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Thank you NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: April 5th, 2016
Synopsis: Becket is an ordinary teenage girl, wrestling with the upheaval of her parents’ divorce. Her biggest problems to date have been choosing which colleges to apply to, living up to her parents’ ambitious expectations of her, and fighting her secret crush on her best friend’s boyfriend. That all changed the night she tries to save an innocent life and everything goes horribly wrong.
Becket has been tricked into opening a door between worlds. As dark magic trickles into Philadhlphia, strange creatures roam the streets and inaminate objects come to life, all of them bloodthirsty and terrifying. The city returns to normal when the sun rises each morning. The moment the sun sets, most citizens shut themselves in their houses and stay there no matter what they hear.
The magic is openly hostile to most mortals, but there are some it seems to covet, trying to lure them out into the night. While Becket struggles to protect her friends and family from predatory creatures of the night, she is constantly tempted to shrug off her responsibilities and join them.
Nightstruck is an intriguing and exciting read that is only slowed down by it’s somewhat flawed characters. Becket is a departure from the kick-ass heroines that are so prevalent in YA fiction. She’s extremely insecure and agonizes over every decision she faces. In her relationships, she’s a doormat, and it isn’t until the final moments of the book that she embraces her inner warrior. Becket’s parents are divorced and she lives with her father. Their relationship is strained, although it’s never clear why, as Becket is the quintessential “good girl”. For whatever reason, her father automatically jumps to conclusions about his daughter’s motivations, which made me dislike him intensely. Becket’s best friend Piper, is the ultimate party girl who doesn’t really care about anyone except for herself. I couldn’t understand why these two girls would ever be friends. In addition to having completely different personalities, they had nothing in common. When you add in the fact that Piper was rude, selfish, and downright nasty at times, well, their friendship just wasn’t believable. There’s some light romance between Becket and her neighbor Luke, but that’s somewhat spoiled because of all the mixed signals they send each other. What saves this story in the end though is phenomenal world-building, and non-stop action. It’s dark and creepy, and a little bit crazy. I would have liked a little more explanation as to the who’s, the hows and the whys, instead of all the teenage drama but the story was exciting enough that it kept me reading. It’s obvious from the cliffhanger ending that there will be a sequel. I’m hoping that it will focus on a much stronger Becket and more of the dark magical world that was introduced in this first book.
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