Struck [Paperback]

The premise of this book is interesting enough - lightning addict Mia finds herself caught between two warring factions, both wanting to use her power. However, the execution of the idea is a bit of a shambles. Jennifer Bosworth tries to keep the reader guessing over the morality and true intentions of both the Seekers and the Followers, and we're also given plenty of reason to doubt the scruples of Jeremy, the book's love interest.

Perhaps this ambiguity is why Mia seems so perpetually dim. She lurches from one crisis to another, blithely ignoring every bit of good advice she's given and showing a bewildering lack of self-awareness or common sense. Despite having been struck by lightning several times throughout her life, we're nearly at the end of the book before she suddenly realises that she shares the self-healing abilities of the other lightning survivors. Really? She's struck by lightning lots of times, regularly badly burned to the point of her hair burnt right off and skin frazzled, and it doesn't occur to her that her skin healing and hair growing back within days might be a tad unusual? She seems to trust no-one, feeling anger at both sides and her family as they try to manipulate her, until Jeremy. Despite Jeremy initially attempting to kill her, then saving her, then continually disappearing on her, she decides he is the one constant and safe thing in her life, based solely it seems on the fact that she fancies the pants off him.

There actually seems to be very little in the way of story - if you removed the endless bits of Mia wondering who to trust and lusting after Jeremy, there's not much going on. There are so many things that don't make sense. The earthquake seems to centre only on LA, which forms a predictable dystopian landscape. What's the rest of America and the world up to while the citizens of LA are homeless, starving and ill? Leaving them to it, apparently. Even though we're told there is still basic power in places, and there's even still Internet access, the rest of the world seems to not exist, at least until the end when Mia has to save the entire planet and stop the Prophet's plan to start a chain of earthquakes around the world.

I found myself skimming large sections to get to the end, only to find that the ending was equally disappointing - a big build up about Mia realising she has to martyr herself to save the day just peters out quite inexplicably, and the happy ending is left with a opening for a sequel clumsily shoe-horned in. A disappointing read, as it could have been so much better.

This book confused me. When I first heard that it was about a girl with an addiction to getting struck by lightning, I thought it sounded completely amazing, and utterly unique. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and when I did, I dropped everything to read it. Big mistake. Though it was inititally interesting, things went downhill fast and it didn't come close to meeting my expectations. The religious aspects of the book trumped everything else, and that really irritated me. I expected this book to be about Mia trying to deal with her addiction, but really, the cults were the main focus. However, it wasn't until the insta-love kicked in that I really started disliking this book.

I can't understand why Mia is attracted to Jeremy. After all, the first time they met, he tried to kill her in her sleep!! Yeah, great basis for a relationship there, honey. There is absolutely nothing defining their relationship besides physical attraction - and even that was a bit touch and go. I was completely clueless about the whole romance bit. Honestly, I think the book would've been better if Jeremy's role was simply as a friend - and that's something I rarely say. Okay, so not only did I not like Jeremy, I didn't like Mia either. I found her utterly dull and I found myself wanting to scream at her fifty percent of the time. I couldn't justify half the decisions she made - and if she thought about it, I doubt she could either.

Nevertheless, Bosworth's descriptions of the apocalyptic world were interesting, and aside from some instances of purple prose, the writing flowed smoothly. Though the blurb is a bit misleading in making you think that Mia's lightning addiction is the main focus, I do believe that many people will enjoy this book. The storyline was interesting enough, I just didn't understand why lightning was so important. Also, the ending was rushed. Though I grasped what was going on, I did get lost a couple of times and that bugged me. I've heard a couple of people mention that this is the first in a series, but I have yet to find proof of that, and to be honest, I'm kind of hoping that Bosworth quits while she's behind.

Overall, Struck failed to impress me. If you're a fan of religion and really want to read something that focuses primarily on God and His followers, you may enjoy this book. But I'm not going to go out of my way to recommend it.

Struggled to get through this one i have to admit.

The blurb made the book sound great and in places it had the potential to really be great but it was let down by prophecy's, god worshipping bible bashing prophets and cults of sect worshippers who battle one another to get control of mia and her powers.

Snooze for me, bear in mind this is just my opinion and im sure that many teenagers will in fact enjoy it but for me it was a little immature, context was all over the place, a lot of it didnt make sense, if it had of had a decent editor it may of been a very different book.