The technical writing was decent, and the first 20 or so pages were enticing. Mia stopped the narrative for huge chunks of paragraphs in order to give us backstory, which made everything flow...well, which made everything NOT flow. But still, it was unique, and I was hooked.And then the love interest showed up and everything went to hell. Mia is supremely boring, and only more of a let-down after being self-described as a "lightning addict." Some addict, she doesn't even get struck until the end. One would think she'd be something of an adrenaline junkie, but nope, she's just dull and ignorant and blindly stumbling through the plot, willing to be tugged hither and yon by everyone else but never doing anything herself. Honestly, she spends about 95% of the book trying to AVOID the plot. Author, I picked up this book to read about doomsday cults and lightning magic, not to read about a girl trying her damndest to AVOID those things. I want to run full-bore into them and have a rollicking good time saving the world. Why do you think I would be more interested in a chick who HIDES from all the interesting stuff, rather than a chick who gets down and dirty and actually FUCKING DOES SOMETHING.Seriously. It's amazing how a "lightning addict" can be just so damn boring. And of course, there's all the little things subtext things that needle at me. Like the way Mia's powers are only "good" if she's healing, and once she tries to use them for self-defense from a guy trying to throw her off a bridge, well, for that she needs to find "redemption." No one except the bad guy bothers to tell her that she's not to blame for DEFENDING HERSELF from a violent attack. Seriously. Just the bad guy. And we're conditioned to disbelieve things the villain says, so...is this book trying to tell me she SHOULD feel guilty about that? Because she spends like half a page reassuring the male love interest that falling asleep wasn't his fault, but no one can be arsed to tell her that it's okay to try and not be brutally murdered? Fucking creepy. I mean, really minor thing and I'm pretty sure the author didn't consciously mean to include it, but...somehow that makes it fucking creepier. And there's tons of little messages like that, just little lines here and there that sink into your subconscious and made my skin crawl. Oh, and I almost forgot the worst scene of all: when the love interest forces a kiss on Mia -- FORCES -- in order to break the mind control, even though just touching her with a finger would have done as well. Yes, folks, the main character is sexually assaulted "for her own good."
