ARC Review: The Point by John Dixon

The Point
Author: John Dixon
Publication: Del Rey (August 7, 2018)

Description: What if you had a power you had to hide from everyone—until now? In this bold sci-fi action thriller, a secret training program at West Point is turning misfits into a new generation of heroes.

Welcome to The Point, future leaders of the Posthuman Age.

New Cadets, society is not ready for you. The oldest, fiercest fear is ignorance. The general population would burn you at the metaphorical stake.
Here, you will train alongside other posthumans. You will learn to control and maximize your powers and to use them for the greater good. You will discover camaraderie and purpose.
You will become a part of something bigger than yourselves: the Long Gray Line. 

Scarlett Winter has always been an outsider, and not only because she’s a hardcore daredevil and born troublemaker—she has been hiding superhuman powers she doesn’t yet understand. Now she’s been recruited by a secret West Point unit for cadets with extraordinary abilities. Scarlett and her fellow students are learning to hone their skills, from telekinetic combat to running recon missions through strangers’ dreamscapes. At The Point, Scarlett discovers that she may be the most powerful cadet of all. With the power to control pure energy, she’s a human nuclear bomb—and she’s not sure she can control her powers much longer.

Even in this army of outsiders, Scarlett feels like a misfit all over again, but when a threat that endangers her fellow students arises from the school’s dark past, duty calls and Scarlett must make a choice between being herself and becoming something even greater: a hero.

My Thoughts: This is the story of Scarlett Winter who goes from hardcore troublemaker to a powerful posthuman. Scarlett was raised in a military family with a father who routinely beat her older brother Daniel who passed the beatings on to her. Despite that, she loves Dan and her mother. After blowing off her high school graduation and refusing to join the Army as her father wants, she finds herself having to choose between West Point and prison after it looks like she bombed a friend's graduation party. Colonel Oscar Rhoads, her father's former commander, is in charge of a new program that he feels she is just right for.

Scarlett chooses West Point but her heart isn't into becoming a successful cadet. Maybe fortunately, she becomes a member of The Point which is West Point for posthumans. There she trains with telekinetics and kids with other superpowers. Her own power is unique. She takes in energy and can expel it. Hit her and she gathers the power to hit back even harder.

Because her power is not the usual, she is set to train with another student with an unusual power. Dalia can walk in people's dreams and can give people dreams. She is supposed to be training Scarlett in yoga and meditation but sessions with her are all about her and her ego. She is secretly driving a former boyfriend insane as a form of revenge for wrongs he did to her. She is also manipulating Scarlett's dreams.

Meanwhile, other posthumans are committing terroristic acts which are terrifying the country. It turns out the Jagger who leads these posthuman terrorists is also acquainted with Colonel Rhoads and a dropout from Rhoad's training program for posthumans.

This was an entertaining science fiction story with an interesting main character who goes from a slacker to a hero - perhaps a little too quickly. I found her character change to be somewhat abrupt. I enjoyed the idea of these posthumans and thought the setup for why they existed and how someone became posthuman was plausible.

Favorite Quote:

Sometimes that was all you had. Sometimes happy for today was all you could hope for and all that mattered.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.