[Review] Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

 Struck
Struck #1
Jennifer Bosworth
May 8th, 2012
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
373 pages

Amazon/Book Depository/B&N

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.

This story was way more 'The Stand'ish than I thought it was going to be according to the blurb. There are two sects fighting over the main character. One goes with the voices in their Prophet's head, full of brainwashed purity, preaching the good word, wearing all white. The other side is just as strange, but more rebellious, more druidic in structure. One side wants the main character to bring forth the cleansing apocalyptic light. The other wants her for less devastating, but no less crazy reasons.

Mia is an interesting character, subject to the holdups and confusion of any teenage girl encountering a cute boy or a few cult members bent on making her an addition to their crazy plans. The beginning of the book held a lot of promise for her character, the world building and the supporting characters. It went in a direction I didn't expect, but I feel that while it might not have lived up to the potential originally set forth, it did a good job sustaining and building upon itself.

The religious aspect is a bit overwhelming, I'm not going to lie. I feel like it did a good job depicting how followers would act when confronting a deadline for the end of the world. They are pushy and will do what it takes to get what they want.

Overall, this book wasn't terrible. I'm sure there are aspects of it that can and will turn people away from it. It has a slow build up, some of the characters are one-dementional for both sections of the story and overall. There are some large, gaping holes in explanation and plot. Still, I had a lot of fun reading it and would definitely pick up future books by this author.