Struck By Lightning is a book written by Chris Colfer, actor, singer, author, and producer. The book is also called ‘The Carson Phillips Journal’ book as well. It’s also called that because it is in format as Carson’s journal. He writes in it, and every chapter is a different day and a different journal entry. Shortly after the book was written, Chris Colfer had directed a movie about it. The book and the movies are so very the same.
This book is a number one New York Times Bestselling. It sold fairly quickly and was a very popular book for a while. Carson Phillips is a senior in Clover high school. He is an outcast and on the bottom of the food chain. His dream was to escape from that depressing town and go to Northwestern University to become a journalist, a very good journalist. But he needed one last thing to be able to go–he needed to create a literary magazine, which he needed submissions from other students. His life was in shambles and he really needed those submissions. But nobody there liked him; they disliked him a lot. He needed a way to somehow get those submissions, so blackmail became the only option.
I would recommend this book to people who like Chris Colfer, who can relate to being the most unpopular person in high school, and people who hated high school. The genre’s are; coming-of-age story, comedy, and drama. This story is funny, yet so sad at the same time. It’ll probably make you cry at the ending. You can easily get lost in this book, it’s very easy to follow as well. You know what’s always going on. This book does contain some foul language, so it’s not exactly for extremely young readers. This book was mostly written for young adults/teenagers and adults. Also there is a death in the book and movie, so I wouldn’t recommend this to squeamish people and to people who cannot watch death scenes.
Also at the ending of the book, it does have a couple of pictures so you know who is who and what the characters look like. The same exact characters in the book are in the film, and nothing in the film is different from the book. They are fairly similar, Sure some of the words he says are different from the film to the book. But I recommend that whoever reads this book should also watch the film after they read it.
Carson has many problems going on in his life, what with his parents divorce, his mother being depressed and always popping pills and drinking, and his father’s love interest. He has it tough and he’s still a kid. Anyways the book is an amazing read, and I say everyone who can, should read it.
Feature image, “lightning_03” by oregon department of transportaation at flickr (CC BY 2.0)
