Struck By Lightning (The Carson Phillips Journal) by Chris Colfer | Rating: ★★★★☆

“You don’t get to pick where you’re from, but you always have control of where you’re going.”

Struck By Lightning is a clever, witty novel filled with two things young adults will positively eat up: sarcasm and blackmail. Proof is in the opening chapter (or in, true to format, entry - as it is written through journal form) that the story will connect with a vast majority of high school students (or teenagers in general) and you may, no matter your age, just find yourself nodding in response to the main characters innermost thoughts.

What strikes me most about the novel is that, though Carson Phillips hasn’t the most graceful way of going about to chase his dreams/accomplish things, it conveys one of the most encouraging things one can say to a young adult: never give up on your dreams.

Chris Colfer knows the mind of a teenager (absolutely because he was one not that long ago!) and has managed to capture the essence of the hormonal, determined mind of a teenager who feels trapped in a world he can’t control. So, he takes the matter of forming a club into his own hands.

Glee fans certainly have flocked to the novel — not just because it is penned by an actor from the popular television series, but because it gives us the opportunity to root for the underdog.


As the story progresses, you begin to feel like you know the characters. Really, really know them. Chris does a fantastic job in making each one, no matter how little their time frame in the story, believable. These kids aren’t just characters in a book: they are former or current classmates of ours or maybe even ourselves.

Although Carson Phillips has a bit of a warped mind when it comes to doing the right thing, he becomes a very likeable character through his journal entries as you begin to know him on a very personal level — and his relationships with his peers and family will definitely keep the pages turning. Overall, the story is very entertaining and relatable — something that is sometimes (not always) lacking in the current YA novels.

Warning: the ending will require tissues and may just leave you thinking.