Review - Split Second by Kasie West

Split Second by Kasie West

Series: Pivot Point #2

Published by HarperTeen on Feb 11 2014

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal

Pages: 360

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Life can change in a split second.

Addie hardly recognizes her life since her parents divorced. Her boyfriend used her. Her best friend betrayed her. She can’t believe this is the future she chose. On top of that, her ability is acting up. She’s always been able to Search the future when presented with a choice. Now she can manipulate and slow down time, too . . . but not without a price. 

When Addie’s dad invites her to spend her winter break with him, she jumps at the chance to escape into the Norm world of Dallas, Texas. There she meets the handsome and achingly familiar Trevor. He’s a virtual stranger to her, so why does her heart do a funny flip every time she sees him? But after witnessing secrets that were supposed to stay hidden, Trevor quickly seems more suspicious of Addie than interested in her. And she has an inexplicable desire to change that. 

Meanwhile, her best friend, Laila, has a secret of her own: she can restore Addie’s memories . . . once she learns how. But there are powerful people who don’t want to see this happen. Desperate, Laila tries to manipulate Connor, a brooding bad boy from school—but he seems to be the only boy in the Compound immune to her charms. And the only one who can help her. 

As Addie and Laila frantically attempt to retrieve the lost memories, Addie must piece together a world she thought she knew before she loses the love she nearly forgot . . . and a future that could change everything.

Split Second, the second and final book in the Pivot Point duology, was a thoroughly pleasant read. I have very few complaints about this series as a whole. Though it was enjoyable and quick and the writing was excellent, I just don’t feel like this series is as memorable as it should be. I wanted to love it so much more than I actually did. I greatly enjoyed the process of reading it, but looking back upon Split Second, it just didn’t quite cut it for me.

My favourite thing about Split Second was West’s decision to switch the narration back and forth between best friends Addie and Laila. I love love loved the addition of Laila’s viewpoint, and it really made the book so much richer. Not to mention that her love interest is a total babe. I thought that I was fond of Addie’s love interest in Pivot Point (Trevor), but Connor totally gave him a run for his money. I was a little bit wary of Laila’s point of view to begin with, as I worried that it might be a snorefest and I’d spend every second of Laila’s chapters wanting to get back to Addie and Trevor. Surprisingly, I found the opposite occurred! I just couldn’t get behind the idea of Addie having all of her old memories of Trevor while he had none of her – their relationship just seemed very lopsided to me in this book. It just didn’t meet up to the magic of their beautiful romance in Pivot Point. Laila and Connor, on the other hand? They were everything I wanted and more. Laila is so much more complicated and layered than she appears in Pivot Point, and I loved watching her let down her guard and slowly let Connor into her life, and vice versa. My one complaint about their relationship is how quickly they shift from complete denial of the chemistry and feelings between them to being one of those gross couples that are always all over each other. Not that they’re gross! They totally aren’t!

There were also some more minor details that I found particularly special. I loved seeing the way that Addie and Stephanie’s relationship was completely changed simply by how they first met. In Split Second, Addie is introduced to Steph at one of their fathers’ work functions, and Steph becomes her first friend in Dallas. This is so insanely different from the side of Steph we see in Pivot Point; the girl who is in turns jealous and manipulative and cruel to Addie. I also enjoyed seeing more of Laila’s siblings. I was slightly annoyed at how little her parents played into her storyline, especially considering how damaging her relationships with her mother and her father were, but I was pleased with the inclusion of her brothers (one more than the other). Despite making mistakes, it’s clear that Laila loves her brothers and wants to protect them. Their parents certainly don’t do a good job of it.

I did find the plot kind of contrived, and though it was fast-paced and action-packed, I just didn’t really like it. The premise of their world, yes. The actuality of the Compound officials going around and brainwashing people willy-nilly, not so much. It was just a bit too dramatic for my tastes. That said, I thought that it was a lovely conclusion to a lovely series. I really do love Kasie West’s writing, and I’m eager to pick up her contemporary novels in the (near-ish?) future.

Review - Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Series: Standalone

Published by Greenwillow on April 1 2014

Genres: young adult, sci-fi

Pages: 520

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

Salvage took me by surprise. I hated the beginning of this book. It was infuriating – the strange jargon, the incredibly misogynistic society of Ava’s ship, the lack of connection to Ava. I was so close to putting this book down on many occasions over the first few chapters. However, when I consulted goodreads, quite a few of my friends, whose opinions I trust, had given this book four or five star ratings, claiming that it was a great feminist read and that Ava was an inspiring, fascinating character. Thus, I pressed on. I didn’t really want to and I hated every minute of it (until a certain point), but I kept reading. It was so worth it.

The story doesn’t truly begin until Ava flees her home ship, the Parastrata, and goes down to Earth. This is where things got really interesting. Earth in this book is far from what I expected from what the goodreads description tells me. I was expecting something bizarre and completely different from what is familiar to me – and in some ways, that is what I got. But it was unfamiliar not because the face of the earth was hugely changed but because it took me to parts of the world I have never seen. I absolutely loved that about this book. YAY FOR ETHNIC DIVERSITY.

Not a single scene takes place in an English speaking country. The first city Ava visits is the impoverished Gyre, home to my two favourite characters Perpetue and Miyole. She later goes to Mumbai to find an aunt whom she has never met, the only family she has left. Ava is exposed to cultures that are vastly different from her own, and it takes a long time for her to adjust.

As much as I hated it at times, I really appreciated how difficult it was for Ava to discard her Parastrata beliefs and the values she was brought up to have. She doesn’t become a completely different person the moment she goes “planetside”. She struggles with fitting in and clings to some aspects of her old life, in particular a boy, Luck. Ava’s obsession with Luck didn’t really make a lot of sense to me – they hardly knew each other, had interacted maybe four or five times total, but I also understood that Ava’s ‘love’ for Luck was born of growing up with incredibly minimal contact with men, and basically none with men outside of her own family. She romanticized Luck because he was ripped away from her and because he was the one person from her old life who never treated her poorly. She couldn’t reflect on her family without thinking about the awful way they treated her – they tried to kill her. In that sense, I think that Ava’s preoccupation with Luck was quite fascinating. It didn’t make me like it, though. It was annoying.

There wasn’t much action in this book. It was very character driven, which is something that I happen to love. I can see how it wouldn’t be to everyone’s tastes. It’s long and at times it drags. It is perhaps a little bit too descriptive, but it is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It is a truly singular book and I’m looking forward to what Alexandra Duncan comes out with next.

Review - Pivot Point by Kasie West

Pivot Point by Kasie West

Series: Pivot Point #1

Published by HarperTeen on February 12 2013

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Contemporary

Pages: 343

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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.

I really did enjoy reading Pivot Point, but it just wasn't that memorable for me. I didn't really feel that strongly about any of the characters (in fact, I was constantly forgetting Addie's name) and though I thought the concept was really cool the execution just wasn't quite up to par with what I imagine it could be. Trevor, while nice, was kind of a generic love interest. He certainly didn't make me swoon.

My biggest problem with Pivot Point was Addie's insistence at the end of the book that any deviation from the two paths her Search showed her would result in disaster. Pardon my language, but I thought that was bullshit. It just felt like a cop-out. The author clearly wanted to make it out to be a choice between two evils, but it didn't have to be so. Addie could have stopped Bobby from killing Laila without sacrificing her life in Dallas.

I did really like the writing style. It straddled a line between contemporary YA and paranormal YA, and it did so with finesse. I never felt like I was being bombarded with information about the Compound or abilities. It was all quite seamless and well-integrated into the story. It was really easy to read, and though it took me just under a week to get through it I know I could have finished it much quicker if I'd been so inclined (and had more free time!). It doesn't help that I was distracted by 13 episodes of Orange is the New Black (IT'S SO GOOD LET ME SQUEAL OVER THIS AMAZING TV SHOW FOR A BIT).