Author; Lamar, Bonnie
Book Title; Exposed (Elianna Brennan Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult Historical Mystery/Action/Love Story
In this second installment of the Elianna Brennan Series,
our heroine picks up where she left off in Essence of Re.
Elianna's father is now more in the picture. He was depicted in
the first book as over-bearing and
over-protective, he now turns out to be quite laid back in the second half of
the book. Maybe that’s because our
heroine and her cohorts have decided that at the age of 17 (where of course,
here in the States EVERYONE carries a passport or has access to one and their
parents keep a credit card and cash handy in an emergency that their child can
get to. Um, NO.) they can get up and leave the country without so much as a second
glance by the adults selling them plane tickets or the TSA questioning their
age. OH…
that leaves the over-bearing parents out, now doesn’t it?
Where the first book was obviously trying to be historically
interesting, the second just confuses the reader. The plot is weak, so much so, that I was
ready to put the book down and start something else.
As I continued to read through the book, I shook my head
asking myself, “Where are the parents?”
The main characters have approached each of their houses at a reasonable
hour at night seemingly waiting for our heroine to simply say “I need you”, and
then everyone is up and ready to go, yet NO parents are awake to notice their
children leaving the country or even the HOUSE in the early night (before
midnight!). Not to mention that someone
is actively bleeding from a GUN SHOT wound and is still able to get through
airport security?!? This simply pushes
the envelope of believability.
The actions of the adults in this book, dealing with teenagers
like they’re in their 20s or even older, confounds me. The setting in is Cairo,
do they really treat teenagers like experienced 20 or 30 year olds in
Egypt? The adults there sure do put a
lot of stock in the “abilities” our heroine has without one thought about her
safety or that of her friends
Our author however, has improved her speech for our
teenagers, though at times contractions are still not used, making our
characters sound like robots. They still
speak as if they’re in their 20s as well, and rely on the experiences of the
movies they’ve watched as well as the video games they’ve played together, to
make spy like plans that rival those of ”007!”
Inconsistences are found throughout the book as well, from
the healing time of our heroine to whether or not a specific person is eating a
chicken or a turkey sandwich in the SAME paragraph. Where were the EDITORS for this version?
I found this second installment encourages behaviors in our
youth that should not be encouraged, (such as running away out of the country,
and the adults that lie to cover for them so they can avert being in trouble
with their parents.), but in the same vein doesn’t depict the teenager today
realistically. I mean, at 17 years old,
if you’re in a foreign country, in a hotel room with your significant other and
no adults around with hormones bouncing off every wall, would you not take your
relationship to the next level by taking advantage of the situation and make
love if you’ve found your “eternal soul mate”?
The next problem I have with this book is where
the climax of the plot ends up. There
are no visitors allowed at this particular “tourist attraction” at night, as
far as I know, yet a taxi driver is willing to take four teenagers, and drop
them off miles from it, out in the desert, to walk the rest of the way because
he was tipped well? Not to mention,
anyone who knows anything about the exhibits of history in Egypt knows that
there is a certain individual who watches vigorously over the antiquities of his
country. So, the plot itself is now
completely unbelievable, as well as the ending.
I can appreciate trying to influence the youth of today to
make good judgment calls, encourage them to do their homework and think out of
the box to solve problems, because let’s face it, today’s kids are constantly
looking at phone screens and computers and have the social skills to prove
it. Our heroine didn’t get a cell phone
until she was 17, whereas most kids in elementary school have one today. Her friends didn’t mention having one at
all! No laptops? Just 2 game consoles at a friend’s
house? WOW! How unique.
Finally, the author undermined her own writing by having a
conversation between characters, while still trying to explain in detail what
was going on around the characters as the conversation was happening. I had to read the conversation twice to understand
who was saying what. I then read it to my husband who said, “OK you lost me,
who’s talking?” Imagine the reaction of
the target audience if two 40 year olds couldn’t figure it out. Simply too much detail and adjectives
describing the surroundings and not enough for the conversation, which is pivotal
to the plot to take place!
Would I recommend
this book to my friends?
Nope. Don’t waste
your time.
½ out of 5 Bookmarks
No comments:
Post a Comment