Pivot by L.C. Barlow

First of all, thank you to NetGalley.com, author L.C. Barlow, and my friends at California Coldblood Books and Rare Bird Books for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a honest review. This book will be published in an updated edition October 15, 2019.

Whenever I sit down to review a book, I always struggle with describing how I felt without giving out any spoilers.

This book was confusing to me. Jack Harper is a young girl who is taken in by Cyrus, the leader of a mystical cult. Cyrus teaches her everything she needs to know to become an important person in the cult, including assassination. Jack is trained with the help of Roland, a man who does not stay dead, to kill in a variety of ways. Each time she is learning that killing is not something to be afraid of, or something that is wrong.

…keep in mind that you aren’t really murdering that person, or any other, not really, just like you’re not really murdering Roland. Rather, we’re just not bringing that person back to life.

We follow Jack through three different ages:

–Age 7, when she begins killing for Cyrus

–Age 10, when she learns to hone her skills and receives a proper education

–Age 17, when the true story starts

At 17, Jack is proficient at what she does. She doesn’t care if the person out to death is guilty or innocent. Jack is an effective assassin. Now that she is almost 18, she can now know more about the cult itself and what her role truly is.

There is a box in Cyrus’ house. A box that gives Cyrus invincibility and power. Jack has chased the mystery of this box for 7 years, and now is coming to a conclusion.

There is a man in the basement. A man that has been trapped for as long as Jack has been living there. Somehow the man is important to Cyrus and the box.

Most of the novel seems to be build up and backstory to me. While it is important to know what is happening, the climax was a bit halfhearted to me. Granted this is the beginning of a trilogy, so a bit of foreshadowing and a sense of unanswered questions is expected. I just wasn’t satisfied with how it ended.