Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on September 10, 2012 | 7 Comments


Review: Struck by Jennifer BosworthStruck by Jennifer Bosworth
Series: Struck #1
Published by Farrar Straus and Giroux (5.1.2012)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 373 pages
Source: I own it
Buy on Amazon


4 Stars

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

My thoughts

When you’ve been struck by lightning as many times as I have, you start to expect the worst pretty much all the time. 

With an opening line like that one, needless to say I was hooked immediately! The pacing was quite fast, and with all of the events happening I was enthralled and wanted more! I didn’t really know what was happening – who are the Seekers/Followers? What’s the deal with this Prophet guy? What’s really going on here? But I wasn’t confused, I was just eager to find out the truth. I think it’s something I may read again now that I have all the facts!

So…wow, this book was extremely religious. What wows me even more? I still liked it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an atheist or anything…but I’m not religious by any means. And usually excessive talk about religion just annoys me. But it wasn’t preachy or in-your-face religion.

The Prophet was totally creepy. He claimed to be the voice of God, but it seemed like he was just brainwashing people. His fanaticism was disturbing; he believed in his cause to the point that he couldn’t see how wrong it was. And his little minions, the Followers, creeped me out even more. They were like a bunch of sheep (they wore all white, so they even looked like sheep!).

Mia was a great lead! She was strong and independent and she stood for what she believed in. She didn’t vacillate when the Followers and Seekers were trying to convince her to join a side. She made a choice and stuck to it.  Also, she wasn’t like most lead females these days who attach themselves to a guy, and no matter what they find out about said guy (like, say, he’s a vampire and he wants to eat you?), they say ‘screw self preservation, you’re sexy so it doesn’t matter!’ and throw themselves at said guy anyway. When she found out Jeremy was bad news, she avoided him (for a while, at least…it was kind of inevitable that they come back together eventually). And she didn’t really forgive him for it, either, even when she decided to trust him.

Jeremy was alright,  I just didn’t connect with him the way I did with Mia. The romance took a back burner. Things moved pretty fast between Mia and Jeremy, but thankfully it wasn’t instalove. It was just plain attraction. There were no professions of undying love halfway through the novel, and the relationship between them was never sappy or vomit-inducing.

The world was painted beautifully – looting, desperation, violence, fear. Things you would expect from a post-apocalyptic world. It wasn’t rainbows and sunshine. It was dark. And I love how the book was a countdown to ‘the storm.’ It added a feel of desperation to the story, like the end was near and there was no way to avoid it.

I want the lightning to find me. I crave it like lungs crave oxygen. There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive than being struck. Unless, of course, it kills you.

The lightning. This was by far my favorite part! I knew before reading this what Lichtenberg figures were, and it fascinates me! If you’ve never heard of it, or never actually seen it, Google it. Seriously, it’s wicked cool. Anyway, back to the lightning.

You never know when that jagged scrawl of white fire, charged with a hundred million volts of electricity, might blaze down from the sky and find its mark on you; sear a hole like a bullet right through you, or turn your hair to ash; maybe leave your skin blackened to a crisp, or stop your heart; make you blind, deaf, or both.

I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more lightning involved. In the description it called her a lightning addict…so I was expecting to witness the actual strikes throughout the book. But, alas, you have to wait til the end to get the good stuff!

 
quotes
I sighed and buckled my seat belt. “Whatever. Can we hit the road before someone realizes I’m gone?”
Katrina screeched away from the curb and cackled like a maniac.
This just makes me giggle. Mainly for use of the word ‘cackle.’ But it made me like Katrina a bit more!
 

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall rating: 4/5

Jessi (Geo)

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7 responses to “Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

  1. So not only does this have an awesome cover (!), but it sounds pretty cool too. After reading your review, I shall HAVE to add it to my larger TBR list (even though it’s religious which I’m not into at all)!

  2. Thanks for reminding me I need to read this! (was really looking forward to this book prior to it’s release and somehow forgot about it after… >.>)

    This is actually the first time I saw someone mention Struck as religious! O.O I’ll have to see how this goes.

  3. I really loved the cult aspect of this-that is what got me first interested in the book and I was very pleased with all of the drama that came out of it.

  4. Have you seen the book trailer for this one? E.P.I.C
    “Mia was a great lead! She was strong and independent and she stood for what she believed in”
    You got me with this line! I need to read it!
    thanks for the review

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