The Tension of Opposites: more like slack
The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Two years after her disappearance, Tessa's best friend, Noelle, escapes from the clutches of a nasty pedophile and returns to her family. Tessa has just learned to cope with the idea that her best friend was gone forever. Now that she's back, Tessa no longer has an excuse to keep her life on hold, but she's not sure how to move on and wonders if it's even possible for her to do so.
Like The Iron King, I thought this was an interesting idea, but the execution was so blah, I couldn't get into it. Most of the dialogue is stilted and the same can be said for what little internal reflection Tessa engages in beyond OMG! My friend is back, but she's hardly talking to me. What do I do? and the equivalent of My boyfriend is so high maintenance. He wants so much attention!. It's kind of like that for about 300 pages.
I'd say that if you're one of those lucky people who can get past awkward writing if the plot is good, this is the book for you, but the story really takes place after most of the action has passed. It's a story about a girl coping with the emotional aftermath of losing her friend and having that same friend return.
The only thing that kept me from throwing this book across the room was Noelle aka Elle. The scenes with her were the most compelling and her journal entries were the best writing in the book. If Kristina McBride channeled Elle for the entire book, it might have been good.