The Tension of Opposites: Review

It happened two years ago, but Tessa's been living a shadow of a life ever since. Her best friend — kidnapped. No dead body found, no clues, nothing. And Tessa's withdrawn from everyone else, her photography being one of the only things she still enjoys. Until Max comes into her life. He's also into photography, he keeps trying to strike up a conversation, and Tessa finds herself drawn to him.


And then...Noelle comes back. It turns out she's been alive this whole time. Tessa reaches out to her, wanting to bridge the gap between them that the last two years have created. But Noelle's changed — she looks different and she doesn't want to talk about what happened. And in doing her utmost to bring back the friendship she treasures, Tessa may put in jeopardy the new relationship growing between her and Max...

The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride


Characters:

I sympathized with Tessa in the beginning, as she's very defensive, shutting everybody out and not allowing herself to be truly happy now that Noelle is gone. When Noelle returns as "Elle," though, Tessa starts trying to protect her from everything and doing just about anything she can to try to regain Elle's friendship. This kind of turns into a drop-everything-to-help-Elle obsession that is unhealthy, and I started to get very irritated with Tessa's character. I didn't blame Max at all for finally putting his foot down when she kept blowing him off to "support" Elle. In the end, Tessa realizes on some level that she's been ignoring her needs (and Max) for Elle, but I don't know if she ever figured out that her "help" sometimes hindered Elle's progression. Even at the end I don't think she's totally clued in.

Elle intrigued me when she first appeared, because she's been through so much that she refuses to discuss, instead lashing out in bitterness. But when she started trying to split up the "perfect couple" of the school for no good reason, her behaviour started to frustrate me. I totally did not understand why she felt the need to "steal" the guy away from the head cheerleader, it seemed really spiteful on her end. Then we are told she actually falls in love with the guy, but I never actually saw much of evidence of this (except for some slightly stalker-ish behaviour). Of course, she had been through things no one should ever have to go through (spoiler, highlight to read: she was drugged and raped among other things), so at least her reactions are somewhat excusable. I got the impression, though, that she was a "drama queen" before she ever got kidnapped, and even towards the end of the book she still seems so self-focused.

I was surprised that Elle didn't show more classic signs of PTSD — she is reluctant to discuss her experiences, and there's the whole "acting out" thing she does, but I would have expected more obvious symptoms. Perhaps it's because we see her through Tessa's eyes that we don't get this so much. I found that the two journal entries of Elle's we get to see worked well to get the reader into her head, because Tessa really has no idea what Elle is thinking and her attempts to imagine it didn't really work for me.

Max was definitely my favorite character here. I admired that he didn't give up on Tessa when she brushed him off at first, and he was really sweet while at the same time challenging her about certain things. I think Max helped Tessa open up a lot, and it was great to see that happen. Also, I appreciated that Max didn't put up with how Tessa put their relationship and her own life on hold whenever she thought Elle needed her help (which was VERY often). He always had the most sensible viewpoint, but he did seem a little too good to be true at some points...it kind of felt like he was being used for the "voice of reason" in the book, if that makes sense.

The side characters Jessie (the cheerleader) and her boyfriend Chip didn't get fleshed out, and I never really understood their motives. Jessie seemed rather gullible — she totally believes her on-again off-again boyfriend even after he leaves her for Elle at one point —but I felt like there was all this unreasonable hatred coming from Tessa and Elle directed at Jessie. I couldn't figure out if it was because she was a cheerleader, because she was a member of the "it" couple, or because she was supposed to be totally b*tchy (or all three). But honestly I usually felt sorry for her more than anything else, and we get told that she's really mean more than we ever get shown it.

Plot:

All right, the inside flap calls this "a haunting psychological thriller"...that is rather misleading. It's not a thriller so much as the aftermath of a thriller. The plot isn't really gripping, as the book is more about the characters and their interpersonal relationships than an action-packed storyline. If you're looking for that, you won't get it here. As I'm thinking back on it, I can't really picture the plot sequence or pick out any scenes that really stuck in my head...it all kind of blends together.

Overall I wish it had focused more on the reaction of Elle to her traumatic experiences, and the problems this caused in rekindling her friendship with Tessa (which I thought still happened too easily), rather than on Elle's annoying "drama queen" behaviour with Chip and Jessie. Really I feel like more could have been done looking at the psychological damage that sort of event could have, both on the individual, and the friends and family around her.

Writing style:

Despite all my complaints about the characters, the book was actually quite readable and didn't take me very long at all. The pacing is quite slow, and I thought some scenes were dragged out longer than necessary, but I never really felt I was struggling to make it to the end.

Final verdict: 3 shooting stars. It's an interesting and dark topic, and the relationship development between Max and Tessa is cute, but the characters and their choices will likely start to frustrate even a forgiving reader after a little while.

Note: This one's really for the older YA reader, as there is some mature content (both sexual and violent).

Stolen: Review

It's just a fight with her parents, a stop at the coffee shop, and a stranger who offers to pay...but suddenly Gemma's been kidnapped. She's been drugged. She's been taken to the middle of nowhere. And the man who's taken her has wanted her - and watched her - for years. He seems to know her story almost better than she knows it herself. And as the hours turn into days, and the days turn into weeks, he opens up to Gemma - and she finds herself somehow, unbelievably, opening up to him. But how can she possibly have feelings for someone who's torn her away from everything she's ever known? And if she finally has the chance to escape...will she want to?

Stolen wasn't the book I expected. I thought it would be more gripping, more darkly chilling, than I actually found it. It's not the kind of on-the-edge-of-my-seat book that had me flipping pages madly to find out what happened next. But it is a very interesting psychological look at the intricate and twisted relationship between a captive and her abductor.

Characters:

I never really got fully inside Gemma's head. We don't learn that much about her except for snippets of memories she has and worries about her friends and family. I wish I had seen more of her regular life before she was kidnapped so I might have gotten a better picture of her, but it makes sense that she was focused on the present. She was struggling to survive in captivity - she didn't have too much time to spend reminiscing about her past, because she was too busy hoping she'd escape in the near future. It is certainly admirable the way she manages to hold on mentally, for so long, to the goal of getting away from her kidnapper Ty's clutches. She endures so much, and still manages to keep on living each day and hoping.

Now, on to Ty: He has to be one of the most messed-up characters I've encountered in a long time. At first, of course I thought he was creepy and perverted. And he is! He's had his eye on her for years and years and finally he makes his move, drugging her drink and taking her on a plane to the Australian outback. The weirdest thing about him had to be his incessant obsession, his need, for Gemma. He doesn't rape her, he doesn't want to murder her - but he won't let her go. Ty has this idyllic picture of the two of them living together in harmony in the desert once she gets over the whole 'he kidnapped me' thing. It's so bizarre and delusional.

But then Lucy Christopher actually made me feel kind of sorry for him. He's got a pretty pathetic past, and he is pitiable in some scenes (for instance, when he has a nightmare). Also, he has such reverence for the beauty of nature, and he loves to paint. Yes, he has some hobbies! She made him into a three-dimensional character who became more than just Gemma's kidnapper. And in such a weird way he actually cares about her and doesn't want her to come to harm. Ty saves her more than once - but he's the one who placed her in danger. I don't know how he wraps his head around that exactly, but he must have some major denial going on.

Also, not sure if this will count as a character but I have to say: I really loved that camel. I felt so sorry for it when it gets captured by Ty and it gives in. The analogy of Gemma and the camel was painted really well; Ty captures them, he doesn't mistreat them too badly but he insists that they submit to his will. And in a strange way, he feels affection for both of them. It's clear he's not familiar with the saying, "If you love something, let it go free. If it doesn't come back, you never had it." Ty's been abandoned too often to let himself risk being abandoned once more.


Plot:

I have to say I was a little skeptical of Gemma's naivete at the very beginning - she lets this totally random stranger pay for her coffee and then sits down to talk with him - but of course, I was fully aware of the book's premise. I suppose it's not that unusual if you really think about it (though Ty is significantly older than her).

This isn't a book I would read for the plot, as it's pretty slow-moving. Most of it consists of the interchanges between Ty and Gemma, with a few significant events throughout. I wasn't glued to the pages, and I took lots of breaks when reading it. The overarching storyline is more about Gemma's mental and emotional response to her kidnapping and the subtle developments in Gemma and Ty's relationship.

There are spoilers here so highlight the white text if you want to read:

The plot does pick up in the last few chapters, when Gemma is bitten by a venomous snake and it becomes a race for her life. I was particularly fascinated by her reactions when she is returned to her parents, and you can tell that she misses Ty. And everyone else is wondering what's wrong with her because she's so mixed up about him. The whole "Stockholm syndrome" aspect of this is very intriguing, and in the end of the letter to Ty it's good to see that Gemma manages to sort things out (at least somewhat) for herself.

Writing Style:

I never felt totally comfortable with the use of the second-person voice (it's combined with first-person in Stolen), but that may be partly because so few books are written like this. A lot of the sentences did begin with either "You" or "I" and some more variety in sentence structure would have been welcome. Still, it was an interesting exercise in telling a story as a letter to a single person, and it's rare to find a book using any second-person narrative, so kudos to the author for trying something new!

Also, Christopher has a way with description and was really able to let the reader experience the atmosphere of the desert. For instance, in this passage:  

"Right at that moment it was as if we were the only two people left in the whole world. And I don't mean that to sound corny; it just honestly did. The only sounds were the droning crickets and chip-chips of the bats, the faraway wind against the sand, and the occasional distant yowl of a dingo. There were no car horns. No trains. No jack-hammers. No lawn mowers. No planes. No sirens. No alarms. No anything human. If you'd told me then that you'd saved me from a nuclear holocaust, I might have believed you."

Sounds beautiful, doesn't it?

I'm having difficulty rating this one because I wasn't really riveted to it, and I wouldn't want to re-read it, but it's a fabulous exploration of a rare relationship. I would recommend it, especially for those interested in psychology or wanting to read a fictional example of something resembling Stockholm syndrome.

Overall: 4 out of 5 shooting stars.