My edition: Hardcover, to be published on 13th March 2014 by HarperCollins 360, 368 pages.Description: 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.
Rating:
In November I read Pivot Point by Kasie West (find my review here), which I enjoyed so much that it single-handedly managed to get me excited again about the young adult genre after many years of feeling somewhat indifferent about it. YA to me had started to feel a bit too same-y, but Pivot Point was a perfect blend of fresh supernatural and contemporary fiction with unexpected twists and turns, which had me on the edge of my seat for the duration of the read.
However, when I initially heard that sequel Split Second would focus on main protagonist Addie's best friend Laila I wasn't too sure what to think of that as I LOVED Addie in the first novel and, unpopular opinion, I didn't care too much for her friend. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed Addie's relationship with Trevor and if we'd be seeing everything from Laila's point of view I thought we might not see Trevor at all which would have made me very, very sad.
I needn't have worried as Kasie West has once again delivered a spectacular novel which perfectly balances the coming-of-age difficulties of a contemporary teenager with the supernatural elements of the Compound. Yes, half of the novel is from Laila's point of view, but becoming more intimate with her thoughts and feelings I actually came to grow very fond of her - flaws and all. And, thankfully, the other half of the story was still from Addie's perspective (arguably the more interesting character of the two) and came with plenty of Trevor-time.
In this novel we delve deeper into the history of the Compound and the political power play that goes on behind the scenes of what seems like an Utopia for those with advanced brain capacity (ie. super powers). It's an intricately put together operation and the revelations come at just the right time to keep the reader guessing without seeing a plot twist coming from miles away. It's genuinely good story-telling and continues to stay unique enough to be easily differentiated from other recent YA novels (which in contrary to this series are all dystopian stories) with a strong political angle such as The Hunger Games, Divergent and Matched.
Addie continues to be a fascinating character I cannot get enough of her, and discovering the secrets of the Compound through her eyes worked very well. Plus, bonus, there is plenty of Trevor going around for us fans of the pairing too. The relationship between him and Addie is an interesting one as effectively in the first book it all happened inside Addie's head so while to her they're very intimate and they know each other's deepest secrets, to him she's a virtual stranger - which is absolutely heartbreaking but also oddly compelling.
I don't often prefer a series over a stand-alone book but with interesting character developments and a solidly engrossing story this was an absolute page-turner and once again Kasie West has left me wanting more, so I really hope there will be another instalment in the series!
I'm really grateful I had the opportunity to read this novel early (only a few months after I read Pivot Point!), massive thanks are due to to publisher HarperCollins360 who so kindly offered me an advance copy after my participation in the Pivot Point blog tour. Thanks heaps, guys.
You can pre-order Split Second from Waterstones, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or your own preferred retailer.
Would you like to know more about the author? You can connect with her online at:
Website: www.kasiewest.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Kasie-West-Author
Twitter: @KasieWest
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