Midnight at the Electric

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

In the months before her one-way trip to Mars, Adri Ortiz is sent to Wichita to live with a elderly cousin and finds herself fixating on where she came from and the stories of two women who lived more than a hundred years earlier.

• ISBN10: 0062393553
• ISBN13: 9780062393555
• Publish Date: 14 May 2019 (first published 13 June 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This book was absolutely beautiful.

I was hesitant about reading Midnight at the Electric, because I'm in the minority who didn't enjoy Jodi Lynn Anderson's much beloved Tiger Lily. Still, the cover got me and I put it on my TBR a couple years ago, thinking I'd try it and see how it went. I'm absolutely thrilled I did, because I loved this book.

Midnight at the Electric is a quick read, ranging across a century and told in the voice of three different readers. The characters are strong and each has her own strong voice. I'm also impressed by the side characters, who are all well developed and interesting. The love stories, friendship, and family relationships are all different and well explored in this brief, varied format. The book is beautifully written, but it's not so fluffy that it distracts from the story. It is paced well enough to keep the reader from getting bored, and it's a good length for the story it's telling.

I'm really glad I decided to pick this one up. I really enjoyed meeting Lenore, Catherine, and Adri, and it's a book I would read again.

[Bianca]

She felt more lonely than she could ever remember feeling, and she didn’t know why. She was thinking about libraries, used gum, bus stops, red lights, convenience stores. All these things she’d never noticed, stupid things, even things she didn’t like. How she’d taken these things for granted, and she was never going to see them again.

— Of endings and beginnings, of leaving things behind and accepting change. It’s a sad, yet hopeful read.

[violetpeanut]

This book not the most exciting and doesn't set a fast pace but it's a study of people and family and love and friendship all wrapped up in some of the most beautiful writing I've had the pleasure of reading. The slower pace allows the reader to really absorb the words and feeling.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.25★ Audiobook⎮ Midnight at the Electric is classified as science-fiction, but that’s a bit misleading. It was really a story about female friendship and sisterhood. The story was told from three different points-of-view and only one of them had elements of science-fiction.

Each of the POVs was interesting in its own right and could have easily become a standalone installment, if Anderson had decided to make this into a series. I almost wish that she had, because each of these women’s stories was powerful enough to warrant closer inspection.

As it was, Jodi Lynn Anderson wove all three of the tales together in a subtly magnificent way. The common denominator between the three POV characters was a 150-year-old turtle named Galapagos. Using Galapagos to tie the three women together was an incredibly unique way to tell a cross-generational story.

I would be tempted to classify Midnight at the Electric as Historical Fiction, since two thirds of it take place in the 1920s and 30s. I was particularly intrigued by Catherine’s point-of-view, set in 1936 Kansas during the dust bowl. I wasn’t overly familiar with the setting, so Catherine’s story was surprisingly enlightening.

Midnight at the Electric was a contemplative listen. Anderson manages to insert minor themes of planet preservation (or lack thereof), leading to the somewhat underwhelming plot of leaving earth to live on Mars. I think Adri’s story, set in the year 2065, had the most potential, but I feel like there was a lot left on the table. Adri was the main protagonist. It was through her that we discover the stories of the other two women through lost letters. Adri is the main reason I feel this story could have been split into installments. She is preparing to go live on Mars (hence the science-fiction classification), but her story is overshadowed by the others.

Another seemingly important point that I think it was deserved more attention was The Electric, itself. If The Electric was important enough to spawn the name of the book, it should have been more essential to the plot. I was disappointed that did not hold more obvious prominence in the story.

However, I was not disappointed by Anderson’s priorities. The romance was minimal and appropriately understated. The prominent theme in Midnight at the Electric was friendship. More than that, Anderson emphasized that being family doesn’t have to mean sharing genetics. Anderson’s message was beautifully and eloquently conveyed.

Midnight at the Electric was a quick and easy listen, though I wouldn’t call it light. There were several times, especially toward the end, where my heartstrings were tugged. I was impressed enough with Jodi Lynn Anderson’s writing that I will be looking into more of her work soon.

Narration review: I chose to listen to Midnight at the Electric because of its narrators and in the end, I think I enjoyed it most because of them. I was already such fans of each of these three narrators individually, that hearing them all work together on a title was Christmas come early. Hiring a trio of narrators was the perfect call for Midnight at the Electric. This is the type of story that could easily have been bungled by too little distinction between POV characters. Marie, Carr, and Hardingham each held their own, remaining true to their respective characters. What’s more, they somehow managed to complement each other. Fantastic job, all around! ♣︎