Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

I was about to be murdered by gravity, but time slowed enough for me to feel a world of regret for the things I had done wrong, all the bad choices I’d made, the people I’d hurt. 

Maybe it was better this way. Easier for everyone if I disappeared into darkness. At least then I wouldn’t do the terrible thing Jeremy claimed I was going to do. 

My heart and my stomach stayed where they were as the rest of my body began to plummet. ~ARC p. 195 

Struck is an electrifying debut that will leave your fingers tingling and your skin prickling with excitement. Your heart will race and your mind will wonder, as you find yourself following Mia as she struggles with a decision that can change the world, forever. 

Struck

By Jennifer Bosworth 

Expected publication: May 8th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR 

*I received an Advanced Reading Copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No money was exchanged for this review. 

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. 

Mia price is addicted to lightning. Being stuck countless time, she has developed a six sense for storms. Her family moved to LA after a devastating accident forced them to flee their home. And they hope that L.A. is safe from the strikes, because don’t you know, it doesn’t rain in L.A. But that was short lived when a massive storm and subsequent earthquake devastate the city. 

A month after the quake, Mia and her brother, Parker, are starting back at school (how horrid would that be to still go to school with the end of the world coming?) but it’s only to get food rations. It doesn’t take long for the new cults that have formed after the quake to seek Mia out. The Seekers, the Followers, and a strange boy in Clark Kent glasses all have their sights set on Mia, and all for different reasons, and she wants nothing to do with any of them, well maybe except for the cutie in the glasses. 

“Welcome back, Miss Price.” His gravelly voice put my skin on edge. Mr. Kale always sounded like he’d been garbling broken glass. When he read aloud, whether it was Dickens or Shakespeare, he made the prose sound like it came from a hard-boiled detective novel. ~ARC p. 59 

In this book we follow Mia on her journey to live her life how she wants it and with a struggle of who to trust. Her mother is locked in a PTSD/ASD zombie state and her brother is falling in line with the Seekers. The Followers gang up on her and try to maker her see the “light” and she has a surging urge to kiss mystery boy. 

I was so excited to be able to have a chance to read this book. A girl struck by lightning multiple times, charged with energy and needed to save the world? Sounded like an original winner to me!!!! I was really excited to see where this book would take me. And damn it sure was a fun ride!!!! But this book was short of absolutely perfect because of a few points that just drove me crazy! And the big one was its HEAVY religious theme. SERIOUSLY! I have no problem with that stuff, but I was hoping for something different then an end of the world good v. evil story, especially when it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the synopsis. Other than the romance being a bit weak, this book was a thrill ride! 

“I have to touch you with my hands for it to happen.” He raised his hands, palms up, as though in surrender. “As long as these stay on the handlebars, your safe.” “So I can touch you, but you can't touch me?” He nodded frowning. “For now,” he said, and the implication made my hot blood boil over again. Moments later, I was clamped onto Jeremy’s back with the insides of my thighs pressed against he outside of his as we hurtled though the Waste at a speed that seemed suicidal considering the state of the roads. ~ARC p. 221 

What was shocking was this book took place over three days. I normally like a book that takes place over a longer time but for some reason this worked for me. It was different but in a good way. The story went along at a nice place, not rushed or choppy. You don’t think you get to know someone and a world in such a short time frame, but this one does a fantastical job! I find myself wanting MORE!!!! 

I really wanted this to be more of a paranormal end of the world, not book of revelations end. If it was more paranormal, this would have been a just a perfect book for me. I don’t know. I mean seriously though this was a fantastic book. It’s filled with a lot of action and mystery and loyalty. But that part of it just threw me off. It’s like oo an original book and then BAM! Hit with the religious wrecking ball. And it’s not just a little bit of oh I'm a Christian, its more like “have you found the light?” you will do to hell without us!! There is a LOT of end of the world, Book of Revelations, seals breaking, followers in with that are the 12 apostles and the false prophet. It was just a bit much for me and felt like an easy way out. But the rest of the book was so amazing and different that I was able to push past that and really enjoy this book. 

Jeremy went to adjust his glasses before realizing they weren’t there. Id always thought it was ridiculous that no one recognized Clark Kent when he was superman. Now that id fallen for such a simple disguise, it didn’t seem so ridiculous. ~ ARC p. 316 

I also felt like the relationship between Mia and Jeremy could have been done better. I did enjoy it very much and was rooting for them. There were just some themes around them that could be better. And it was a bit unbelievable at times. I think I'm starting to get a bit bitter with my romance in books, I sometimes feel like books are just throwing romance in there more out of obligation and not spending enough time developing and delivering it properly. But overall I still really liked these two together. 

And then… I was on fire, and I was the fire. The pain was more than pain. A word had not been invented to describe this pain, because it was also perfect. An agony of pleasure. ~ ARC p. 363 

Overall, Struck is a stimulating read. It will grab you with its talons and wont let you go until the last page. Jennifer has a wonderful stand along book that is a thrill ride and will leave you breathless and with your own set of Lichtenberg marks. 

I smiled. Then I saw how Jeremy was studying my face, his brow creased with worry. ”What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?” 

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said, and began removing his white button up shit. 

“What are you---“ I glanced down. “Oh.” I tried to cover myself, but I didn’t have nearly enough arms. The rovers and Seekers who ringed the Tower graciously turned their eyes away from my nakedness, but I caught quite a few of them checking out the strange marks on my body. 

Jeremy held out his shirt to me, but he made no effort to avert his eyes. He was seeing me, naked, lightning scares and all. I searched his face for evidence of revulsion, but there was only him. The lightning scar on his chest stood out starkly against his bare skin, like a red star exploding. ~ARC p. 365-366