Jennifer Bosworth

This had the potential to rock my socks off: a new twist on the dystopia trend so prevalent in today's YA market (religion versus progress), an intriguing 'hook' for the main character of Mia (tell me more of this 'lightning addict!'), and a post-apocalyptic setting of a toppled and chaotic Los Angeles ("Hell-A") - what could be more intimidating for a struggling seventeen year old? I wanted to love it, and almost almost did before Struck and main character Mia, let the ball drop. show more Unfortunately the execution falters in delivering the most interesting and promised aspects of the novel; Struck gets a bit too caught up in the religious overtones to the overall detriment of the far-more-original lightning addict part. Less religion, more natural disasters, please! This is a bit of an uneven read; the first-half of the novel is far stronger than the the middle and ending, and by the time it came to turn the final page, I was more than ready to put this down.

Like I said, Struck gets off to a great and original start - it's nearly impossible to not be pulled in and intrigued by Mia's introductory paragraph - and if only that level of uniqueness had continued, this would be a much different review for a much different novel. But enough with what could've been. Mia herself is plucky, determined and cutthroat for her circumstances; no wishy washy bullshit about survival here. With a younger sibling and a mentally incapacitated Mom after the earthquakes, (Katniss, is that you?) Mia's situation is hardly revelatory, nor is her position as head of the family, but she works well in that capacity. Mia will do what is necessary for her and her brother to survive and it's always easy to admire and root for a fighter/survivor. What is less easy to admire about Mia is how completely and totally brainlessly she can and does act during the book. She makes dumb, plot-advancing, obvious decisions that keep her in the dark, goes out of her way to be outside of communication with anyone else, which, consequently, lands her into trouble/danger fairly frequently.

In this earthquake-rocked future, Mia's constantly caught between two massive cults vying for power and influence after the world ended: the religious Followers of the Prophet and the cryptic and mysterious anti-Prophet "Seekers". With her mom going one way and her brother going the other, it's easy to understand Mia's motivations for distrusting both powerbases. For one: both groups are unnecessarily and repeatedly cryptic with what they want and two they're both presented as sinister. For the much of the bulk of the novel, the reader has absolutely no idea why Mia is so important. It's quite frustating reading endless rigamarole, obvious traps and lies without having any idea why such manuevering is needed. While I get doign the "big reveal" closer to the end, I might've bough the machinations of both cults more if I knew the reasons. I might've tolerated the wait better if anything to do with the lightning had been shown, but no. For a book about a lightning "addict", there's very little explained about the phenomenon. I just wish there'd been much less discussion on religion and the Prophet versus the dangerous and Spark-enhanced Seekers, and more about the natural disasters/Mia's lightning.

I felt very unsatisfied with the worldbuilding here. There are some details given initially that seemed to bode well for how this vision of Armageddon would commence but they dried up early in favor of religious fervor and drama. The infodumps used to indoctrinate the readers aren't as bad as the ones in say, The Rook, which had chapters and chapters of amusing and diverting details, but they aren't camouflaged very well either. Eavesdropping, remedial lessons, etc. serve to inject the slight history needed but it felt incomplete. Another issue not explained to my satisfaction was the relationship the "conductors" and the "bonds" used for the lightning - Bosworth kinda throws the ideas out there fairly early on in Struck, but never fully comes back around to expand on how such a thing is done. The romance angle (you knew there had to be one..) ... I'm not even going to fully go there. Let's just say I called Jeremy's big twist very very early on (it's incredibly obvious and telegraphed to the audience early) and I wasn't a huge fan of his motivation, characterization or actions. While he doesn't inspire me to the anger that many, many other YA male love interests do, he's no prince either.The repeated cyrpyic remarks he refuses to clarify, the required mysterious and painful past... I just found him to be too much of a cliche to invest overmuch in him. Mia, though not what I wanted, at least has the distinction of being a three-dimensional, original character/

To put it baldly and in the simplest terms: Struck just plain-old disappointed me, but it isn't necessarily a bad book - it's just not for me. All that potential and what I got was far from what was anticipated from the blurb and synopsis. There are kernels of a good story here in Struck and Mia is far from the worst protagonist I've come across, but in the end, I must go with my conscious and admit this left a lot to be desired upon finishing. show less

I have been on a little bit of a young adult kick lately, but I started to get worried when the plots began to blend together and all the books I was reading seemed to be very similar. Luckily, Struck is not one of those novels. It stands out among the crowd and will demand your full and undivided attention. I devoured the entire novel in one sitting. It is over three hundred fifty pages so it is not a small book, but I could not walk away from it without knowing the outcome.

The best part of show more this book was Mia. She was a strong leading female who did not just follow along with the crowd. She asks questions, she watches out for those she loves and she makes her own path. Mia is constantly fed a plethora of information from those around her. I admired her for taking the time to process what she is told and come to her own conclusions, not just jump on the bandwagon of others because they are pressuring her. One of the people vying for her attention is Jeremy. I clicked with him right from the start. It’s always the mysterious ones that I find intriguing and he was no exception. Part of what won me over was his habit of always looking out for what was best for Mia and not trying to get something out of it. Not everyone in her life was doing that, most of them wanted something for themselves and his intentions always seemed genuine and pure. His past is an enigma for most of the novel and by the end there are quite a few interesting revelations about him that I would never have guessed, but I really enjoyed him as a character.

There is a little romance in this book, but it does take a while for it to grow into something Mia is willing to fight for. While I am usually a big fan of the romance taking center stage, I appreciated Jennifer keeping it in the background for most of the novel. There were too many other events that needed to take place before Mia and Jeremy could make sense of what they were feeling for one another. Plus, Mia needed to discover more about herself and where she stands with the events unfolding around her before she could have some else stand beside her.

I cannot review this book without talking about the religion that is laced throughout. I know people can hear religion and run for the hills, but I promise you it is not like that with this book. In Struck, there is a Prophet who says God talks to him and tells him when the end of the world is coming so he is gathering followers. He predicts the end to be three days after when the book begins and this fuels most of the conflict in this world. It reflects much of what already surrounds us in society today with the end of the world theories piling up day after day. I am not really a fan of religious fanatics myself and would agree with Mia when she thinks:



“I had a special dislike for any organization, religious or otherwise, that pointed their finger at this person or that person and condemned them as evil…”

Just because there is religion in Struck does not mean it is pushed on you in any way. It is just a new take on an apocalyptic scenario and one that I found very interesting.

Another element that plays into this book is the survivors of lightning strikes. They posses something that many in this book refer to as “the spark” and have talents they can put to use because of it. Mia lists some of the side effects of a lighting strike at the start of the novel, but what she comes to discover is that not all of the effects are physical or are even ones that a doctor could explain. Mind reading, visions and many other things can take root in a person after they are struck and be used to help or harm society. Mia is not exactly sure of all the ways lightning has affected her, but as she learns more about others like her, she discovers she may hold more power than she ever thought possible. Storms have always fascinated me, lighting included, and Struck just amped up my interest in them. I don’t think I will be able to look at lighting quite the same way again.

The ending of Struck had my heart pumping so fast, I was flying through the pages. There are so many things happening and my eyes could hardly read fast enough. I thought I had almost everything figured out, but Jennifer definitely saved some of the best plot twists for the end. An array of emotions played through Mia and I felt all of them right along with her. I was very satisfied with the ending and can see this as a stand-alone novel, but have my fingers crossed that we have not seen the end to this world.

Honestly, I could keep going about this book, but this review is starting to get a little long, so I am just going to encourage you to read this book for yourself. In a young adult world fill with the same story recycled constantly, Struck is a powerfully original debut that will keep you up well past your bedtime to finish! It will suck you in from the first page and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last. I have been finished with the book for a while and as I write this review I still have climax replaying through my brain. I know this is a book I will not forget and Jennifer has made a lifelong fan out of me. show less

This book needs to be made into a movie (or preferable a miniseries). I read A LOT of thrillers, but honestly, few really catches my attention in a way that makes me totally absorbed. WATCH THE GIRLS is one of them. Seriously, I just absolutely loved this book. It got everything I like, dysfunctional families, missing people, creepy little town, people with wolf masks, orgies ... yeah, I bet you're interested now? ;)

Seriously, I always hope to be entertained when I read a thriller, and often show more at least the books will keep me engrossed and interested. But, to truly capture my interest like this book did. It was like watching a movie. It was so well written that I could picture the story in my head. The characters came to life, the creepy forest, the little town, etc.

Now, I will not give away the story, no spoilers from me. I will just say this. I love the twist and turns this story took. I love the ambiguous ending (well I hated it too, the part of me that wanted closure). I love the dynamic relationship between Liv and Gemma. It's just such a wonderful thriller. And, they need to make it into a miniseries (with good actors)!

I want to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! show less

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. It sounded like a really interesting premise. While it started out pretty interesting; the characters and the story degenerated into your pretty typical paranormal-type YA book. In the end it was an okay story but nothing special.

Mia is addicted to lightening. She's been struck a number of times and has suffered some injuries but has never died from her numerous run-ins with lightening. Her, her mother and her brother live in Los show more Angeles now. A huge earthquake has happened and Mia and her family are trying to eke out an existence among the rubble. Her mother is out-of commission dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome caused by what she survived during the quake and is becoming increasingly obsessed with a man named the Prophet who is recruiting people to join his Followers. Mia's brother is being pulled towards a cult-like group that opposes the Followers called the Seekers. Mia is stuck in between them and is having run-ins with a mysterious boy named Jeremy who is warning her to stay away from both groups.

The idea of humans being struck by lightening and gaining super-human-like powers from the lightening strikes is an interesting one. Having the whole story set after a huge quake which precedes the supposed end of days provided an excellent setting for the story.

The above being said I had a lot of problems with this book. Mia as a character is nothing outstanding, in fact none of the characters in this book stand out all that much. Mia is constantly warned over and over not to do things and does them anyway. The book was basically a chain of Mia doing stupid things that resulted in bad things happening. I don't mind tragic heroines, but I have trouble reading about stupid ones.

Now lets discuss Jeremy and Mia's relationship. Jeremy has that stalkerish like behavior that for some reason is portrayed quite frequently in YA literature. He is looking into Mia's windows and constantly standing outside her house. That's okay though because Mia is inexplicably drawn to him. If this instant love of Mia for stalker-Jeremy isn't bad enough it gets worse. When Mia discovers that Jeremy was the one standing above her bed with a knife trying to kill her she gets a little angry. Does she avoid this creepy-boy? No, she falls in love with him and starts making out with him. I guess if people trying to kill you is what does it for you...but seriously what is up with this kind of relationship? Are these the kind of role-models we want YA readers to read about...seriously?

I wish I could say that was the end of the rant but it's not. This story is basically about two groups vying for Mia's "powers". The Followers and the Seekers. The Followers are uber-religious freaks who want the world to end because we are all sinners. The Seekers are uber-anti-religious freaks who want to save humanity I think...actually I am not sure of their agenda...the only thing made really clear about the Seekers is that they hate the Followers. If you are religious or non-religious you will find parts of this book offensive. Personally I don't care one way or the other, I just don't like reading books with a overly-religion driven plotline. So yeah, I pretty much thought all the fire and brimstone sermons were a bummer to read through. I didn't really enjoy anything that drove this story.

The book is decently written, the plot is pretty simple, but technically there was nothing wrong with it. It seems like a fairly self-contained story; everything was well wrapped-up.

Overall this book just wasn't for me. There is nothing technically wrong with it. The characters are so-so, there is that wonderful teenage boy stalks teenage girl and she likes it thing going on (which I can't stand), and the plotline is heavily religious but not really pro-religion (so there should be things in here to offend people from both camps). In general I was just disappointed, this could have been an awesome book...there are some really awesome ideas in here. Instead you get some typical YA themes with some lackluster characters. I would steer clear of this book and read some other apocalyptic YA like Blood Red Road, Hunger Games or Divergent. show less