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Summary
Summary
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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Los Angeles of Bosworth's post-apocalyptic vision is doubly damned. First, the city is brought down by a massive earthquake. Then, as the story opens four weeks later, the countdown to the real apocalypse has begun. The rubble is contested by the Followers of Prophet, a quasi-Christian end-times movement that rules the airwaves, and the Seekers, a cult that brands its members and follows the prophecies of a gypsy. Caught between is 17-year-old Mia Price, a self-described "lightning addict" who has survived innumerable direct strikes and craves more. She carries what the Seekers call "the Spark" and is seen by both sides as the key to the approaching cataclysm. Somewhere in the mix, there's Jeremy, a stalker and maybe worse, who is also the only person asking nothing of Mia except to stay out of the fray. Bosworth's debut catches attention with vivid descriptions and a snazzy premise that speak to her screenwriting background. But the supporting characters are, by and large, two-dimensional, and the book's forward momentum is halted by Mia's inaction and emotional paralysis. Ages 12-up. Agent: Jamie Weiss Chilton, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Four weeks after a cataclysmic earthquake, Los Angeles is just beginning to rebuild. Seventeen-year-old Mia Price returns to her reopened high school to find it now dominated by followers of charismatic doomsday cult leader Rance Ridley Prophet. When the ominous Followers try to recruit Mia, so do the Seekers, a rival group who believes Prophet is not predicting the apocalypse but actively working to bring it about. Both sides have discovered that Mia has a secret -- surviving countless lightning strikes has given her immense supernatural abilities -- and want to use her for their purposes. Unsure whom to trust and afraid of her power, she allies with enigmatic Jeremy, a newcomer with ties to both groups and frightening abilities of his own. Savvy Mia's lightning-strike addiction and her struggles to survive in the decimated city (attending school just to receive necessary rations; negotiating the black market to obtain medications for her traumatized mother) would be enough to make her a compelling heroine. But add epic stakes and a well-developed love story (with an equally well-developed betrayal) to this remarkable protagonist, and the result is irresistible. Part apocalyptic survival fiction, part supernatural romance, this taut novel is entirely absorbing. katie bircher (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Mia Price attracts lightning strikes. Why she does is a mystery, but in postdisaster Los Angeles, where a devastating earthquake has upended the social order, her electrifying talent is being sought by two cultlike groups. The Followers of the Light are acolytes to a man preaching the imminent end of the world; the Seekers have a less clear agenda but nevertheless believe Mia is important to their cause. Mia just wants to make things better for her younger brother and her mother, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Meanwhile, a boy named Jeremy tries to help the teen navigate away from both groups, but his touch brings on distressing visions involving multiple lightning hits atop the last remaining downtown skyscraper. Blending apocalyptic conjecture with paranormal talents and a dash of romance, Bosworth, a screenwriter, seems to be striving for a blockbuster, and the novel's ending certainly contains the twists, turns, and surprise outcomes of a nonstop-action thriller. Teens looking for something fast paced and a little different will eagerly follow Mia's adventures.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-Mia Price has been struck by lightning countless times; she actually enjoys the experience. Her repeated brushes with electricity have given her powers that she neither understands nor knows how to use. The teen moves to Los Angeles not long before the largest earthquake in recent history nearly destroys the city, leaving it in chaos. Mia, her brother, and their mother, who is suffering from Acute Stress Disorder, are fortunate to live in an area where the houses still stand. In the aftermath of the disaster, a man who calls himself Prophet is using fear and religion to try to control the city by claiming to have a direct line to God. When Mia and her brother finally return to school, she meets the Seekers, another faction vying for power. Both the Seekers and the Prophet's Followers are trying to get Mia to join them, and she wants nothing to do with either group. Her life is further complicated by the arrival of hottie Jeremy, who is mysterious, psychic, and may or may not be on Mia's side. As the story builds toward a final battle, Mia struggles to find her place in this new world. With a complex plot, several intriguing characters, and a believable future L.A., this novel should earn a spot on supernatural romance shelves. Drinking, drug use, and Mia's sexual exploration make it most suitable for mature readers.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Doomsday cults play tug-of-war over a teenage girl who loves getting struck by lightning in Bosworth's debut. After lightning hits a fault line and causes a terrible earthquake in Los Angeles, survivors seek hope. Many turn to a charismatic fundamentalist who predicted the earthquake and promises salvation from end times to his followers. Others, like Mia Price, strive for a return to normalcy--even though a girl who's struck by lightning countless times is anything but normal. While trying to keep her family fed and her mother, badly traumatized by the earthquake, in one piece, Mia attracts attention from both the fundamentalist sect and a secret society that opposes them. In the span of one day, recruiters from both parties approach her, one wearing white and one black to help readers tell just how opposed they are. Prophecies and visions all point to Mia as the key to the upcoming end of the world (in three days, warns Prophet), as surviving even a single lightning strike can grant a person supernatural abilities. But mysterious, handsome Jeremy warns her from choosing either side and offers a very sudden relationship. While the solid structure relies too heavily on formula, resulting in predictability, the pacing moves the narrative along quickly, suiting the time-sensitive plot. A creative premise and developed setting with a fast, fun and easy ride of a plot. (Fantasy. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.