Review: Thunderstruck by Daniel Quigley

So, I finished this…a while ago…but there was no way I wasn’t going to write a proper review. Full biases disclosed: The author and I are online friends, so I automatically put this book on my list, and I got all the inside jokes and many of the personal references he threw in, and anyway none of that makes any difference as to HOW MUCH I ENJOYED THIS STORY. Yes, it’s always fun to read a creation by someone you know and chat and laugh and opine with; but Thunderstruck is just a wildly engaging ride that anybody who likes adult modern fantasy should pick up.

Starting out with a unique inciting incident of a stolen steak, we’re quickly introduced to our protagonist and narrator, Zev O’Connell, who is the oldest young man I’ve ever met in fiction. Zev is the definition of a curmudgeon — he’s already world-weary, cynical, gives strangers the side-eye, and is convinced older is better (the number of classic rock references, omg). None of this turned me off our MC — I get it, and can roll with it, and this voice has been written so clearly I could feel Zev’s emotions and reflections and personality in my very bones.

Pretty early on, we’re let on to a major source of Zev’s miserly perspective — he has supernatural powers he has a hard time controlling, and his uncle, who was his mentor and a rock, went missing a while before the story starts. Zev’s been struggling to run his uncle’s antiques business and carry on, protecting his explosive secret, on his own.

This is a world where magic is real, and otherworldly creatures do exist, and many people completely believe it. Of course this has led to a number of problems — there are magic operators who really don’t want to be outed (understandable), a huge (highly dangerous) black market has developed, and there’s a federal agency trying to shut everything down (even the people who were born with powers they keep under control). In the middle of all these big stakes is Zev, who gets an intriguing — and threatening — job offer he really should refuse (but of course he doesn’t, because then we wouldn’t have much of a plot).

Thunderstruck moves along at a good pace, rises and swells of action, then relaxing for character development and dialogue that’s snappy and feels real; the crafting of the action scenes is intense and excellent (confessing I got a little jealous of this). Quigley’s intrinsic manner of drawing us into Zev’s head means we feel the excitement, the fear, the anger, the disappointment, the confusion, the humor in our chests as we go along on this journey.

Before the end of the book, we find out that, yes, there is a deep, dark bad guy at work, that not everything is as it seems, and that Zev has allies he didn’t expect ready to step up to his side. And everybody around The Invisible Moth knows I don’t do spoilers without warning, so, I will just say, AND THE ONE SCENE WITH THE RESCUE OF A CERTAIN KIDNAPPED OCEAN CREATURE MADE ME CRY. Do you hear that, Daniel? You made me cry!

While we do end with many questions answered and the major plot threads pretty neatly wrapped up, there is certainly enough material for a sequel, which I ABSOLUTELY hope we get (soon?). I just want to know more about some of the secondary characters we meet after the mid-way point, and more about this world in general. The Cryptid Protection Agency reminds me a lot of the premise and structure of my own fictional secret organization, The Order of the Twelve Tribes, so I already have a big soft spot for it.

Before I wrap this post up, I would be remiss not to mention my book-gifting angel friend who made sure Thunderstruck made its way into my hands during one of the harshest quarters of my recent life. There was no money at all in the TBR budget, and she made it happen for me, anyway.

So, in summary: Friends are great. And read Thunderstruck, because it’s great.