Pivot Point (Pivot Point, #1)

by Kasie West

Perfect for fans of Sliding Doors, Kasie West's riveting novel Pivot Point follows a girl with the power to see her potential futures. Addison Coleman's life is one big "What if?" As a Searcher, a special type of clairvoyant, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she is able to look into the future and see both outcomes. So when her parents tell her they are getting a divorce and she has to pick who she wants to live with, a Search has never been more important. In one future Addie is living with her mom in the life she's always known and is being pursued by the most popular guy in school. In the other she is the new girl in school, where she falls for a cute, quiet artist. Then Addie finds herself drawn into a murder investigation, and her fate takes a darker turn. With so much to lose in either future, Addie must decide which reality she's willing to live through ...and who she's willing to live without.

• ISBN10: 006211736X
• ISBN13: 9780062117366
• Publish Date: 16 January 2014 (first published 12 February 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperTeen
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[kymmiejournals]

5/5 Very unique! My first time to encounter a unique story. At first, I was confused but have found out that there are 2 different stories/side of Addie as she tries to search for what future she wants to have. I can say, she chose the right one to avoid the death of someone close to her but at the same time reveal the truth behind what her heart desires. I would have love the idea of Duke pursuing her but at the same time found out that he's just after one thing. Trevor on the other hand, is a reserved and mysterious person, he is the opposite of Duke. I like the ending and plot twist.

[Sam@WLABB]

I love Kasie West and was really excited to read a paranormal by her. The concept was quite interesting and I throughly enjoyed the journey through the two possible paths as Addie did her "search". I am eager to read the next book in this series.

[readingwithwrin]

“You like to assign roles to the people in your life. And when they don't play their parts right, you have a hard time accepting that.”

This was a whole new take on time-travel and supernatural abilities that made this book so much better.

When Addie's parents announce to her that they are getting a divorce and they want her to choose who she will be living with. Causing a huge choice to be made since her mom is staying with the Supernatural world compound and her dad is leaving and going back into the natural world (only a few hours away by car). Because of having to make this choice Addie has to use her power of being able to look into her future and see which path would be best for her to take, during this time is when the whole story starts unfolding and we get to see a dual perspective of what would happen in each life depending on which one she would choose. While this may sound confusing it wasn't due to west only switching perspectives every chapter and you could very easily tell which one she was in. During this time we also learn a lot of about Addie's past and her parents abilities as well. Her dad is a human lie detector and her mother and can influence people to do what she wants. We also learned that because of their abilities Addie never lies to them and she always does what her mother says so that they don't have to use their abilities on her. We also see the Addie really struggles with rather or not she feels like these abilities are a good thing or not and that she really doesn't like to use them and she hates having them used on her.

While I won't go into what happens in each path because I don't want to spoil anything, I really really wished she hadn't started to trust certain people and that she had gone with her gut instinct about them.


I was slightly disappointed with what path she choose but, I also understand why she did it. Plus now it appears that the second book may be the path that she didn't choose just slightly delayed. (At least that's what I'm hoping.)

The only character I never really liked was her best friend Laila. While I did understand that her home life was horrible, it didn't give her an excuse for why she did certain things (Pushing Addie off of a stage so she would fall into the path of Duke). Her ability was pretty cool though.

See more reviews like this on my blog

[Angie]

I was hoping to really love Pivot Point, because parallel universe are one of my favoritest things, but instead I just liked it. It's definitely a super interesting concept, especially the way the author presented it. And I loved that the ending wasn't some cliched cop-out. But for the first half or so, I was mostly bored. Addie can kind of see the future. When presented with a choice, she can Search each path before she decides. With her parents getting a sudden divorce, she has to choose who she wants to live with. She does a Search for six weeks, most of which is boring everyday stuff, but then she sees some things that make her choice nearly impossible.

Pivot Point is pretty great toward the end. I just wish the beginning had been as strong. It did have me nervous that Addie's decision was going to be based on which boy she prefers. If she stays she'll have Duke, the star quarterback with telekinetic powers. If she moves to the "Norm" world with her dad, she'll meet Trevor who becomes her friend first. Addie's ability is super cool, so don't waste it on romance! Luckily, there's something bigger going on and both of Addie's futures sort of converge. It's weird how that works, and I actually had a tiny brainsplotion moment thinking about something Trevor points out. Pretty awesome that. If only something had come from it.

There's not much I can say about Pivot Point without giving key things away. The world is interesting, since Addie lives in a compound with others with abilities. It was quite funny seeing her try to live in the real world where she can't even open a door without a manual. Despite me not wanting the focus to be on the romance, I actually did really enjoy Addie and Trevor. They're super cute! And that ending was super awesome! Addie had a terrible choice to make, but I think she did the right thing, even if it was the hard thing.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

This book was alright but honestly I did not particularly enjoy the writing, I think it let down what was a fairly creative concept. The characterisation was also a little weak. (Also the made up words at the beginning of some of the chapters were a little ridiculous.)

[KitsuneBae]

Kasie West's creativity as an author really manifested in this book. I like Addie's supernatural ability. And I liked how the story was both fantastical and realistic. I'm not sure why I gave this book a four but I know that there's something missing with it.

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I had added Pivot Point to my to-read list a long time ago, but I never really got myself to read it. Until Epic Reads announced that they were putting it on their website for a weekend, for free. So I decided to finally start it (because why not, I’m Dutch, I love free things). I didn’t get to finish it by the end of the trial, so I got myself an eBook version to finish the rest of the book.

The story starts off with Addie’s parents announcing their divorce. Her father decides to leave the Compound, to live with the ‘Norms’, while her mother stays. They give her a choice; leave with her father, or stay with her mother.

Everyone in the Compound has special powers, Addie’s being ‘Divergence’, not to be confused with ‘Clairvoyance’ (which a lot of people in this story do). She can see her own future and make her choice based on what she sees. The book revolves around those two possible futures, switching between the Norm world and the Compound world.

I liked that the story switches between both choices every chapter. Normally I’m not a fan of changing POV’s (yes I count this book as that, because basically it’s two different Addie’s we’re following), but it was just very well done in this book, and it actually made me want to read on at some points.

In the Norm world, Addie meets Trevor, Stephanie and Rowan (and some other people, but these are the three ‘important’ characters). I liked Trevor right from the start, but wasn’t really a bit fan of Stephanie or Rowan (still not a fan after reading the entire book). In the Compound Addie has her best friend Laila, her love interest Duke and his (creepy) friend Bobby. I liked Laila, and like Addie wasn’t a fan of Duke or Bobby, not even when Addie started liking Duke more.

There was a sort of love-triangle in this book, and though I am not a fan of that, I was actually rooting for one of the guys.

The story was very well written, and sometimes you could see things from one ‘universe’ happening in the other (like Laila letting out the air of someone’s tire in both stories). There was a sort off plot twist near the end, which I had not expected at all, but that is good, because I like it when I get surprised by a book.

Apart from the small bit of action near the end of the book, there wasn’t really that much action at all, unless you count the Football games (but Addie wasn’t really paying attention to the games, so we didn’t really ‘see’ anything). Though I am normally an action-person, I liked the ‘lack’ of action in this book. It wouldn’t really have fitted, in my opinion.

In the end, I really enjoyed Pivot Point, and I am definitely going to read the second book, called Split Second.

[Leah]

When I was offered the chance to review Pivot Point by Kasie West, I said yes immediately because the blurb was so intriguing! I loved the idea of a novel that was split into two, that Addie’s ability meant she could see the paths her life could take depending on her decision. (That is just a super cool ability – you could see your mistakes before you make them and, ergo, not make them.) I was so excited to dive into the novel, and see just how it was written, how it was laid out, etc, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. It was quite a tense novel – as secrets kept coming out, and as the novel moved towards its conclusion I had no idea at all where the novel was going to go, and I admit, I was worried!

Pivot Point is basically split into two. It starts just before Addie looks into her future, and then it diverges into both paths Addie could possibly take when her parents announce their divorce – does she stay with her Mom and best friend Laila and end up with the hottest guy in school or does she risk going with her Dad and living the “Norm” life, which will see her meet the cute Trevor? Neither life is perfect, but it is one incident in particular that will make up Addie’s mind… For good. I loved how the book alternated between chapters between Addie’s life with the Paras and her Mom, and the life with her Dad and the Norms. It meant that we got to see both outcomes, and it definitely ratcheted up the tension as it became clear just what was occurring in both lives. Neither was the real, obvious winner, although I personally preferred Addie’s life in the Norm world, with her Dad.

Pivot Point had me hooked from the first page, it took me a couple of days to read as I was ill, but when I got into it, I really got into it and finished the majority of it in a day. It was really, really good. I don’t read as much paranormal books as some people do, but I read a few and mostly pick and choose the ones I know I will enjoy, and this was certainly one of them. Kasie West is such a clever writer and managed to make me panic so much. I pretty much spent the last 50 pages fearing for everyone’s lives because I just wasn’t sure exactly who was in danger and who exactly the bad guy was! Of the two “realms”, if you will, I definitely favoured the Norm world. The only good thing about the Para world for me, was Laila, and even she had her failures, though it is debateable over whether it was her fault or not. The Norm world called to me, and I preferred the Addie in the Norm world to the Addie in the Para world, she seemed more settled to me, and I adored Trevor. He really made the book for me.

The novel was quite heartbreaking. I knew something major had to occur to force Addie’s decision, and I knew it wouldn’t be pleasant and it surprised me where West went with it. It sort of made me sad. I’m so looking forward to Split Second, the second book in the series (and hopefully not last!), and I will be buying it as soon as it’s out, to see where Addie’s life takes her next and it seems as if we’ll be able to get to know Laila a bit more in the second novel, as if she might even had her own POV, which will be interesting. I may even warm back up to her again, we will see. I definitely recommend Pivot Point, it was such an enjoyable quick read, with some wonderful, outstanding characters, and a very clever back story. Kasie West is a wondeful storyteller and I can’t wait to dive into her other novels, she’s fantastic and this book is fantastic, too!

[Stephanie]

I was looking forward to reading this book, especially since a lot of people have been praising it. Turns out, I loved it!

Addie's special power is to see the future when she's presented with a choice, so when her parents tell her they are divorcing she decides to search the future for the best decision. While she is searching we get to follow along with her, with the chapters alternating between Addie living with her mom in the Compound and Addie living with her dad outside of the Compound.

I loved that we get both perspectives of what it's like to live inside the compound and what it's like to be this 'paranormal' person living on the outside. I also loved that the two futures sort of wove together nicely, it made me respect West for such an amazing job at writing these two futures in such a way that everything just laid out perfectly.

With two different futures, there are also two different love interests. I was completely turned off by Duke right away. He just seemed like a douche bag and there was something that made me not trust him. Anytime Duke would say anything, even something like "You're so pretty Addie" I would be like 'you're LYING! You're just sucking up for some reason that I don't know yet!' But Trevor. I LOVED Trevor. I loved everything about Addie and Trevor's relationship. It was such a cute, slow build relationship.

I also loved Addie. She has such an awesome personality that made me want to be her friend. She had awesome one liners or would say something like

"Yeah, well, you've known me for such a long time. You should be able to read my looks by now. Glaring at you in the rear view mirror, like this, means: 'You will die if you take people to my house. Come up with an alternate solution.'" I give him and example of the look."
–page 110

Can I mention how heartbreaking the ending is? Because it's heartbreaking. All I can say is, you just have to read it, because it's so sad, but brilliant, and there is some little hope off in the corner, but Addie is oblivious to it, which make the heartbreak even worse and *sigh*.

Overall, I loved this book and I'm very excited for the next book!

[nitzan_schwarz]

2013 cleaning my shelves challenge

Pivot Point Photoset

9.25.13: I just saw the paperback edition has some extras! I hope they'll be available to read some place else, cause I've got the Hardcover! :O