First of all I need to start this review with an apology to the publisher: sorry it took me so long to review this, unfortunately I was a little behind with reviewing because of university work and my other work, but I’m catching up now.
That aside, Struck is the exciting debut novel of Jennifer Bosworth. It’s been described as dystopian, but I felt that personally I would categorise this as pre-post apocalyptic (apocalyptic, perhaps? Or at least impending apocalypse) with a slightly supernatural twist.
Mia Price is addicted to lightning. This is an awesome concept and I love how Bosworth wrote Mia’s need to be near the storm’s energy too. In the aftermath of a massive earthquake, there is a giant apocalyptic storm predicted in three days and LA is divided in the wreckage of the previous quake.
The post traumatic stress Mia’s mother suffers was a particularly compelling and memorable aspect of Struck for me
For me, the slightly religious cult angle worked brilliantly in the novel. I am personally very interested in religion and philosophy and cults terrify and equally compel me. Therefore the inclusion of the two divisions of society into Seekers (those who want to stop upcoming apocalypse and party in a different abandoned building every night) and Followers (those who follow a ‘Prophet’) held my attention well.
The romance aspect between Jeremy and Mia was well-written. For me, I have to admit just because of the name association I visualised Jeremy as Steven R McQueen (Jeremy on the Vampire Diaries) which was a nice visual for me. Jeremy was a very complicated character and a later development in the novel, which I won’t spoil, nearly ruined the character for me. I have to admit, I don’t know if the character ever recovered from that for me.
Struck may not be for everyone, but I found it an exciting debut that has left me very interested to see what will happen next. Struck is published by Random House/DoubleDay in the UK and Random House Children’s Books very kindly provided me with a free proof copy to review. As ever, my review is honest and unaffected by receiving the book from the publisher.
Amazon UK
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I am reading this now and I totally see McQueen as Jeremy..awesome! Great review, I am 75% done and agree with your review thus far!
Great review! I just finished this book as well and felt the same. I had a great time reading it!