Recommendation: The Electric by Andrew David Barker

A brief post about a book I wish I had the time to write more about, The Electric by Andrew David Barker. I picked up a copy of this at last year's Edgelit, after many people had recommend it to me. And I can see why - The Electric is a wonderfully written supernatural coming of age story, about a group of three teenagers who find a strange, abandoned cinema near their home town. But despite being long shutdown, there still seem to be films shown at The Electric, and to a very niche audience...

The book genuinely captures the feeling of being a teenager, on the cusp of adulthood, and all that that entails. In tone, this is similar to Stephen King's The Body or the work of Ray Bradbury. The author's love of cinema really comes across as well, although you don't need to be a film buff to thoroughly enjoy a book as good as this. The only minor irritant I had with it was that sometimes the scares associated with the supernatural elements of the plot seemed a bit nebulous, but this is one of those stories that isn't really about the ghosts anyway but about growing up, friendship and the pain of nostalgia. 

And, like all the best movies, it's a bit of a tear-jerker as well. Recommended.