Review: Pivot Point

Addie Coleman has lived in the Compound with her parents for the past sixteen years of her life, where she can live normally among others like her, others who have Abilities. But suddenly her life is thrown into upheaval when her parents announce they’re getting a divorce and Addie is forced to use her ability to Search the future.

Addie’s ability lets her see possible choices for her actions, and she searches what her life will be like if she stays in the Compound with her mom, and those with supernatural abilities, or if she leaves the Compound with her dad, to live with Norms. What results in Addie’s Search are two parallel narratives.

Initially the two universes couldn’t be more different; at home, she falls for the school’s quarterback, Duke, while outside the Compound, she falls for the kind, sensitive artist, Trevor. Despite the obvious differences between the two narratives, startling similarities reveal that there is a plot bigger than Addie at play, and that those closest to her may not have her best interest at heart…in either universe.

My description for this book isn’t the greatest, but my feelings upon completing it? AMAZING.

West has written a truly imaginative, creative narrative that reads like a contemporary YA novel, but has features of a good dystopian novel, without going overboard.

Addie lives in a world not too far advanced from ours. There are some people who have special abilities and they live in a segregated place called the Compound, where the outside world won’t find out about their abilities. Everyone has different abilities, but Addie’s ability is truly unique in that when she is presented with a choice, she’s able to see all the potential possibilities so that she can make the right choice. The ultimate decision is thrust upon her when her parents announce that they’re splitting up.

What I loved about this story was its seamless blending of two genres that usually don’t mix. It ha the elements of sci-fi/dystopian YA novel, with the supernatural abilities and the futuristic atmosphere, but it read with a contemporary YA novel, in that it focused a lot on Addie’s relationships with the people around her.

Each chapter flips between the two parallel narratives which you quickly become accustomed to. Initially I felt more drawn to one narrative, thinking that it was obviously the one she was going to choose in the end, but I quickly became interested in the other. In the beginning, it seems that both narratives run independent of each other, but West drops in hints throughout each story that mirrors the other. For example, in the narrative that Addie stays in the Compound, she goes to a football game with her boyfriend, Duke, and meets Trevor, a student from the rival school. In the narrative that Addie leaves the Compound, she goes to a football game with her friend Trevor, and comes across the quarterback from her old school, Duke. More importantly, there’s a common thread of a murder that binds the two narratives together, and in both narratives, the villain seems to be moving closer to Addie in each passing chapter.

Addie is a real girl with real problems. She’s resourceful and clever; she quickly realises that something is not right in both narratives and uses her wits to figure out what’s happening.

Pivot Point is an inventive story that is filled with realistic characters and relationships, one that keeps you on the edge of your seat at the end of every chapter. The ending left me with my mouth open and my heart slightly bruised, as I wished I had the second book in the series now!

So if you’re looking for something a bit different in the YA genre, look no further than Pivot Point!

For that: 4.5/5.

Thanks for reading,

Ikhlas