Struck By You

Published: May 8th, 2012
Struck (Struck # 1)
By: Jennifer Bosworth
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
ISBN-13: 9780374372835

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.

Review

   Mia Price is trying to keep her family from falling apart in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that ravage her city, Los Angeles.  If she could survive being struck by lightning so many times, she could make it through anything right?  But now she's addicted to the feeling of the electricity coursing through her veins.  Then a mysterious group approaches her at school about joining them in trying to stop Rance Ridley Prophet, a religious extremist (basically a cult leader), from destroying the city even more with his prophecies of doom.  But are they just using Mia for the 'Spark' she possesses?  Are they just another cult like the one Prophet is in charge of?  Trying to protect her brother Parker, her Mom who has been drawn into Prophet's web AND figure out the motives of the Seekers and Prophet's followers, plus the weird but hot guy that's been following her around, can Mia make it out of this situation alive?  Or will she be the sacrifice that saves the city from the end of days?  This was definitely one of the more original books that I've read so far this year.  With a girl who is addicted to lightning and the complications of the possible apocalypse, I was riveted for most of the book.  Prophet and his ability to ensnare people was truly creepy!  I understood the fragility of Mia's Mom after being traumatized during the quake, but man how awful to watch your parent brainwash themself into obedience with a cult mentality.  I felt like Mia's younger brother Parker was just there for the author to use as a plot device.  He was the reason for a lot of Mia's actions, but has no real discernible personality or motive for his actions.  It was slightly annoying after awhile.  The Seekers and their connection to the abilities that are brought on by lightning was an interesting inclusion into the plot.  But their motives were still slightly unclear at the end of the novel.  And I truly could NOT STAND Katrina, who gets her way through manipulation every time that Mia tells her no.  Plus she's just a smug bitch for most of the book.  I liked Jeremy, who had a difficult upbringing (can't say anymore for fear of spoilers!) and overcame it to do what he believed to be right.  My main problem is that Mia gave in and began to start a relationship with him so easily after she found out that he was going to murder her originally!!!  YEAH RIGHT!  I can't imagine doing anything other than sticking his knife where the sun don't shine, no matter how hot he supposedly is!  Overall, the plot and the characters came together to create an interesting and fresh book.  It was unlike anything else I've read recently and I would definitely recommend it to fans of apocalyptic and dystopian YA fiction.

VERDICT:  3.75/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*