Me on Pivot Point

Title: Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Release Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen

Addison's life is one big "What if?" As a Searcher, whenever she's face with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. When her parents reveal their divorce to her, she pas to pick who she wants to live with-her father, who's leaving the paranormal compound, or her mother, who's staying put. Addie loves her life so it should be an easy choice, but a Search six weeks into each future proves it's not. In one potential future, she's slowly fitting into a "Norm" high school and making friends with a cute boy named Trevor, while in the other she's being pursued by Duke, 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 inside the Compound, she's unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything. 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.

Pivot Point circles around a mystery, a mystery viewed from two different sides as Addie explores two different futures. In determining her fate, she becomes involved in something dangerous, and in the end it will be her difficult choice to choose which future to actually experience. An intriguing and complicated idea.

I've been thinking about why, in my opinion, the story fell a little short for my liking, and it's that it reads far more like a contemporary novel than a paranormal mystery. The paranormal element is still there, the mystery and the secrets are still there, but I don't think I expected it to feel as much like a high school contemporary YA as it did. That being said, I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this book, the mix of paranormal and contemporary, of mystery and romance, of Addie trying to figure out what to do and which life to choose.

If you could see into the future, if you could decide which life to live when faced with a choice, would you? It's a complicated question, one with a complicated answer. What if you looked into two possible futures and didn't like how either of them turned out? What if both ended in disaster? Would you avoid both? Would you run? Or would you face trouble head on?

Between the two story lines, Addie learns and changes in different ways. In one, she's confronted with being an outsider. In the other, she faces more danger. It's very interesting, seeing different sides of the same situation. As you read one you still know what is happening in or out of the Compound because of the other. It's like knowing something the author rarely or never reveals. The reader knows what else is going on, but will Addie figure it out? Will she be able to solve the mystery?

Addie has a very clear teenage voice. She sounded young, sounded like she was still trying to figure things out, trying to find out which was right and which was wrong, and in the end how to fix everything.

Two different lives that could be lived, two different fates Addie must decide between. I would've preferred more separation between the story lines, but it's not hard to tell which is which depending on which characters are present and where Addie is. I'm curious about what story the sequel will tell, if it will be a true sequel or more like a companion novel.

(I received an advance copy to review from HarperCollins Canada.)