Midnight at the Electric
Anderson, a celebrated YA author, has written a moving multi-period novel told from the points of view of three young women poised in three time periods on the brink of voyages away from everything they’ve known in their short lives. They are linked by ancestry and propelled on their journeys by disaster—WWI, the Dust Bowl, and global warming—and their stories share lessons about resilience and the value of reading about human lives.
The focus is on Adri Ortiz, preparing in 2065 to leave the Earth behind and join the human colony on Mars. Prickly, practical, and uncomfortable with emotions, Adri welcomes the chance to abandon a ravaged planet on which she has no human connections. However, her training requires her to spend a few months in Canaan, Kansas, with a long-lost relation, 107-year-old Lily, in a ramshackle farmhouse where Adri unearths journals and letters belonging to two girls her age: Lenore in 1919 and Catherine in 1934. The loves, losses, and journeys of these two young women help Adri to understand why she is taking her own journey—and more importantly, what she is leaving behind.
Anderson’s writing is lyrical and deeply emotive, creating patterns of insight and imagery that resonate through the three stories, linked not only emotionally but also by the presence of a charming tortoise named Galapagos. The secrets that the letters unlock come to light in flashes and sparks of intense beauty and deep empathy. This is a novel that belongs on awards lists for Young Adult Literature in the coming year, and ought to find its way quickly onto school reading lists as well. Very highly recommended.
