Tuesday, April 19, 2011

exposed by Kimberly Marcus

Once again my appetite for novels in verse was well satisfied by exposed, a debut novel from Kimberly Marcus.
Sixteen year old Elizabeth Grayson is Photogirl- photographer extraordinaire. Her forever-best friend is Kate, Mistress of Modern Dance.

Kate comes over to Liz's home for their once a month sleepover. Instead of having a great time together however, the two girls fight. Liz insists that Kate should dump her boyfriend Trevor and that she is afraid to take risks. Kate accuses Liz of hiding behind her camera. The evening ends with Kate sleeping alone downstairs. When morning comes, Liz finds her best friend gone.

As the days pass by, and Liz tries to repair her friendship with Kate, she finds herself being pushed away. When she finally gets up the nerve to confront Kate, her shocking revelation is the beginning of the unraveling of both girl's lives. As rumours and accusations fly, Liz is consumed with guilt as she tries to sort out fact from gossip.

Kimberly Marcus has written a a beautiful short novel that deals with a sensitive topic. How does one sort out who is telling the truth, especially when one of the versions of truth comes from a family member? Here is a sampling of some of the poems found in exposed:

Letting Me Have It

She's silent
for a long minute.
Then she looks straight at me,
straight through me,
and tells me
why
it was such a big deal.



Empty

I run,
not knowing where I'm going, but I run.
Around the building, down the street,
my sneakers smacking the pavement so hard,
shooting fire up my shins.

I run past twelve years of friendship,
matching clothes and birthday parties,
jumping on beds and catching crickets,
too-long phone calls and belly laughs,
passing notes and building dreams.


This was a well written novel in verse that I managed to read in a few hours.
I look forward with great anticipation to more from Kimberly Marcus.

Book Details:

exposed by Kimberly Marcus
New York: Random House 2011
255 pp.

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