{ARC Review+Interview+Giveaway} Nightstruck by @JennaBlack @torteen

Nightstruck by Jenna Black
Pages: 304
Published by Tor Teen on April 5, 2016
Series: Nightstruck #1
Genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Horror & Ghost Stories
Source: eARC from Publisher

The start of a paranormal horror series from Glimmerglass author Jenna Black.

The night is the enemy, and the city of Philadelphia is its deadliest weapon.

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 changes 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 Philadelphia, strange creatures roam the streets and inanimate 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.

1. Describe Nightstruck in a tweet. (140 characters or less)

Ordinary teenage girl tricked into opening gate to a malevolent world that takes over Philadelphia every night.

2. What is something we would be surprised to learn about Becket?

Becket knows how to fire a gun. She figured it would be “lame” not to be able to fire one when her father is the police commissioner. Her knowledge of firearms comes in handy more than once over the course of the book.

3. What are some of your bookish pet peeves at the moment?

This goes for books, movies, and TV—I get tired of scenarios where one character is keeping a secret, and then just when that character has nerved him- or herself up to reveal it, it comes out accidentally. It’s supposed to create tension, but because it’s done so much, you know from the moment the person in question decides to keep the secret that it’s going to be revealed by someone else and create drama and angst.

4. What is one magical thing you wish our world currently had?

Teleportation. I would love to be able to travel from place to place without having to go through the inconvenience of driving—or even worse, flying.

5. What are some of the challenges you face with world building in a fantasy & magic novel?

The biggest challenge I face with world building is trying not to write myself into any corners, especially when I’m writing series. I’m not a natural plotter, so while I may know the highlights of what’s going to happen in a book while I’m writing it, I rarely have much idea what the next book’s going to be about. I always want to make sure to leave myself as much latitude as possible for future books, rather than tying myself too firmly to some world-building detail that will reduce my later options. For that reason, I keep a relatively narrow focus on my world-building, for the most part only introducing details/world rules that are vitally important to the current plot. I’ve that most of the time I start explaining some detail that isn’t important to the current plot, I’ll end up regretting it in a later book when I would have preferred it to work differently.

6.In Nightstruck there are some pretty creepy creatures that I would be terrified to run into. What is one of your biggest fears?

In find the threat that you can’t see incredibly terrifying. There’s a scene in NIGHTSTRUCK where Becket and her friend Piper are in her house during a power outage, and some unseen creature is trying to get in. That whole scene and the concept behind it terrify me. The danger (be it a person or a monster) loses just a little bit of its terror factor when you can actually see it and know what (and where) it is.

7. If we took a peek under your bed right now, what would we find?

A large folding blocking board for blocking my knitting projects. I couldn’t figure out anywhere else to store it where I could get to it easily when I needed it.

 

Thank you so much Jenna!

Whoa, sometimes a book really gets to you. Nightstruck really got to me. And not in the usual ways a book gets under my skin. Nightstruck freaked me the F out! Nightstruck is the first in a young adult series by the same name, by Jenna Black. Nightstruck is part urban fantasy and part horror. The main Character, Becket unknowingly opens a portal to another world, and creatures take over Philadelphia every night. And trust me when I say that the things that come through this gate are super creepy. The things of nightmares.

I liked Becket. You can tell right off the bat, that she is a good person, as soon as she went to help the baby in the blanket, and then what happens next is enough to test anyone’s character and strength, and I thought she really stepped up to the plate when the situation called for it. I didn’t love the secondary characters nearly as much as I liked Becket. I thought her friend was kind of lackluster. I am hoping for a bit more on the character front in the next book.

Where Nightstruck really excelled was the descriptive writing. As much as I sometimes didn’t want them to, the scenes and creatures jumped right off the pages and embedded themselves in my mind. If you are a fan of dark and terrifying, this is a book that you need to be reading.I couldn’t tear myself away from the plot.

Bottom line: If you like urban fantasy and can’t get enough of things that go bump in the night in young adult, this is going to be a big hit with you. Not to mention the writing is pretty kick ass. Add it to your must read list today. Be forewarned though, there is a pretty big cliffhanger, and these creatures will haunt your dreams.

Author @JennaBlack stops by @BookBriefs today to chat about her new YA Urban Fantasy- #Nightstruck & gives away a copy! @TorTeen Share on X

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