Exposed

Timely topics steer this story—with an inflexible grip. Despite her spot on the varsity baton-twirling team and despite an unswervingly loyal best friend, Chandra is a leper at school: her last boyfriend gave her herpes but publicly blamed it on her. When she decides to find a guy online, the first (and only) person she meets is good-looking, sympathetic Paul. She falls for him immediately, and not too much time elapses before she is streaming videos of herself, shirtless. Where issues also dominated Vaught’s Big Fat Manifesto and Trigger, the characters’ voices and the author’s insights in those novels compensated; here, Chan behaves like a teen in a B-movie who knows a criminal is on the loose but opens the front door anyway. Readers might grow impatient not only with her but with the obviousness of the message. Ages 14–up. (Dec.)