Exposure (Twisted Lit)

by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Editor)

Double, double, toil, and trouble! The quest for high-school royalty can turn deadly when teen ambition outstrips reason. Skye Kingston is a shy shutterbug who prefers observing life from behind her camera lens. She doesn't know she's stunning, and comes off the sidelines only when she's forced to by the terrifying events of one treacherous school year in Alaska. A boy named Duncan is dead, and his death may or may not be an accident. Skye's three new best friends are eerily able to foretell the future, and cheerleader Beth might be more than a social climber--she quite probably is a sociopath. Then there's Skye's growing attraction to the school hottie, Craig, The Boy Who Would Be Prom King. But their time is crossed by fate. There's already been one death, and who can say if it's only the first? As Skye falls for Craig, she also slowly realizes that he is caught in the crosshairs of a deadly plot. Can she save Craig and herself from a murderous fate? Exposure is not only a modern take on the classic Macbeth, it's proof that nothing has changed since Shakespeare riffed on the subject nearly half a millennium ago: the quest for power can lead to bloodstained hands.

"Exposure is an intelligent, poignant, and riveting mashup of Shakespearean tragedy and high-school politics, which, as it turns out, have a lot in common." ~Daria Snadowsky, author of Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Anatomy of a Single Girl

"Kim Askew and Amy Helmes write with a delightful assurance in this clever and thrilling second installment in their Twisted Lit series. Wherever he is, the Bard is smiling down on them." ~Andrea N. Richesin, editor of Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love

• ISBN10: 1440552614
• ISBN13: 9781440552618
• Publish Date: 18 January 2013 (first published 18 December 2012)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 22 February 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Adams Media Corporation
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[Raven]

Read this and other reviews at my blog.

Skye is a bit of a wallflower, a shutterbug who prefers to see life through the lens of her camera instead of from the center of the action. When a student is found dead at a party Skye attends and she knows who might be involved, she has to deal with the idea of being an accessory to murder. As relationships shift and change around her, Skye starts to really take a look at her life, and she doesn't like what she sees. Can she really change herself now, or will harboring her secret destroy her first?

While not as good as Tempestuous was, Exposure was another great retelling of an old classic. Macbeth is probably one of Shakespeare's more difficult stories to try to modernize. While subtle, the homages to Macbeth were cleverly woven into each page. If you go looking for a flashy retelling, then you might be disappointed. Exposure was written in such a way to make a Shakespeare buff smile without alienating someone who has never read Macbeth. I believe that it was done well enough to make it easier to understand if you can match these new characters to their old counterparts.

The characters weren't as nice as I wanted them to be. Skye felt unlikable to me. For her to be "stunning" and not know it, and for her to be so tall and people to just overlook her, it didn't feel realistic. If you are "stunning" and tall and have model potential with a little bit of makeup, then how do people not notice you? Skye actually asks this same question in the book at their Prom. Everyone kept telling her how she was so beautiful and how they didn't recognize her, but what, she was ugly the day before? It's one thing to be withdrawn, but she just didn't feel as realistic as I wanted her to. She was also really hard to like. It wasn't until well into the story that I started to like her at all. I didn't understand what she saw in Craig. Not once. From A to B, I never saw Craig's appeal. Beth was seriously unbalanced. The rest of the characters were just alright. They didn't hold enough importance for me.

The story was nice. It held mystery and did well at capturing the essence of Macbeth as it went along, but the plot was lacking. Or maybe it just fell for me. I feel like most of the elements in the story served very little purpose, and yet I enjoyed every page. I loved the whole story and everything that happened. I just couldn't see the point of many things that happened and it left me uninvested in the story. It all wraps up in the end. The ending is unsettling. It isn't tragic by any means, but it is a bit of a downer. There is promise for joy again, but it's left on enough of a downer to leave you upset with things. Not enough to rage or cry, but enough that you might be disappointed.

While not as great as it's predecessor, it was still a good read and I did enjoy it. But if you are looking for warm fuzzies, look elsewhere.