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jpskewedthroneStruck is the first book by Jennifer Bosworth, as far as I can tell. It's a YA post apocalyptic novel with a rather unique main character and power. The basic premise is that a massive earthquake has destroyed LA, leaving only a single tower remaining in the ruins and a bunch of hungry survivors. One of the survivors is Mia, a young girl with a strange attraction--almost an addition--to lightning. She's been struck multiple times and survived. In the aftermath of the earthquake, she's simply trying to keep herself, her brother, and her traumatized mother alive. But a religious group has risen from the destruction, preaching that an even greater earthquake--one that will not only destroy LA but affect the entire world--is coming . . . and Mia is their key to unlocking that earthquakes power. They want the earthquake to cleanse the earth. A second cult has risen to oppose them, and Mia finds herself caught in the middle.
I liked the magical component in this book, the use of lightning. I also like the post apocalyptic--or is it mid-apocalptic?--aspects of the book. The magical components are unique, not something I've seen recently in books (although there has been lightning wielders in comics and on TV and in movies, of course), and I've always anything apocalyptic. As a YA read, it's a good book.
The feel off the book, though, was slightly off. It's hard to pinpoint, because the writing is fine and the plot is fine . . . but at the same time it felt like this had been scripted and then fleshed out into a book. The plot felt set, and the characters didn't seem to so much live as move through that prescribed plot. I never felt that the decisions made by the characters, their choices, were really theirs, instead, I felt like they were simply doing what they were supposed to be doing. Like I said, it's hard to describe and certainly difficult to pinpoint what exactly was causing this feeling. But that's how I felt reading it. Perhaps it's because it's a YA novel, and I don't generally read them.
In any case, I thought it was an interesting read, simply for the setting and the lightning.
I liked the magical component in this book, the use of lightning. I also like the post apocalyptic--or is it mid-apocalptic?--aspects of the book. The magical components are unique, not something I've seen recently in books (although there has been lightning wielders in comics and on TV and in movies, of course), and I've always anything apocalyptic. As a YA read, it's a good book.
The feel off the book, though, was slightly off. It's hard to pinpoint, because the writing is fine and the plot is fine . . . but at the same time it felt like this had been scripted and then fleshed out into a book. The plot felt set, and the characters didn't seem to so much live as move through that prescribed plot. I never felt that the decisions made by the characters, their choices, were really theirs, instead, I felt like they were simply doing what they were supposed to be doing. Like I said, it's hard to describe and certainly difficult to pinpoint what exactly was causing this feeling. But that's how I felt reading it. Perhaps it's because it's a YA novel, and I don't generally read them.
In any case, I thought it was an interesting read, simply for the setting and the lightning.
