Featured White Papers
- The missing link: Driving business results through pay-for-performance (SuccessFactors, Inc.)
- Aug. 28th: Delivering Online Presentations That Result in Higher Sales (Citrix Online)
- 9 critical reasons to automate performance management (SuccessFactors, Inc.)
Content provided in partnership with
Exit Point
ALAN Review, Fall 2006 by Jacob, John
Exit Point by Laura Langston Paranormal Activity/Child Molestation Orca Book Publishers, 2006, 110 pp., $7.95 ISBN: 1-55143-505-5
Ostensibly a novel about the afterlife of narrator Logan, a 16-year-old victim of a car crash, the book may interest reluctant readers with its brevity and characterization of Logan and his grandmother, whom he meets in the afterlife, younger, smoking, and gambling. She is the most well-characterized person in the book. But close readers will notice that Logan is hardly sympathetic (he died racing cars after getting drunk one night, his preferred form of recreation), and that, while the afterlife is interesting, it can conform itself to almost anything the author wants to say.
The author seems torn between developing her afterlife and making Logan's presence somewhat valid, by making his younger sister the victim of sexual molestation from their uncle.
The novel becomes a race to stop another evening of molestation, and when Logan has accomplished his "mission," he is allowed to continue in his movement from the stations in the afterlife to a final resting point beyond.
John Jacob
Oak Park, IL
Copyright Assembly on Literature for Adolescents -- National Council of Teachers of English Fall 2006
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
