Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson

“As I rebuild the WLS archive with books I've read from 2011 through to 2025, I want to build a fully-fledged ecosystem of books I've read and recommend. I'd like to be able to reference and speak to any I've finished. For books I haven't reviewed (or can't entirely remember), please enjoy this brief questionnaire that can help you decide whether it's a read you'd like to pursue. Some of these are favorites I just haven't gotten around to fully reviewing yet—I'll explain in each description, but I hope this Q&A can be illuminating to you in the meantime.”

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.

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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.

Why I Picked It Up

Midnight at the Electric is a strange one, in the same way that A History of Glitter and Blood is a strange one. There's this high-concept framework (going to space, the Dust Bowl, etc,.) but the story itself is more existential and character-driven. When I first read it—coming off the high that was Tiger Lily, another favorite by the author—I enjoyed it but didn't appreciate it as much—although the language was obviously gorgeous. I will read anything she writes.

More recently, I went back and reread this one, and took a lot more from it. Although I loved it last time, I cried over it this time; it sparked something more. I'm a big advocate for rereading because reading so actively interacts with memory to create new experiences and connections for you within language and a given narrative (not to get all neuro on you), so the effect is nearly always different. Underrated, for sure.

It's more desolate than lush, more hopeless than hopeful, but still there's a subtle undercurrent of longing that characterizes Anderson's works for me—and keeps them in the hall of fame. The emotion in her books is so resonant and her writing itself is so potent and poetic.

What It's About & What I Remember

The book covers three characters' arcs, in three different time periods. The first is set in the future: one girl, Adri, has secured a spot going to another planet—and never coming back to Earth. As she prepares to leave, she stays with a distant relative in Kansas while preparing, and uncovers a journal from a previous generation. (Very similar, structurally and emotionally, to Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly—another favorite—but has a significantly different emphasis.)

The journal belongs to Catherine, a resident of Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl ravaging the area. Her family's succumbing to illness; the neighbors are leaving. Her home is ceasing to be a home at all.

And then there's Lenore, mourning her dead soldier brother. Her narrative sometimes feels a little less relevant, but she has some stunning reflections, and the rawness of what she experiences really tugs on the heartstrings.

It's a hard book to read, honestly. It hurts, frequently, and will bruise. Throughout the narratives—and assisted by the non-chronological structure—you see hopes actively die or change, and that's just a bit of a harsh view. But still, there are mined moments of beauty and connection within the struggle that illuminate the strength of the characters forging ahead, and it's a striking portrait overall of an interwoven saga across time.

My Overall Thoughts

I can handle harsh and melancholy and awful, but I generally don't do tones that are bleak. But Jodi Lynn Anderson's specific voice actually works well in balancing out the aspects of the story that might otherwise just feel flat and dark. For example, I'm not sure I've actually ever read another author (especially in YA) covering the Dust Bowl without just being unbearably depressing.

Each character feels like they're isolated in the middle of nowhere, so there's no sense of other people or a crowd in the book. You get this sense that the world has just emptied out (similar in feel to The Road by Cormac McCarthy.)

Of course, I especially relish the creativity of Jodi Lynn Anderson's books. She'll take a retelling or funky structure or weird existential theme and tie it all together in a way that's incredibly specific but—more impressively—actually works. For that reason, each of her books feels distinctive and important and great.

Still, the scale of each read of hers nowadays tends to be smaller. They're impactful, but not larger-than-life. I think she does an incredible job making each character's angst a microcosm for these expansive, pale-blue-dot questions everybody has, so they feel big to me—but they are slower, more haunting reads so may not be for everyone. Her books are powerful and unsettling at their core, but also have a gentle energy that soothes me some in the right ways. Overall, I think she's a genius, and I absolutely love her prose.

I'd start with Tiger Lily if possible, then move to Midnight at the Electric. Or dive in, but be comfortable being a little uncomfortable in your "usual" idea of what YA can do.

Specific Lines & Moments I Love

“Last night I lay awake thinking of them with a sharp, desperate feeling in my chest; I don't know if it was worry or envy. I kept thinking, what if they don't make it where they're going? What if they do?”

“That is another thing about losing Teddy. When he was alive he was just one of us. Now that he's gone, he's the only one anyone thinks about.”

“For some reason, being in the cave reminded me of what it felt like to be in my body when I was younger, everything closer and more vivid.”

“'The longer I live,' she looked up at the ceiling, 'the more I think our big mistakes are not about having bad intentions, but just not paying attention. Just bumbling along, a little self-absorbed.'”

“You could love a place as if it were a living thing.”

“I think now how strange it is that time moves at all. How logical it would be for nothing to ever change. Do you even remember me like I remember you? Am I keeping a dream alive that's only a childish memory? ”

And then my personal favorite, linked on my about page.

For fans of:

The Unfinished World (and Other Stories) by Amber Sparks; All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy; This Is the Story of You by Beth Kephart; Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly; The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater; A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz; other JLA books, of course.