Book Review - Pivot Point

Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Series: Pivot Point
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 12th Febuary 2013
Publishers: Harper Teen
No. Pages: 343
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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Knowing the outcome doesn't always make a choice easier..

Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with - her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the 'Norms',  or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it's not.

In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school - but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie's father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through.. and who she can’t live without.

After such a fantastic experience with The Distance Between Us, I knew I would be making it a priority to get through more of Kasie Wests work as soon as possible, and after trying and failing to find Pivot Point in any of my bookstores, I ordered it in and ate it up. Pivot Point is a book that falls into no mans land between paranormal and superpowers which makes defining the genre extremely difficult, not to mention the two separate plots than ran throughout the story making me feel as though I was reading two different books until they met each other further on. After so much encouragement and so much hype, I'm a little disappointed with the outcome, but wouldn't change he experience for the world.

I've always found the idea of teenagers with intense abilities, or powers to be an interesting subject; I watched plenty of superhero styled films and read my fair share of comics, but it was the idea that both impressed me and disappointed me, and what makes this review so difficult to put together. I thoroughly enjoyed both the futures Addie saw in her Search, but I enjoyed them more as different entities rather than as a whole; I loved how Addie was in the normal world, and it's this world I feel that she grew the most in character, she became strong willed, determined and learnt what kind of person she was without her ability, where-as in the Compound, I found she was quite an easily smitten, jealous and quite whiney character, so it's probably no surprise that I tended to enjoy the chapters concerning her six weeks in the normal world much more than the Compound. I also think for a book that focuses so much on two separate 'worlds', there wasn't a lot of 'world' building involved, it was all just 'the stadium' and 'the corridor' and 'the  sitting room' and as a born and breed British girl, I don't really have much of an idea what American football stadiums look like, or their school corridors, or their houses, and I think this affected how easily I could imagine the world around all of the characters, but as a whole, I felt that the idea was executed pretty brilliantly.

When it comes down the characters involved, I feel both proud and ashamed to say that West made me do a 180 degree spin on the love interests and fall in love with 'norm' Addie much more than 'Compound' Addie. Addie's personality was extremely similar to that of Caymen's from The Distance and I really enjoyed that; she was so sarcastic at times and had a quick witted personality to match, as well has having strong opinions and a real sense of loyalty to her friendship with Laila, who sadly, frustrated me at near enough every single point in this book and makes me wary of moving onto Split Second. I really enjoyed watching Addie grow and develop into the character she became in the norm world, and her romance with Trevor was just, well, damn everything, that's all I can say. Addie in the Compound, as I've already mentioned was frustrating and slightly annoying, but during the first half of this book, I actually really enjoyed the romance between her and Duke; I thought he was a good love interest for Addie, but with some major plot twists and some revelations, I was all Trevor and Addie, which was just so damn adorable and beautiful to read about and I genuinely fell apart in the last few chapters, which only goes to prove what a fantastic author Kasie West is

I also have to mentioned how I appreciated that neither of the parents were absent in this novel like they are many other young adult novels; they very much played an important part in both futures, Addie's father in the in murder, and Addie's mother in the whole rebellious teenager stunt which resulted in one of the biggest twists in the book. The little snippets of definitions at the start of each chapter were also really enjoyable; it was quite fun to learn while reading a really good story. I have to say, all the awards to go Kasie West and her ability to write a story that can have me smiling, giggling, crying and mopping around my bedroom for hours afterwards because that's what she did. My post-Pivot Point emotions were shocking to witness, my feelings were damn near impossible to put into words and my overwhelming happiness at the ending; the slight open ending that leads onto the sequel and the chance at happiness for Trevor and Addie. God dammit, if it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't blown away during the first third and that I struggled with some of minor details in scenes, this book would be perfect; it'll just have to be fantastic instead.