Dystopia + Time Travel= a great story!
I really enjoyed this read by David Arnold. It is unlike anything I've read before.
The characters are easy to root for and well-developed.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group (Penguin Teen) and Netgalley for my gifted e-ARC copy of "The Electric Kingdom" in exchange for an honest review.

Okay... so you know those books that make your head hurt? But it's a good thing? That's this book, your head swims at times, and you finish the book slightly boggled - but it makes you want to instantly re-read. Add a real life pandemic while reading it (heyo COVID) and this book became a whole other monster, with so many current parallels.

I highly recommend, and hope this one becomes a movie one day, because it would be wildly visually compelling. I would never say no to a YA dystopian.

The Electric Kingdom

The Electric Kingdom was my first book by David Arnold and it will not be my last. This novel was a wonderful mind trip! The post apocalyptic setting was captivating and eerie. I was slightly worried that the fly virus aspect would hit too close to home these days, but it was fine.
I loved the characters and learning how all their stories intertwined eventually. The story unfolds slowly and luxuriously. It comes together beautifully in the end. I was sad to read the last sentence. I could’ve stayed in this creative world for much longer.

A compulsively readable post-apocalyptic story with an electric plot that will glue your hands to the book.

It is the year… sometime in the near future. A deadly Flu Fly virus has ravaged the earth and killed most of humanity. Octopus-like swarms of infected Flies continue to sweep the earth, hunting any and all living things. It’s not a pretty place. In fact, life in “The Age of the Fly” is a pretty terrible place for those who’ve become the hunted, and The Electric Kingdom pulls no punches. At this point, The Electric Kingdom could become purely survivalist or a novel dealing with loss, grief, and loneliness, and while all four are represented, the focus here is not on the hostility of a world that has gone dark but on how this darkness can be overcome.

In a nutshell, The Electric Kingdom is a story about a girl (Nico) and her dog (Harry), who (at the insistence of Nico’s dad) leave their secluded (and safe) farmhouse to journey through the woods to a place called Kairos. A place which may or may not exist and probably doesn’t exist since Nico’s dad’s mind has been in a steady state of “un-blossoming.” Still, in eight days, Nico must reach Kairos. Their survival depends on it, or so her dad believes.

Along the way, Nico meets others, like twelve-year-old Kit, who grew up with his Dakota (mom) at the Paradise Twin (a cinema) in a town of four people. Again and again, characters experience a sense of déjà vu, a feeling that they’ve been here before, and there is a sci-fi element nestled within the story. The Electric Kingdom is not one genre, but many, a genre-bender extraordinaire, and unlike anything I’ve read. A novel that, to say it in the words of Kit, is “two things at once: 100 percent heart-hugging; 100 percent heartbreaking” and will stay with you long after the final page.

4.5/5 stars

I'm not quite sure how I felt about this book. It was interesting to see the story of Nico and the other children unfold as they tried to survive a world infested with "flies" and survive the journey to a better place. There were heart wrenching losses and touching new relationships that made you really root for the characters. But there were also a few really strange elements. The way some of the characters died of the flu just didn't seem to completely fit in with the mythology of the virus in this world. And the reveals around the Deliverer were honestly just strange. It made it feel like the author was randomly tacking a whole different genre onto the book. Minus this one aspect, it was a great read.

Not my typical read but boy did I love this one! Incredible characters and world building in this amazing post-apocalyptic read!!

This was one of the strangest reads but in a good one. Although our characters have goals that are driving them, it felt more character focused. I've sat on this for a week and I still haven't figured out how to talk about this without revealing everything. The Electric Kingdom is one of those books that I could see myself reading over and over again.

Thank you to PenguinTeen for a copy! I was really looking forward to this, as I needed something different and unique in my life, and this was it! I loved the writing style, and the TWIST at the end!! I don't want to say too much about this because it's better if you go into it with as little info as possible, but I definitely recommend it.

Let me preface by saying this book had such potential and for me, it fell flat. I expected more from a dystopian. I think being such a huge fan of dystopians such as The Hunger Games and the first Divergent book, I expected more action and I guess just chaos. I felt this book was just a group of people walking around avoiding being attacked by these flies. The premise of the book sounded totally up my alley. I did enjoy the writing style - oh man, the writing was FANTASTIC!!! I would easily give 5 stars just based off writing - the writing was incredible. But the storyline was very dull for me - I just wanted more action from this and more detail about this dystopian word.

This was such a strange book, and yet it absolutely worked in every way. It has been a while since I read anything in the post-apocalyptic, young adult genre, but this was definitely unlike the stories you’d typically find. The bizarrely captivating plot and beautiful prose were the perfect vehicle for exploring the underlying themes of human nature. The most interesting parts of the novel were the chapters told from the perspective of the Deliverer, a mysterious figure that I didn’t expect to find in this book. However, the concepts can sometimes take over the plot in a certain way, so you need to be prepared to absorb the book in a different way from a more simple novel. In the end, I became fascinated with the inner workings of Arnold’s brain, and I’m curious now to pick up more of his work.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the ARC!

Very interesting, especially in light of the current global pandemic. The world felt pretty bleak, but there was still some hope. Definitely will recommend.

I will read every book David Arnold publishes. And he’s going to knock it out of the park every single time.

Let me just say that reading a book about flies that carry a deadly illness during a pandemic is more than a little creepy. As with any David Arnold book, it’s going to have twists and turns that you don’t see coming, but the journey along the way always feels oddly comforting (even though a post-apocalyptic world should be anything but comforting). His writing style is just so beautiful, witty and interesting.

These characters are truly alone in the world. There are so few people left, and they’re just trying to survive. It’s character driven, sometimes gruesome, haunting, and thought provoking. It really shows what’s important in life (family, friends, stories, hope, dogs).

If you haven’t read a book by this author yet, you’re missing out. Happy Pub Day to this beautiful book!

The Electric Kingdom follows Nico and Kit, a teenager and a kid, throughout the course of their different journeys through a disease-ravaged and empty America.
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I enjoyed The Electric Kingdom a lot! I thought the premise is so interesting and different from the typical YA plot, and that made me love it even more. It is sci-fi with some dystopian elements, and that led to some fascinating aspects.
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Even though the main focus seemed to be on each character’s individual growth, there was still some excellent found family that juts made me want to smile every time!
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Overall, I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it for fans of David Arnold’s other works and sci-fi as a whole.
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CWs- gore, death, animal death, grief, sexual assault(implied)
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Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A lot of readers have compared this book with Station Eleven and I completely agree. Not only because of it's post-apocalyptic venture of the world. But also because this is a story that focuses on the characters themselves, more so than the plot or landscape of the book.

This is also, essentially, why I did not finish the book.

For me, books that intertwine post-apocalyptic and literary elements don't work. Simply because I lack an interest in them and my reading experience often feels dull. This is nothing against the writing or the book itself. Just a personal preference.

I did love the unique approach to the plague/pandemic plot. The Fly Flu, something which acts as both a sickness and a fatal plague, was something that set this book apart from other apocalyptic stories I have read in the past.

I also loved the IDEA of the sci-fi elements thrown in. However, I do also wish that these had been something more at the forefront of the storytelling.

Overall, I understand why readers have been enjoying this publication. I also understand why it didn't work for me.

What a BIG, brilliant, exciting book!! I loved it. Arnold's ambition and abilities just keep growing. I can't wait to see what he does next.

A unique read for sure! I enjoyed the characters and the story a lot! It was confusing from time to time trying to keep up with different perspectives and the uniqueness of the story. I found myself wanting to know more about the Flu Flies and where they came from since that wasn’t ever discovered. About 75% into the book I started getting really lost and had a hard time following along. By the end of the book everything made sense and was wrapped up for the most part. I think some parts lacked explanation but overall it was an enjoyable book!

In absence of nothing, you begin to understand what’s important in life. Not video games, not Twitter, not even electricity are vital when it comes to human existence, which by design, is supposed to be a shared experience.

That’s a big part of what David Arnold wants you to understand in his new soft sci-fi book, The Electric Kingdom, which takes a look at a post-apocalyptic-ish world, where on paper the villain is a deadly virus caused by humans and carried by Flu Flies, but in actuality, is indifference.

In attempting to understand the cause of the collapse, as some of our characters do, you soon realize it’s not nearly as important as that the collapse happened at all. And this is not to suggest some higher power decided Earth’s time was up, this isn’t that kind of story, no, it’s more about our hubris as a species, pushing the boundaries of Natural Law to its limits. It’s about our relationship with the planet and each other.
What David is truly looking to examine here is something only he knows, but from my point of view he’s looking to suggest that what good is finding the answers if you have no one to share them with? That life is a mutually beneficial experience and that includes happiness and love.

Like the summary states, the book is told from the point of view of a few different people whose lives are connected in ways they don’t yet understand. I will say, what’s in place of a prologue offers a tasty treat to chew on as you work your way through the book, and as things unfold, you’ll begin to understand why. Indeed, there’s gold at the end of that little rainbow.

So, as we follow Nico, Kit, the Deliverer, and those they pick up along the way through this lush, not so much a wasteland, the books journey aspect takes over and things only get weirder from there. You soon realize that other forces are at work here, and not of the spiritual nature. You’ll definitely get the sense that this is perhaps all a game, and while the pieces aren’t necessarily being controlled, there’s an influence present that is certainly keen on a particular outcome.

I’d like to take moment here to comment on the violence and overall creepiness that can sometimes accompany these stories of desperation. Some writers in my opinion, cross that line where rather than suggest or creatively depict horror, they state it or describe it outright. David shows great restraint and respect for the craft here, never crossing that line into exploitation territory but still getting the point across, just in a tactile way.

Anyways, one of the character’s favorite authors is Ted Chiang who wrote the short story “Story of Your Life” which was then turned into the film “Arrival”, something I was reminded of during this book’s final passages. And not the Sapir-Whorf theory, or linguistic relativity, that has more to do with how language can influence the way we perceive reality. No, I was more reminded of the aspect of non-linear storytelling, or how these characters start to see the world through the philosophical lens of determinism. Weighty shit to be sure, but once you read the book, you’ll start to understand what I’m talking about and how David cleverly manipulated this idea.

Additionally, David offers up plenty of social commentary one of which is his suggestion that you can find immortality in the works of authors, painters, and creators, not in the Gods who wield lightning bolts, or the machines that may or may not preserve life. No, there are simpler ways for one to leave their mark, and these characters seem to understand that.

So, once the cat is fully out of the bag, although I expect many of you to figure some of it out beforehand, Arnold just lays all his cards on the table. This is where we go through several journal entries from previous Nico’s, warning her not to make some of the same mistakes they did. This even includes trying to prevent the virus from spreading at all, which in the end, might not be possible, or the point.

After realizing that, Nico begins to right some of the wrongs that she’s (we) encountered throughout this journey, and as such, developed the basic principle, the “Law of Peripheral Adjustments” which is the practice of helping people help themselves, while standing on the “foggy edges of fate” It’s a fictious theory of course but suits Arnold’s intent perfectly. And it seems like an already existing plausible theory, so much that I looked it up because I had never heard of it before. Gotcha!

In the end, Arnold doesn’t offer up any answers as far as how to avoid this, or any catastrophe, rather treating the virus as the do-over the planet so desperately needed. And why should he, he’s an author, not a scientist. But that may not make for a satisfying read for those that require those types of third acts. And rather than speculate on his intention, I’ll pull a quote instead, one that sums it up nicely.

“The truth was, it didn’t really matter where it led or how it got here. Whether alien or machine or black hole on Earth, Nico felt planted in a new light of love…”

The Electric Kingdom is an emotionally resonant story full of moments of grace, honesty, and friendship. I think the book asks more questions than provides answers, but I also think it’s a roadmap, and like all good teachers, David has given us a compass and pointed us in the right direction, the rest my dear friends, is up to us.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I got two of Arnold's other books last year, but this is the first one I've read, and boy was it an experience. I love post-apocalyptic stories, so the description of this one drew me to it. I enjoyed reading The Electric Kingdom especially because of the metaphorical and philosophical bits. It made me see things like art and the human spirit in a different light. Also, I didn't see the plot twist at the end coming at all even though it had been teased throughout the book. It kind of blew my mind.

I think what didn't work for me in this book was the fact I didn't grow an emotional attachment to the characters. I liked our cast of characters and felt their emotions, but I didn't feel like I had time to really know them. I don't know if this is because of the nature of the book in that the characters are always moving or because of the shifting perspectives. There were several times when I should have at least shed a few tears, but my eyes were dry this whole book, and I didn't feel particularly sad when I should have.

I think this book is really interesting in the way it blends problems we face now and turns it into a near future, but while the writing was beautiful, the character's didn't feel fully fleshed out for me.

3.5 Well, the setting is bound to make you wonder....a Fly Flu that has decimated the world as we know it. Close to home in these times...

The novel is told from three points of view - eighteen year old Nico and her dog Harry (loved Harry!), twelve year old Kit and a person called The Deliverer. I love the multiple points of view delivery style. It's guaranteed to keep me up late, reading just one chapter to see what's going on with each character.
Although they have stayed safe all these years, circumstances, wants, desires, curiosity and more drive each of them out into the world. I was just as curious to see what Arnold had imagined.

Kit and Nico are wonderful leads. I loved the way Kit thought - and his love of 'his' library. He was so well drawn and immediately captured my heart. Being older, Nico is more of a critical thinker - could the stories her father tells be real? There are a number of supporting characters that also have stories to tell. The Deliverer's is the most enigmatic.

Out on the road, the evidence of a ruined world is there. But, that's not the focus of Arnold's tale. Instead it is about relationships missed, treasured, remembered - and those that might be. I found myself wanting a bit more of the ruined world.

As their trek continues, Arnold begins to knit together the threads of the three stories. He does so in a way I hadn't anticipated or imagined. And, I must admit it - in a way that had me struggling to put it together sometimes. Definitely thought provoking though. This is marketed as a YA novel. I would think that older teens would be more likely to grasp Arnold's work.

I did enjoy The Electric Kingdom, but not as much as I had hoped. I think I was looking for more of the ravaged world, instead of ...... Well, I'll leave that alone as I don't want to spoil things for prospective readers. The Electric Kingdom weighs in at 432 pages. Which kept me rapt for most of the time, but near the end I felt like things could have been tightened up and told in fewer pages.

Electric Kingdom is a hard book to explain in a brief review. It bends time, bends expectations and leaves me with more questions than answers. It is engaging, a book I wanted to keep coming back to, with the main character who is interesting and complex. The world building was strong, though I wanted more to be explained at the end.