The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors: A Novel

by Michele Young-Stone

Book Overview

When lightning strikes, lives are changed. BECCA On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, eight-year-old Becca Burke was struck by lightning. No one believed her-not her philandering father or... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307464474
• ISBN13: 9780307464477
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 1.4" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Strikingly Amazing

This book struck my heartstrings over and over again. Becca and Buckley were two of the best developed and most relateable characters I've ever met. I cried. I was going to give it 4 stars for the language and sex that would make this book possibly unsuitable for the immature reader. But I couldn't push myself to do so because it wasn't language for the sake of language, or sex for the sake of sex. They had a purpose... Michelle Young-Stone put her soul onto these pages.

Amazing!

What a different little book! The story is written from the perspective of Becca, an 8 year old girl when we meet her visiting the Atlantic Ocean with her father & mother and Buckley, also a young boy of 11 living in Arkansas with his mother, step-father and grandmother. The book begins with Becca being struck by lightning; however her parents don't believe her "Dad, I got struck by lightning." He sat on the sofa. "If you got struck by lightning, you'd be dead." He didn't look up. Throughout the book, Becca's parents let her down in so many ways ~ I had heard that people who survive lightning strikes often get struck again and again and again which happened to Becca. It was not until her mother had sobered up when she was a teenager that she finally began believing Becca's lightning stories. Buckley and his mother were living in Arkansas with her mother, Winter, and the man she married thinking he would be a good step-father for Buckley. Her own mother resented her because of her father... Winter was always doing laundry, and she was always nagging Joe: "You need to get a job. You need to get off your behind and put a decent meal on the table. You need to stop babying that girl. You need to teach her to respect her elders." Once Abigail (Buckley's mother) figured out that the Reverend (her husband) was being abusive towards Buckley they escaped while Winter and the Reverend were gone. They just got in the car in drove towards the ocean. Buckley and Becca had one thing in common ~ they both had been traumatized by lightning. Once Buckley grew up he wrote a book about surviving lightning strikes that made it into Becca's hands. What was so wonderfully unique about this book is that all the loose ends were tied up by the end. Have you ever played that game "6 degrees of seperation?" Where within 6 steps you can find a link between you and a stranger? The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors not only showed a picture of that, but showed it quite well! It also told the story of how parents let their children down in a myriad of ways, but how children can rise above their parents failures. And forgiveness ~ what a beautiful story of forgiveness throughout the book. I loved this book. I like the fresh voice of Michele Young-Stone. I love the fact that every story line, even the smallest one was tied up with a ribbon and a bow by the end of the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something just a bit different to read, something new, something tasty! You will not be disappointed!

Loved it!

The imagery in this book is amazing- the characters and their surroundings and the events come alive. The pace keeps you going page after page and the richness of her writing puts you right in the middle, knowing and loving these characters, feeling for them, recognizing our own frailties within them ,and cheering them on. As a painter, it strikes that part of me from which I create, and I'm so glad I took the opportunity to read this book. I will be recommending it to all I know to be thinking, feeling, and creative souls. And to those I know who are lightening strike survivors.

Unforgettable characters

A friend recommended this book to me. At first I was not sure, but I quickly became engrossed in the lives of these fascinating characters. I also found the choice of locales to be very interesting, especially the chapters set in Galveston. I am now more frightened of lightning then I was before but I must admit that for days after finishing the book, I kept wondering what was going to happen next to the protagonists. For me, that is a clear indicator that it was a novel well worth reading!

A Real Page Turner

I ordered this book to Kindle since I couldn't wait for it to be delivered to read it. I was intrigued by the book name & cover. The characters are well developed & totally believable. They become your friends, people you care for, even the ones who are less likeable. The lightning strike facts between the chapters are interesting & bring relevance to the story. I love how one piece of the story is told & then on to another & back to pick up the threads of the first It kept the various characters fresh in my mind so I didn't have to go back & re-read portions as I sometimes need to do. This book is difficult to put down. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a complex, outside the ordinary, yet highly readable book about people who struggle with overcoming life's many challenges. I'll be re-reading this book many times to pick up the nuances I missed the first time & will be anxiously waiting for another book from this author.