Exo by Fonda Lee - ADVISABLE

Lee, Fonda Exo, 369 pgs. Scholastic Press (Scholastic Inc.), 2017. $17.99 Language – PG13 (57 swears, 0 “f”), Mature Content – PG13; Violence – PG13; 

The alien takeover of the earth 130 years ago caused humans to separate themselves into two groups: those accepting of the aliens and those against the aliens. As the son of the liaison between aliens and humans, Donovan understands more about their precarious situation than most humans do. Despite Donovan’s advantage, though, there is still a lot more going on than he realizes—until he is taken by the human rebel group. What if everything you know is true, but it’s only half the story?

The beginning of Donovan’s story is hard to adjust to because of the jargon of Donovan’s world, resulting in a steep learning curve. It would have been better if Lee had explained what all the new ideas were in fewer pages, but the initial disorientation was worth it. Once I could be immersed in Lee’s book, I couldn’t put it down, and even now I wish there had been hundreds more pages so that I could still be reading it right now. (The mature content rating is due to a brief description of a picture that one of Donovan’s teammates draws and was totally unnecessary. I wish Lee had left that out.) 

MS, HS – ADVISABLE. Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen