Murdoch, P. (2006). Exposure. Orca Soundings.
4 out of 5 stars
Hi/Lo
This book deals with bullying in school. Dana the popular girl at school uses any opportunity to torment Julie and usually Julie just accepts it without fighting back. However thins change when Julie’s brother tells her about a bush party where Dana got drunk and danced naked for the attention of some older boys. The party was caught on Camera and Julie discovers it. She uses her new information to get back a Dana and eventually leaves a photo of a topless Dana in the gym for other students to find. Dana is now the one teased and ridiculed and at first Julie is happy about this. Later she realizes she doesn’t really care for revenge that much and appologizes to Dana and gives her the CD with the pictures.
The book is a quick read and the pace proceeds accordingly. It is action packed which is the intention. However, one thing I didn’t like about this book is that it is basically a “problem” book. The ending is very moralistic. It pretty much read bullying is bad, revenge is bad, if you own up to what you did everything works out in the end. I always find that difficult to deal with in a book. I think this type of book is meant to improve literacy but it is a bit to preachy throughout and especially at the end. It has the potential to just be irritating to a reader.
Kate
