Review: Soulstruck

Title: Soulstruck
Author: Natasha Sinel
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Source: hardcopy from book distributor (Thomas Allen and Son)
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Ferguson is trying to get struck by lightning. Hopefully it will lead to finding her soul mate, like it did for her mother. And then maybe her mom will be as devoted to her as she is to her lightning strike survivors group.

When Rachel discovers a journal written by her mother’s soul mate – the man she thought was her father – she begins to question everything she’s always believed, including soul mates, fate, and even her mother. No longer sure of its power, she decides to quit chasing lightning.

Rachel feels abandoned and alone. Her best friend has ditched her, her boyfriend has dumped her, and a confrontation with her mom only made things worse. At least she still has her friend Jay. In fact, their growing attraction to each other seems to be the only good thing happening.

But when her relationship with Jay starts to unravel, too, the impulse to get struck by lightning resurfaces.

And there’s a thunderstorm coming.

Set in a small Cape Cod beach town in the off-season, Soulstruck is about the search for love and the risk of losing it while waiting for destiny to happen.

Review:

Before reading this book, I had no idea what an impact getting struck by lightning has on a person. Of course, I know it could kill a person, but I didn’t realize that it causes lifelong health problems and that you need to constantly get checked for symptoms for the rest of your life. There are even support groups like the one in this book, which I had never thought about before. I learned a lot in this book.

I loved Rachel. She was very real. She had ups and downs, like a real person. I could feel her pain, both when dealing with her mom and her boyfriends. I even had tears in my eyes at the end. It was emotional but powerful.

I liked how not all of the information was given right at the beginning of the book. It takes a while to learn about Rachel’s past, including what her injury was that caused the scars on her legs. Since this information was held back, it made me want to keep reading.

One thing that was a little confusing was that the first few chapters alternated between the present and the past, during Rachel’s relationship with Reed. It would have been helpful if there was a signal at the beginning of the chapters to show that it was flashing back in time or returning to the present. Once the flashbacks caught up to the present, it continues in the present, so that was only for a few chapters at the beginning.

I loved this book! I’ll be recommending it for a while. Have you read it? What did you think?

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett