Midnight at the Electric

Starred review from April 17, 2017
Anderson (The Vanishing Season) interweaves the stories of three tenacious young women in this sprawling saga. In 2065, orphan Adri Ortiz has been accepted into a prestigious Mars colony program, where she will work to create a livable extraterrestrial world. In the weeks before relocation, she is set up to live with a long-lost relative, a lively and opinionated centenarian in Kansas. After discovering a cryptic postcard that dates back to the 1920s, Adri is drawn into a mystery involving an ancient tortoise—still alive and well—and a mystery woman. In 1934, Catherine Goodspeed finds the same postcard among her mother’s possessions; Catherine’s journal recounts her worries about the discovery, her younger sister’s declining health, and the dust storms raging around her. And in 1919 England, Lenore Allstock writes letters to her estranged childhood friend as she mourns the death of her brother during WWI. 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. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio.

Starred review from April 1, 2017
In the year 2065, 16-year-old Adri Ortiz is one of the hardworking, talented few chosen to colonize Mars. Adri's an orphan with ties to no one, but the Latina teen understands the importance of interpersonal cooperation, so she doesn't complain when the head of the Mars program sends her to live with a long-forgotten cousin near the space center in Wichita for the months leading up to the launch. Lily, the cousin, is 107, passing into dementia, and more eager to know Adri than Adri is to know her. But Adri is intrigued by a postcard she finds in the farmhouse, written in 1920 and mentioning the Galapagos tortoise who still lives on the farm (and is herself named Galapagos). The story shifts to diary-keeper Catherine, a hardscrabble white teen living on the same farm in 1934, at the height of the Dust Bowl. Catherine's little sister Beezie is dying from dust pneumonia, and their mother, a widow, seems locked into helplessness. Again the story shifts--now it's England, 1919, and white Leonore is mourning both her brother's loss in the Great War and the friend who left for America years before, to whom she writes. Galapagos ties the stories together as all three young women fight for self-determination, love, their futures, and the realization that you can never move forward freely until you have something important to leave behind. Deft, succinct, and ringing with emotion without ever dipping into sentimentality, Anderson's novel is both intriguing and deeply satisfying. (Science/historical fiction. 12-adult)

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Starred review from April 1, 2017
Gr 9 Up-Adri's, Catherine's, and Lenore's lives are intertwined but not in the way that one would think. Adri lives in 2065 Kansas, Catherine lives in 1930s Kansas, and Lenore lives in England in 1919. As Adri is preparing to go to Mars, she stays with her cousin in Kansas, where the training takes place. Upon settling in, she comes across letters written from Lenore to Beth. Through journals and, later, letters, Catherine narrates her own story of being in Kansas during the Dust Bowl. Told through straight prose, letters, and journal entries, the novel is engrossing and will engage even reluctant readers. This beautiful work expertly blends historical and futuristic fiction genres. The author threads mystery into each teen's story, keeping an even pace as she reveals secrets, betrayals, and heartbreak. Anderson deftly tackles love, friendship, and grief in this touching exploration of resilience and hope. VERDICT A must-have for all YA collections.-Erin Holt, Williamson City Public Library, Franklin, TN

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* All her life, 17-year-old Adri's been preparing to be a Mars colonist, so when she must leave behind her home in Miami, thanks to rising ocean levels, she doesn't mourn too much, since she's been ready to leave the whole planet behind for years. Her sense of detachment wavers, though, when she's placed with Lily, her elderly, last living relative, in the months leading up to her one-way trip to Mars. In Lily's ancient Kansas farmhouse, Adri finds shreds of clues about her past, including enigmatic letters and journals and, oddly, a Galapagos tortoise. Now cold, prickly Adri finds herself fixated on where she came fromparticularly the stories of two women, Catherine, who lived in Lily's house during the Dust Bowl, and Lenore, who lived in England during WWIjust as she's about to leave it all behind for good. As Anderson beautifully weaves together Adri's, Catherine's, and Lenore's stories, each of the three women come vividly to life through distinct voices and behaviors. Their stories have parallelsenvironmental devastation, leaving home behind, and finding a new onebut they're all deployed with determined subtlety, and the resolutions, while never tidy, are tantalizingly satisfying. 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
In 2065, sixteen-year-old Adri Ortiz relocates to Kansas for training as a Mars colonist; moving into an old family farmhouse, she discovers the Dust Bowlera journal of a woman named Cathy and a collection of WWI letters sent to Cathy's mother. Adri becomes engrossed in these more-than-century-old strangers' lives--even as she prepares to leave Earth forever. Anderson vividly captures each of the eras in three distinctive narratives.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2017
Despite her prickly nature, sixteen-year-old Adri Ortiz has been chosen as one of the youngest Mars colonists. Leaving her waterlogged Miami home behind (it's the year 2065, and rising sea levels have swallowed up coastal areas), she relocates to Kansas for training, moving into an old farmhouse with 107-year-old Lily, her only living relative. Although Adri is just as slow to warm up to Lily's offer of friendship as she is to her fellow prospective colonists, she finds her focus when she discovers both a journal (from 1934, kept by a woman named Cathy, who fought to survive and take care of her sister on the same farm during the Dust Bowl) and a collection of letters sent to Cathy's mother, Beth (by Beth's one-time best friend Lenore, writing in England at the end of World War I). The narrative moves among the three timelines as Adri becomes engrossed in learning what happened to Cathy, how Lenore fits in, and how these more-than-century-old strangers are connected to her own family--even as she prepares herself to leave the planet forever. Anderson vividly captures each of the eras, especially the unrelenting 1930s dust storms. Each of the three protagonists has a distinctive voice, from Cathy's matter-of-factness ("Anyone who can get you to eat pickled tumbleweed can get you to do anything") to Adri's self-protective standoffishness to Lenore's painful struggle to cope with her grief over her soldier brother's death and the loss of an important friendship. The three narratives conclude in a satisfying resolution that unites the many threads. sarah rettger

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)