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.
The setting and world-building of STRUCK, screenwriter
Jennifer Bosworth’s fiction debut, was both my favorite and least-favorite
aspect of the novel. I live in LA, and I’m
already terrified of earthquakes…seriously, Jennifer Bosworth, do you have to
make it worse?! Bosworth’s
world-building is so successful because she clearly knows LA well, and she
creates a very believable portrait of the city after a devastating earthquake—I
can definitely see downtown LA as the Waste, a dangerous wasteland that’s also
the center of a mysterious, dark partying movement. And Venice Beach is the perfect place for
both Tentville, home of those displaced by the earthquake, and Prophet’s stronghold. Bosworth refers not only to general areas of
Los Angeles but specific streets, neighborhoods, and landmarks, which made the
book particularly fun for me as I recognized those places.
I also loved Bosworth’s dark, vibrant, and very cinematic
imagery throughout the novel—there was one image involving the world cracking
open like an egg that was just stunning in context. The main characters were intriguing and
likable. I hope that if there’s a
sequel, Bosworth reveals more about the past of mysterious love-interest Jeremy—I’d
love to know more about his background, though I’m not sure it would have fit
into this novel. I do admit to becoming
irritated with Mia’s mother—at many points I just wanted to reach into the book
and shake her and tell her to snap out of it!
I do understand why she acted as she did, though, and her behavior was
essential to the plot.
If you’ve read any reviews of STRUCK, you’ve probably
noticed there’s a lot of discussion about religion in the novel. As someone with a completely non-religious
background, I wasn’t sure how I’d react to this aspect of the novel. Most of the cult aspects didn’t bother me at
all—I felt this was more a portrayal of one power-hungry individual who CLAIMED
to hear God for his own benefit, rather than an actual statement about God or
any one religion. However, there was
also a lot of religious imagery and references to the Bible, especially the
Book of Revelations and Christ and the Apostles, throughout the book, and that
was a bit thornier for me. I’m not sure
how accurate the Revelations references were, but I do find that stuff
fascinating, the same way I’m fascinated by mythology and folklore. However, with Prophet’s twelve Apostles and
the suggestion that Mia might be intended as a martyr to die for their cause, I
became a little uncomfortable. I think maybe I’ve just endured enough
Christ-on-the-cross metaphors in high school and college English classes, and I
don’t really want to think about that any more than I have to!
Plot-wise, there was a lot going on in STRUCK—Mia’s
addiction to lightning, her mysterious stalker/savior Jeremy, the two opposing
cult-like groups with their doomsday prophecies, and the disastrous earthquake
and its social consequences. While all
of these plot threads came together by the end, it was a LOT, and at times I
became overwhelmed and wanted to put the book down for a while. However, I tend to prefer quieter,
character-driven stories rather than cinematic, action-packed ones, so other
readers may enjoy the plot more than I did.
I also wished we’d learned more about the roots of Mia’s lightning
addiction—I would have loved a flashback to the first time she was struck, for
instance, and more about how and when she realized the lightning was seeking
her out.
Overall, STRUCK was definitely worth the read and left me
with a lot to think about!
