REVIEW for Exposed

A big thank you goes out to author Susan Vaught for sending this book along to me. Thank you!!!








TITLE: Exposed
AUTHOR: Susan Vaught
GENRE: YA
RATING: 4 Stars

I am extremely happy that I am not a parent. I cannot even imagine how challenging and scary it must be to be someone's parent in this day and age. Reading Exposed has simply confirmed this for me. Author, Susan Vaught has written an absolutely scary and unfortunately all too realistic book about a young girl who is confused, living in a dysfunctional family and is desperate for some love and attention - desperate to be "understood" and desperate for total and unconditional acceptance - I have basically described almost every teenager out there. The difference is that Chan decides that she is going to go out into cyberspace to do this.

As the storyline develops, the author clearly shows us the denial Chan, our main character, is going through when it comes to her "online idea". Somehow, by the time she does decide to go ahead and post her profile on a dating site, she has convinced herself that this will be the solution to all her problems and getting reinforcing confirmation from her best friend simply adds to the attraction of the whole idea. Early on, we discover that Chan's family life is a mess, with an obese father who suffered a heart attack but refused to stop eating, to a controlling mother and an absolutely neurotic younger sister, who herself, seems primed for disaster.

Chan has also suffered at the hands of a former boyfriend and is now being excluded from most of her school friends. In other words, Chan was a perfect victim - and what makes Exposed so realistic is that you can actually see Chan's progression from "maybe wanting to do this" to the point where she actually starts feeling very scared about her exchanges with the "not so perfect" Paul. I gritted my teeth through so many of their exchanges - it was so spooky how easily this predator had it all figured out - as if he knew exactly what Chan needed and when she needed it.

The storyline was extremely engrossing and I found myself going through a variety of emotions while reading this book. This to me, is the sign of a good book. The only thing I found was that the storyline was a tad slow in starting up. I am glad I persisted as the plot gets very, very interesting, but the first few chapters (setting up the introduction and the set up of Chan's life) were a little long.