Search - Exposed

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Chan has PIRs (parental Internet rules) when it comes to being on the computer and the Internet at home. The key rules are:

1. Never put any identifying information on the Internet without parental approval.
2. No public profiles.
3. Everything that is done on the computer gets supervised or reviewed.

Chan is about to break every one of these rules in the next few weeks.

After a horrible breakup at school the previous spring with the school quarterback, Chan avoids dating and boys. But she wants to find the perfect companion somehow. And the best and safest way, Chan decides, is to find one on the Internet. But this goes against all three of the cardinal rules.

So with begrudging help from her best friend, Devin, the two girls set up a secret Blahfest profile. The two also add streaming video of the two twirling batons in Chan's room. Before they know it, Chan has a message on her profile. It's from Knighthawk859. The two start secret harmless chat sessions that go long into the night. Knighthawk (aka Paul) tells Chan how to download a screen saver that will also help purge and hide any talks and keystrokes. Paul seems perfect and can even recite Emily Dickinson back to Chan. (Chan adores Emily's poetry.)

Chan's schoolwork starts to suffer, and she's getting less and less sleep. It doesn't help that her 8-year-old sister, Lauren, wakes up with nightmares each night and comes into Chan's room for comfort. With lack of sleep, and bruises from Lauren's restless sleeping, all Chan can concentrate on is her next chat session with Paul. The only bright spot outside of the chatting is her twirling. With Paul's assistance (financial and educational), Chan has gotten onto a training routine and her twirling has never been better.

But soon, the chatting turns darker. And when Chan encounters a similar screen saver on the family's computer downstairs, she starts to panic that her younger sister has gotten in above her head as well. Can Chan come clean with her secret boyfriend to save her sister, or will everything come crashing down because of her?

EXPOSED is one of those books that are ideal to be shared between parents and their teenagers. It explores the hazards of seemingly harmless chatting on the Internet. It shares how anyone determined enough can piece the puzzle pieces together with relatively limited information. Chan's PIRs may seem silly to the average teenager, but in reality, and in light of today's identity thefts and predators, they may even be too simple.