Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 373 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
Series: Struck #1
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
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.

WARNING: I may use some puns that the world would do better without. Sorry, I just can't help myself. ;)

Struck is a book I've heard really, really flattering things about. So I decided it was about time I actually read it. I checked it out from the library and BOOM. Read it. It did take me somewhat longer than I usually spend on books, but I blame that mostly on school. In the end, I finished a particularly...striking book by Jennifer Bosworth.

All right, so the book begins. I was so intrigued by how this began. There was a "Nightmare Boy" and everything. But then the story moved on and I got very bored. I'm being completely honest, I considered not even finishing this book for a bit. I was that bored. Because a lot of time was spent getting the reader caught up to where we needed be to understand the events that would actually take place in the story. I didn't know that until at least 100ish pages in, though.

Still, I kept reading because I despise not finishing books. Whether I like them or not, I always wonder about them. Finally, after I passed the 100ish page mark, the story sucked me in and it became very good. The truth is that this story is shockingly unique in content. It's based around lightning, which was seriously interesting and a huge part of what drew me in in the first place. That said, I must admit that there was a lot that was claimed to be connected to lightning in this book that made no sense to me. Then again, that may be the point--we can't really predict what effect lightning will have. Our main character, Mia, was living evidence of that.

Character Rundown: Mia. I felt very...meh about Mia. I don't think I liked her. Jennifer did do a wonderful job of creating a voice for her, though. Great storytelling from Mia's POV. I have to give Jennifer credit for that. But I wasn't particularly fond of Mia. I did feel like she was very selfish. I understand why, but she could have handled things a little better. And here I go, being hard on the female charaters again. I can't help it, I expect a little more from them. Otherwise they're all the same. I DID like Mia's attitude in the end of the book, however. So I may actually like her a little in the next book. There's still hope yet.
And Jeremy. Ah, little Jeremy. Something very rare for me happened with this book: I DIDN'T fall head over heels for any male character. Well, I have a soft spot for Parker (Mia's brother), but that's it. Jeremy just wasn't characterized very well at all. He had virtually no development and was very unoriginal. All I got was that he was gorgeous. Which is very nice, but lots of boys are pretty. I need more to swoon over than that. I did feel for him a bit with the vision thing, but not nearly enough to make up for the lack of...everything else.

Romance. Sweetness. Whatever you wish to call it. This is usually what makes or breaks a story for me. In this book, it was very cookie-cutter. There is seriously NO development of a relationship whatsoever. This was insta-love in the most irritating form. We have a stalker boy and a lonely girl who just so happen to--BAM--fall in love. Shocking. Suffice it to say that I was not impressed or compelled in any way by Jeremy and Mia's relationship. Which was very disappointing.

Lucky for this book, the sweetness was not needed. I was completely into every other aspect of the story. It was so completely interesting! After that 100ish-page slump I told you about, I was entranced by what was possibly going to happen.

Then there was the ending. For the most part, this was very good. It was a very...electrifying way to end the story. (This is before the epilogue.) But the big secret-thing with Jeremy was not all that surprising to me. I called it the moment he said he wasn't a Follower OR a Seeker. Aside from that, the ending was big and fun and just great. And then the epilogue was...an epilogue. That's pretty much it. It left me with a teeny bit of sympathy for Jeremy, but that's all.

Overall, this was a really, really good story by Jennifer Bosworth and I can't wait to see how this series continues. I would certainly recommend it, along with advice to stick it out past the first 100ish pages. It'll be worth it.

♥Jessica(: