Publication Date: May 8 2012
Publishing House: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN: 9780374372835
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked
Summary:
Mia Price is a lightning addict. She has 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 te destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as central 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.
Honestly, I had a hard time rating Struck. There were instances where I liked it and instances where I was left shaking my head in confusion and derision.
Mia is addicted to getting struck by lightning, she chases it, craves it and longs for the adrenaline rush and the feeling of being alive that getting hit brings. But the strangest thing of all is that - thanks to being struck by lightning quite a lot of times - she has acquired the power to actually harness that lightning and use it against people. In light of a few unwanted events, Mia and her family move to Los Angeles, running from a tragedy that befalls their family only to encounter another one after some time - a terrible earthquake that devastates her city leaving Mia to fend for her mother and brother, hiding her scars while trying to stay alive.
After getting rescued after being trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building for days on end Mia's mother spends all her time at home watching a tv program titled 'The Hour of Light' hosted by this person called Prophet. Mia thinks that this program is just some religious hoax - a false prophet signaling the end of times. What Mia doesn't know is that Prophet has a much bigger role in the scheme of things than just a mere television host.
Mia is a fairly likable character; she's a survivor and does what she has to to keep her mother and her brother safe. She didn't expect to be dragged into the middle of two warring cults with nowhere to go, backed into a corner. She obviously has secrets of her own, secrets that relate to lightning striking her a number of times and the strange heat that she is capable of generating when feeling particularly feisty. The love interest, Jeremy, on the other hand, is a mystery; he has the ability to see visions and such and the star of his visions is Mia - so obviously he has to fall in love with her. I was particularly nonplussed about their relationship and really couldn't imagine them as a couple.
I also wasn't impressed with the world building in this one since there was nothing new to the scene - ravaged buildings, desolate cities, people low on supplies struggling to survive. While Struck is not a dystopia-themed book, it certainly felt like one. The two warring cults were not what I expected. I got two cults who were nothing more but a group of people fighting over one girl. One side wanted to destroy the world and the other side wanted to save it. Clear cut and simple, and they're literally black and white in terms of clothes so it's really easy to distinguish who's on whose side. Cue the face palm.
As for the plot twists, well, really I kind of expected those to happen which was kind of disappointing. And the reason for their so called powers was not exactly explained. They get hit by lightning and suddenly they're all super now? I felt like it wasn't exactly hashed out very well and it was just brushed off as some part of a 'prophecy' which made everything seem kind of random and disorienting.
Overall Struck is a decent book that features warring cults, a lightning addict, the end of times with a bit of romance and drama thrown in.
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked
Summary:
Mia Price is a lightning addict. She has 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 te destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as central 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.
Honestly, I had a hard time rating Struck. There were instances where I liked it and instances where I was left shaking my head in confusion and derision.
Mia is addicted to getting struck by lightning, she chases it, craves it and longs for the adrenaline rush and the feeling of being alive that getting hit brings. But the strangest thing of all is that - thanks to being struck by lightning quite a lot of times - she has acquired the power to actually harness that lightning and use it against people. In light of a few unwanted events, Mia and her family move to Los Angeles, running from a tragedy that befalls their family only to encounter another one after some time - a terrible earthquake that devastates her city leaving Mia to fend for her mother and brother, hiding her scars while trying to stay alive.
After getting rescued after being trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building for days on end Mia's mother spends all her time at home watching a tv program titled 'The Hour of Light' hosted by this person called Prophet. Mia thinks that this program is just some religious hoax - a false prophet signaling the end of times. What Mia doesn't know is that Prophet has a much bigger role in the scheme of things than just a mere television host.
Mia is a fairly likable character; she's a survivor and does what she has to to keep her mother and her brother safe. She didn't expect to be dragged into the middle of two warring cults with nowhere to go, backed into a corner. She obviously has secrets of her own, secrets that relate to lightning striking her a number of times and the strange heat that she is capable of generating when feeling particularly feisty. The love interest, Jeremy, on the other hand, is a mystery; he has the ability to see visions and such and the star of his visions is Mia - so obviously he has to fall in love with her. I was particularly nonplussed about their relationship and really couldn't imagine them as a couple.
I also wasn't impressed with the world building in this one since there was nothing new to the scene - ravaged buildings, desolate cities, people low on supplies struggling to survive. While Struck is not a dystopia-themed book, it certainly felt like one. The two warring cults were not what I expected. I got two cults who were nothing more but a group of people fighting over one girl. One side wanted to destroy the world and the other side wanted to save it. Clear cut and simple, and they're literally black and white in terms of clothes so it's really easy to distinguish who's on whose side. Cue the face palm.
As for the plot twists, well, really I kind of expected those to happen which was kind of disappointing. And the reason for their so called powers was not exactly explained. They get hit by lightning and suddenly they're all super now? I felt like it wasn't exactly hashed out very well and it was just brushed off as some part of a 'prophecy' which made everything seem kind of random and disorienting.
Overall Struck is a decent book that features warring cults, a lightning addict, the end of times with a bit of romance and drama thrown in.
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