Book Review: The Tension of Opposites

by Brittany Geragotelis

Just finished reading The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride this past weekend. With such a great idea for a book, I was a little let-down by the final manuscript.

EgmontUSA

"When Tessa's best friend Noelle disappears right before the start of eighth grade, Tessa's life changes completely—she shies away from her other friends and stops eating in the cafeteria. Now, two years later, Noelle has escaped her captivity and is coming home, in one piece but not exactly intact, and definitely different. Tessa's life is about to change again as she tries to revive the best-friendship the two girls had shared before Noelle—now Elle—was kidnapped; puts up a futile resistance to the charming new guy at school; pursues her passion for photography while trying to build the bravado to show her photos to the public; and tries to balance her desire to protect and shelter Elle with the necessity to live her own life and put herself first."

I was so intrigued by the concept of the book...what must it be like to come back home after a horrific 2+ years of being held captive by a kidnapper and having to do unspeakable things to survive? And what about those you left behind when you went missing? I, like most of the other characters in the book, was wondering the whole time what happened to Elle while she was gone. It was like the morbid fascination that makes us look at a car accident as we drive by, even though a part of us doesn't want to see what's lying there on the street.

I felt like the book had the opportunity to go really deep with the story, get down to the horror of what happened to this girl, but it never got to this point. There was never really a climax...no pay-off that made you really connect with either the main character, or Elle. And in my opinion, I felt like Tessa really needed to grow a backbone and maybe find her own identity.

The book was interesting, but I wished it had delved a bit deeper. Still, not badly written and not a bad concept. I was just left wanting more....

5x5,
B.