Spotlight on The Electric Life of Lavender Lewis

Full disclosure: I went to grad school with Kara Storti. But if you can’t use your blog to trumpet the great work of your buddies, then why have a blog?? Although I am biased that Kara is an excellent person and writer, I can honestly say that The Electric Life of Lavender Lewis (2026) is a great read and will be loved by the teens in your life.

Lavender (“Ven”) is a introverted teen with epilepsy. Epilepsy shapes her life — she is always trying to avoid triggers and preparing for the partial or tonic-clonic seizures that interrupt and embarrass her. Her mom has always tried to have Ven see epilepsy as something special, even magical, but since her mom’s MS diagnosis and decline, it’s been hard for Ven to believe that anything magical is happening.

When Ven’s mom dies, something changes about her seizures. While she is experiencing a seizure, she has a hallucination of a boy trapped in a room who claims he is also in the midst of a seizure. Ven’s had hallucinations while seizing before but never like this — so vivid and persistent. She connects with the boy with whom she can talk about epilepsy in a way she hasn’t been able to with anyone in her life, even best friend Claudia. She starts to wonder whether the boy is not just a vision but someone real, someone who needs her help. Is this the magic her mother tried to get Ven to believe in?

Storti has created a believable set of characters and the suspense of solving the mystery of the visions had me glued to the book. I also learned a ton about epilepsy. Storti provides a valuable view of life as a teen with a chronic condition. (Storti has epilepsy herself.) This book would be a great mirror book for teens who are dealing with medical diagnoses — whether epilepsy or something completely different.