire—and the suffocating dust threatens her sister’s life—Catherine must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.
England, 1919. In the recovery following the First World War, Lenore struggles with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail to America in pursuit of a childhood friend. But even if she makes it that far, will her friend be the person she remembers, and the one who can bring her back to herself?
While their stories spans thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined.
This was a book I picked up to read on summer vacation and I actually did read it on vacation. As I was reading this I realized that I have never read anything by Jodi Lynn Anderson before this and I don’t know why considering I have a few of her books sitting on my bookshelf. This will be another author that I will have to make sure I read in 2018.
Midnight at the Electric is told in three perspectives ( Adri, Catherine and Lenore) and three different time periods (Kansas 2065, Oklahoma 1934 and England 1919).
As I was reading this I was always wondering how each of the girls would play a part in the book and how it would all join together at the end and I was happy to see Jodi Lynn managed to connect them all together.
The book begins in the year 2065, and one of our main characters, Adri has been selected to be one of the colonists living on Mars. How neat would that be? Adri is sent to go live with a distant cousin in Kansas that she had no idea she had, while she completes her final training. Its there that Adri discovers the journal of Catherine, a girl living during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, and letters from Lenore, an English girl coming to terms with the loss of her brother in World War I, hidden away in her closet and curiosity gets the better of her and she starts reading the letters and journal.
With Catherine we discover that she is a young girl growing up in Kansas during the great Dust Bowl, which is something that actually happened and was also known as the Dirty 30s. Something that I never knew actually happened and I have to say that I found Catherine’s chapters interesting and horrifying. She is finding first love who just happens to be someone who is helping taking care of the family land and she is also watching her farm be buried in dirt and her sister’s cough not going away. How scary would that have been in that time?
It is through Catherine’s story, that we learn about her mom and how she left England during the war and how her best friend, Lenore stayed behind. Even though the friends were separated they never lost touch and wrote letters to each other. With Lenore we learn what the war was like and how she struggled with the losses her town had suffered and her need to want to flee England and go to America so that she could be with her friend.
Having not read anything before I wasn’t sure what to expect but I am happy to say that I really enjoyed the book and the roller coaster of emotions that I would feel. Seeing as I was reading this on vacation I didn’t get to read it in one sitting but over a few nights. I would definitely continue to read Jodi Lynn’s previous and future books.