Thursday, October 19, 2017

Review: Expelled

Expelled
James Patterson and Emily Raymond
Expected publication date: October 23, 2017
A secret Twitter account
An anonymous photo
Everyone is a suspect


Will Foster's Twitter account used to be anonymous--until someone posted The Photo that got him and three other students expelled, their futures ruined forever. But who took the picture, and why are they being targeted?

To uncover the truth, Will gets close to the suspects: the hacker, the quarterback, the bad girl, the class clown, the vice principal, and...his own best friend. What secrets are they hiding, and even worse--what do they know about each other? The terrible truth will haunt them forever.

New York Times bestselling author James Patterson brings us another fast-moving tale of suspense, with danger, romance, and twists and turns that will keep you guessing to the very last page. - from Goodreads
I received an ARC of this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

It's books like this that make me glad I'm not in high school anymore!  I didn't even go to high school that long ago, but we didn't have all these social media issues like the ones in Expelled.  A crude photo of some students is posted on Theo's (it says the MC's name is Will in the blurb, but in my ARC, it's Theo) Twitter account, and because of the school's zero tolerance policy, Theo and the identified students in the picture are all expelled.  But Theo knows he's innocent, and he wants to prove it.

Patterson and Raymond have created a group of students that may seem at first glance like typical high school cliches, but they become much more than that as the book goes on.  Theo is kind of an average kid - he gets decent grades and he sometimes writes for the school paper, but he's dealing with a lot in his home life.  His best friend Jude is an artist, Parker is a jock with a huge secret, and Sasha is a tough girl.  I thought the authors did a great job in creating these distinct characters and actually making them realistic - they act and talk like real teenagers (although Sasha can get a bit pretentious at times).

Theo has the idea to prove his innocence by making a film, questioning his "suspects" and others in order to find out what really happened and why the picture was uploaded to his Twitter feed.  I guess he wanted proof on camera, but this plot device didn't work so well for me.

In any event, what Theo discovers in his investigation was actually not what I was expecting.  I appreciated that the authors tied in bigger issues and questions about doing what is right versus doing what is popular.  However, the book dragged on a bit after this revelation, and one big bombshell right at the end of the book was completely unnecessary, in my opinion.  In a book with a lot of heavy topics, that one felt like overkill.  Overall, though, I thought this was a quick-moving, well-written story.

4 stars

10 comments:

  1. I'm so glad we didn't have social media when I was in school. I think I just got out of school when facebook and other social media started becoming a thing. But think it would've been awful because there could be so many issues with it, especially with teens.

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    1. I know, sometimes it seems to cause more harm than good.

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  2. That's so strange that the main character in the blurb is Will in the synopsis and is Theo in the ARC. I wonder what the final copy's MC will be. I'm glad too that social media wasn't very big when I was school- we couldn't even have our phones out or we'd get suspended. I haven't read anything by James Patterson in a while and I'm glad you brought this one to my attention. I might give this one a try. Happy reading!

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    1. I don't think I've actually ever read anything by James Patterson before. I hope you enjoy this one if you do read it!

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  3. I'm with you. So very glad I didn't go to high school in the age of social media. We had more than enough drama without it, haha. This does sound like a great read though. Loved your review!

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    1. Thank you! I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in high school these days, it's really tough.

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  4. We got a copy of this at BEA, but I have not read it yet (I am the worst!), but you made it sound like something I could enjoy. Great review.

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    1. Thank you! I hope you enjoy it once you get to it!

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  5. I only recently found out that Patterson is doing books like these, so I have been curious about his work. Great review -- despite its flaws, I do want to give it a go.

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    1. Yeah, I didn't realize he's also been doing some YA, as well. I hope you enjoy this one!

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I'm so glad you stopped by, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Comments are always greatly appreciated!