The handbook for lightning strike survivors : a novel /

*Starred Review* Young-Stone's luminescent debut follows the lives of two people who are forever changed by lightning strikes. In North Carolina, Becca is struck at the age of eight on her driveway and walks away changed but mostly unharmed. Buckley, 13, flees Arkansas with his mother, Abigail, to start over, but their newfound happiness is torn asunder when Abigail is killed by lightning. Haunted by his mother's death, Buckley is obsessed with lightning strikes and becomes an expert on the phenomenon in hope of understanding why the lightning chose his mother and not him. Becca eventually flees North Carolina and her parents' broken marriage for New York City, where she is able to focus on her art and even secure a gallery show. Becca and Buckley's parallel stories, as well as curiosity about how their paths finally converge, will keep the pages turning, while the complex, colorful characters, and the deep bonds that form between them in spite of and even because of the tragedies they survive, will live on in readers' minds long after they reach the end of this powerful, beautiful novel.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2010 Booklist

Damaged people inhabit this debut novel: people who have been struck by lightning as well as those who have lost loved ones from death, divorce, drinking, or duplicity. Young-Stone tells parallel stories that hurdle storm after storm headlong into one another. One follows the bullied Buckley R. Pitank, who watches as his beloved mother's life is buffeted by her mean-spirited mother and a fraud of an evangelical preacher. Just when she escapes and finds love, and Buckley sees the possibility of happiness, she is fatally struck by lightning. The other is the story of Becca Burke, a lightning strike survivor whose drunk mother and philandering father have a hard time believing that she has been repeatedly hit by lightning. As Buckley and Becca grow up, Buckley writes The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, excerpts of which begin each chapter, and Becca becomes a painter. What happens when they do finally meet is inevitable. Young-Stone is a very fine writer who has created a host of endearing losers-young, old, literate, and simple, all full of longing. What she does best is portray the incredulousness of the unlucky. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Becca Burke was eight years old the first time lightning struck her down. Her dad didn't believe it, and her mom was drunk. Buckley Pitank's life, on the other hand, was finally looking up when his mom's head was opened by a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky. Unknown to each other, Becca and Buckley spend the next 20-some years coming to grips with the aftermath of these incidents. Lonely, disaffected, and estranged from family, they each live out their lives along two separate story lines, taking readers from North Carolina, to the shores of Texas, to the art world of New York City, before they inevitably cross paths through the clever conceit of the handbook in the title. Each character in this startlingly mature debut novel, from Becca's self-absorbed father and self-destructive mother to Buckley's evangelical stepdad, is complicated, nuanced, and sympathetic. Young-Stone's writing style is crystal clear and shot through with lightning-like flashes of description so vivid that readers might think that they are watching a movie. VERDICT It's not often that this reviewer regrets a book's ending, but that's what happened here. The sense of melancholy, tempered by the resilience and heart of the characters, makes this ripe for Oprah or fans of Elizabeth Berg or Anne Tyler. The author's web site says she has another novel in the hopper. Two thumbs up.-Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst. Fort Myers, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.