Pivot Point - Kasie West [Review]

This review may contain spoilers.

Title: Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Pivot Point #1
Release Date: February 12th 2013
Pages: 343
Rating: ★★★★

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.

Review:

I started reading this book because of the amazing reviews it got on book blogs and Goodreads. And fortunately it didn't disappoint!

Pivot Point is about Addie, who has the power to see the future, just as the rest of her city has powers. When her parents decide to split up, she searches 2 possible paths: staying with her mom, in the paranormal world or go with her dad into the normal world. In both futures she meets a boy, Trevor in the normal world and Duke in the paranormal world. But which path will she choose in the end?

Parallel Stories

The book alternates per chapter between the paranormal and the normal future. Every chapter begins with a word from the dictionary with either 'para' or 'norm' in it which describes the chapter, very original! 

I didn't have any problem with keeping up with the different futures. Both had different characters, so I could easily separate them. Later on the storylines did overlap a bit, they both lead up to the same event, but this didn't make me confused.

I thought the parallel storylines concept was very well executed and creative and both storylines were captivating and fast-paced. The concept gives the writer a chance to write two stories in one book, which is both challenging and full of opportunity. But in this case it was very well done. 

In both storylines there was a mystery. Both had to do with football and mysterious injuries. Addie was looking into it in both futures and combining those we got closer and closer to the answers. All plots came together in the end and made perfect sense. I liked this setup, it created suspense and made both storylines very interesting.

Paranormal World

The paranormal world Kasie West created was great. Everyone had a certain power. Addie was clairvoyant, her best friend could erase things from your mind, her mom could persuade people and her dad was a human lie detector. All players on the football team had telekinesis, I would have loved to see one of their games. The paranormal world was explained well, although I would have loved to know more about it and how they stayed off the normal people's radar.

Addie had a lot of trouble with hiding her power in the normal world and since the paranormal world had all these high tech stuff she didn't understand the normal technological stuff, like DVD's. Her 'culture shock' was funny to read about.

The only thing that was weird was when Addie was suddenly talking about how she was actually divergent, not clairvoyant. This was never explained and I mean, that term is from Divergent, please don't use it again, that's confusing. Maybe it will be discussed in book 2.

Characters

Addie was great. She was a very likable character. And she's a book lover, that always gives a character an extra point on the awesomeness scale:) Seeing the future is a horrible power in my opinion, but Addie copes well with it. In both storylines she develops in a different way, this was very realistic.

Trevor was awesome. He was a former football player (in the normal world), but because of an injury he had to quit indefinitely. He was just so sweet and funny and kind, and his relationship with Addie was super cute. She referred to him as 'best friend' a lot of times at first, but you could just feel there was more to it. The build up was slow, but that just made it better! I loved the storyline with him the best, Addie's and his relationship I liked much better than hers and Duke's. 

I never trusted Duke. Duke was the popular quarterback (in the paranormal world) and had never once looked at Addie. Then all of a sudden he's following her, asking her out on dates. Suspicious or not? He came over as pushy and too charming. While Addie's skepticism of him vanished after a few chapters, it stayed with me the whole book. While dating Addie he was nice enough, but I didn't like how Addie felt like she was changing in the negative way because of their relationship. 

Of course in the end I realised I was meant to feel this way about him, so Kasie West: good job.

Addie's best friend Laila was nice and all, but really naive. Laila and her dad are threatened by some creepy guy, let's provoke him by slashing his tires and of course don't call the police. Addie saw a guy trying to rape her in the future, so let's hang out with him. Smart? I don't think so.

The end was very unpredictable. The resolve of which future she would choose I did not expect and although it wasn't what I was hoping for, I know it was the best solution. The book didn't really have a cliffhanger, but it did leave you wanting more and heartbroken.

Conclusion

I would really recommend this book. The parallel storylines are awesome and give the book an original twist. I'm not sure what the writer is going to do in book 2. Another parallel story book would be a bit boring I think.

Stars: 4 out of 5