Review: Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

Publish date: 2011
Source: Classroom library
Format: Paperback
Length: 255 pages
"Sixteen-year-old Liz is Photogirl—sharp, focused and confident in what she sees through her camera lens. Confident that she and Kate will be best friends forever.

But everything changes in one blurry night. Suddenly, Kate is avoiding her, and people are looking the other way when she passes in the halls. As the aftershocks from a startling accusation rip through Liz's world, everything she thought she knew about photography, family, friendship and herself shifts out of focus. What happens when the picture you see no longer makes sense? What do you do when you may lose everything you love most? Told in stunning, searingly raw free verse, Exposed is Kimberly Marcus's gut-wrenching, riveting debut and will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins, Laurie Halse Anderson and Virginia Euwer Wolff." (Goodreads)

I've had this one in my classroom library for a while, but didn't read it until I needed to write a poetry review for the YA lit grad class I am taking. It was a quick read that I ended up really enjoying.

Exposed tells the story of Liz and her best friend Kate and what happens that rocks their previously solid friendship. I figured out pretty early on what happened to Kate, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. It was interesting to see how everything played out and I found myself rooting for Liz and Kate's friendship over everything.

This is a verse novel, so it was a quicker read than you'd expect for a 255 page book. My only other experience with verse novels has been Ellen Hopkins and I found Exposed to be quite different from Hopkins's work, but I think that's due to the subject matter. I would definitely recommend Exposed if you like verse novels and think it would be an excellent addition to classroom and public libraries anywhere.