Debut Author Kristina McBridge takes us along the ride of a kidnapped high school student who tries to fit back into the community after being held captive for two years.
Summary from Fantastic Fiction:
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.
OUT OF FIVE STARS
My Review: Kristina McBride was teaching High School English when a child riding a bike to his friends house was kidnapped and safely returned. This certainly gives a very real feeling to every single page of The Tension of Opposites but also clearly documents the trauma friends and family go through in such events. None, more-so than her best friend, Tessa who has not let herself have one bit of fun since the news of the disappearance.
Now that Noelle is safely home, not only does she spend her days trying to figure out how to live her life once again but also Tessa finds it hard to let herself go with no more need to keep herself guarded. The only place she does feel a little comfort is behind her grandpa's camera which leads her to meet Max who shares her photography bug.
I was expecting this to be quite a dark novel but those parts are quickly skipped over as best possible to suit the Young Adult market and more of the book is really spent in the high school cafeteria than anywhere else. It also shows really well that kidnapping truely does effect the friends and family greatly who, in this novel spend every day wondering about their missing friends and child.
I would recommend this book to Young Adult fans who are interested in reading their first novel with a darker background but not to regular readers of these types of books as it feels more like an introduction more than anything else.
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