Title: Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Publication: February 12th, 2013 by HarperTeen
Format, pages: Hardcover, 352
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

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.

Kasie West’s young adult debut novel Pivot Point is a great example of an interesting and fresh idea turned into a compulsively readable and well executed book. What West excels at is her ability in weaving two timelines of two separate futures together seamlessly, each with its own events, characters, mysteries, and romances. With this we see Addie’s two juxtaposing worlds, her Para life in the Compound surrounded by others with high intellectual and mind powers like her, as well as her Norm life outside the Compound in Dallas, Texas where she must keep her abilities a secret and pretend to be a Norm – normal human.

Addie is able to see into the future because she is a Searcher, which means that whenever she must make a choice she is able to experience and look at the two futures and their consequences, making her choice that much easier to make. What forces Addie to Search and which springs the novel’s plot(s) into motion is the decision she must make when her parents announce they’re divorcing: to stay with her mother in the Compound, with her friends, or go with her father to live in the outside world, someplace much different to the one she knows.

What makes Addie such a great character is her innate intuition at knowing what she must do and the fine line between right and wrong; her ability to Search may be the reason for this. Whether it’d be helping her friend Laila with the trouble she is in in relation to this guy called Poison and Laila’s father, to her friendship and eventual fondness with Trevor whom I really liked as a male love interest for Addie (and really… ever!), to her struggling relationship with Duke, her mother, and her father, Addie’s attempts to put things right even within her Searches proves her greatest strength.

West’s dialogue shines bright throughout the book. But what I believed needed a little more explanation was the Compound, its conception and its politics, decision-makers and workings as a society consisting of people with mind abilities. I did not know that there was going to be a sequel when reading this, but now that I know, hopefully a greater understanding for the Compound and it relation to the outside world will be given.

I’m glad I listened to Amber‘s advice to read Pivot Point because I was not let down by it and what was promised. Kasie West is a new author that I’ll be keeping my eye on for years to come in the young adult world.

Thank you to HarperCollins via Edelweiss for the galley to review.

What others said about this book:

Amber @ Books of Amber:

There is literally NOTHING I didn’t like about this book. Definitely check it out when you get the chance, because it’s brilliant. Almost good enough to be rated an All Time Favourite!

Judith @ Paper Riot:

The concept itself (a so-called sliding doors effect) is so unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read before, that I was intrigued by it from the start.

Books in this series:

1. Pivot Point (February, 2013)
2. Untitled (February, 2014)