StruckPublisher: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2012Genre: YA Post Apocalyptic
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.
A massive earthquake and lightning storm has destroyed most of Los Angeles. People are struggling to survive and return to some semblance of normality, but opposing cults are battling it out because they know another storm is coming. Prophet and his Followers have the masses brainwashed and have declared the world will end in three days. The Seekers are looking for the one who could save them all, the one whose Spark is strongest. Mia Price is doing her best to help her family survive. With her Mom still traumatized from the earthquake that left her trapped for days under a building, and her brother's naïve wish to help every single Displaced, Mia is having a hard time keeping it together. Especially when the lightning she carries inside threatens to burst when her emotions run high. More troubles arise she goes back to school, because both the Followers and the Seekers want her to join their cults, and a mysterious boy appears warning her to join neither.
Jennifer Bosworth has created a truly fascinating and frightening L.A., where sections of the land have risen ten feet, holes without end have opened up the streets, cults are controlling the masses, and only one tower remains. In this post-apocalyptic setting, there were a couple of minor details that didn't add up for me, like the fact that schools were open just four weeks after the massive devastation, and that cars seemed to have full tanks of gasoline (Wouldn't this have run out?). But this minor things were quickly forgotten as I got to know more about Mia Price.
Mia was such a strong heroine, and so interesting to read. She does whatever she has to do to keep her family safe, even if it means getting in harm's way. While she is strong and courageous, she's afraid of her power because she knows that, like lightning, it can be unpredictable. It can heal or it can kill. She's ubber conscious of her body, but not for any vain reason. You see, her body is covered in lightning scars, a fact that she hides by dressing in black from head to toe. Always tense and always worried, it was nice when the mystery boy appeared. When she meets Jeremy, she is as attracted to him as she is drawn to lightning. And really, who wouldn't be with a hunky piece of guy like him. When she touches him Mia can literally feel the spark coursing through her body. And when he touches her, Mia is thrown into one of his visions. Oh yes, Jeremy has his own wicked powers. Together they'll fight their way to change those visions, because they all show the same thing…the end of the world.
The visions keep you updated about what's going to happen, and still the ending was fast paced, and full of twists and turns I so didn't see coming. While I did enjoy the story, unique world building, and the cult battle, there was just too much religion involved for me to really like the book. But the Epilogue leaves off with questions that I want answers to, so I'll be looking forward to book 2.
*I received this book via Netgalley from the publisher*
Favorite Quotes:
"Do you even know what my brother looks like?" I asked.
He nodded. "I've seen him before."
My heart thrummed fire. "When? Were you in his room? Were you going to stick a knife in him, too?"
"No! I swear I've never gone near him. You were the only one I…
His words fell away, like they'd tumbled off a cliff. He must have realized there was no good way to say, You were the only one I considered murdering.
His words fell away, like they'd tumbled off a cliff. He must have realized there was no good way to say, You were the only one I considered murdering.
But if he wanted me dead, why was he so intent on saving me?
~
"What? Mia, no! You can't go with him! You don't know anything about him. He could be a spy!"
"Are you a spy, Jeremy?" I asked.
"No," he said.
"Then it's settled. We're leaving."
~
"I should have listened to you," I said. "I should never have come here." I turned to him. "You're not going to try to kill me again are you? Can I stop worrying about that now?"
"Yes," he said. "I mean no, I'm not going to try to kill you. And, yes, you can stop worrying."
"And you're really not a spy for the Followers, like Katrina things?" I asked, eying his white pants. "I mean, what kind of guy owns white jeans?"
Jeremy shrugged. "They seemed Rove appropriate."
