Category Archives: Young-Stone, Michele

Michele Young-Stone.The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors. New York: Shaye Areheart Books, 2010.

New York City is a place where young people go to leave their pasts and make their futures. Two of those young people–Becca Burke and Buckley Pitank–have something unusual in common–both are lightning strike survivors. Buckley survived a strike that killed his mother; Becca herself was directly hit.  This novel tells how these two young people moved forward, making sense of both these capricious acts of nature and the man-made cruelties in their lives.

It is Becca’s story that will most interest the readers of this blog. Becca grows up in Chapel Hill, the daughter of a philandering chemist (from the best of families) and a woman who drowns her sorrow in drink. As her parents’ marriage disintegrates, Becca also has to cope with the standard work of childhood and adolescence–making friends, learning how to fit in, navigating the alluring temptations of the high school years. Even after she moves to New York, Becca still has things to learn, but she does, and her relationship with Buckley and the people in his life help with that.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Orange, Piedmont, Young-Stone, Michele