Review: Pivot Point by @KasieWest

Pivot Point is the first of a duology released by HarperCollins. The second, Split Second, just released last month.

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.

Addie and I would be friends in real life. Reader of both classics and graphic novels? Semi-neurotic? Not into football? Yup. We’d definitely be friends.

Addie lives in The Compound, a hidden place where other people with paranormal powers live. She has the power to see possible futures whenever she needs to make a decision. The downside? She has to live through both of the futures before returning to the present to make the actual decision. Which could make for a lot of confusing memories if her BFF Laila didn’t have the power to erase them.

(Side note: A handful of reviewers wished there was more world building—how did The Compound come to exist? I didn’t mind the lack of info because it doesn’t impede the story, and I think this will be explained in the second book, Split Second.)

What I loved most about this book is the plotting. You can really tell West carefully thought out each and every chapter, intertwining every detail. It really pays off. The chapters switch back and forth between Addie’s two potential futures. This could be confusing, but I love how West added touch points in every chapter so you know where in the time stream of Addie’s Search you are.

For example, at one point Addie is at Laila’s house when a man comes to collect drug money from Laila’s dad. In the alternate life, Laila mentions the visit to Addie during a phone call.

There are two love interests . . . without a love triangle. How can that happen?? Only in two alternative lives like Addie’s. Even though the blurb on the back cover makes the book seem it’s dripping in kissy-kissy romance, it isn’t. The romances enhances the story by adding more intrigue and plot layering and by juxtaposing the two boys, but it definitely isn’t centered around the hormonal tingles of a first kiss.

Even with all of this, West manages to unfold one more thing within Pivot Point’s pages: a paranormal mystery. What do injured jocks, a murdered girl, and Laila’s dead-beat dad have in common? At first nothing. But between the timelines Addie unfolds an enigma so deep and so threatening, I stayed up past midnight just to finish the book.

And I love how Addie manages to make her own choice about the Search.

Check out West’s website here.Follow @KasieWest on Twitter here.

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