Midnight at the Electric

Midnight at the Electric, published in 2017, is a speculative fiction novel written by Jodi Lynn Anderson and is the recipient of multiple awards and nominations. Anderson is an American children’s author who has worked as an editor for HarperCollins and a writing instructor at the University of North Carolina.

Midnight at the Electric follows three protagonists across three different timelines. One of these, Adri Ortiz, lives in 2065 and has been accepted into a training program to become a Colonist on Mars. While staying with her previously unknown cousin, Lily Ortiz, Adri stumbles across an old diary and some letters, which introduce the characters Catherine Godspeed and Lenore Allstock into her life. Catherine, whose diary dates from 1934-1935, was a young woman living in Canaan, Kansas during the Dust Bowl. Lenore, who wrote to her friend Beth Godspeed in 1919 and 1920, was from Forest Row, England. Lenore lived through World War I and then left her home country to join Beth in Kansas. The novel explores diverse themes, including the concepts of environmental destruction, resilience, belonging, and the interconnectedness of human experiences over time and space.