[Review] Expelled by James Patterson and Emily Raymond

Expelled by James Patterson and Emily Raymond

Rating: 3 stars

Published Date: October 23rd 2017

Goodreads Synopsis:

One viral photo.Four expelled teens.Everyone's a suspect.
Theo Foster's Twitter account used to be anonymous--until someone posted a revealing photo that got him expelled. No final grade. No future. No fair.
Theo's resigned to a life of misery working at the local mini-mart when a miracle happens: Sasha Ellis speaks to him. Sasha Ellis knows his name. She was also expelled for a crime she didn't commit, and now he has the perfect way to get her attention: find out who set them up.
To uncover the truth, Theo has to get close to the suspects: the hacker, the quarterback, the mean girl, the vice principal, and his own best friend. What secrets are they hiding? And how can Theo catch their confessions on camera?

Expelled ended up being a darker, modern version of The Breakfast Club. And I loved The Breakfast Club, so I expected to enjoy this, too. It's got a very 80s vibe (with the resurgence of 80s everything in media these days!)

Also, for the sake of explaining myself better, there will be spoilers.

This book was okay, for the most part. We have four people of clashing personalities and dark secrets who end up expelled for something unexpected. It plays out more like a mystery/drama with some comedic scenes thrown in between. 

Also, of course, a throwback to the original. 

No one says anything. We just listen to one another chewing.
After a while, Sasha breaks the silence. "This is mildly awkward," she says.
"No kidding," Jude says. "It's like - have you guys seen The Breakfast Club?"

Out of all the characters, our POV protagonist Theo is the one I felt for the most. Poor guy - he's really trying to handle all this and more throughout the book. His dad committed suicide after his diagnosis with ALS, his mom is mostly MIA, and he just got kicked out of school. He's coping the best he can and I really empathized with his struggle.

My dad could never resist a box of novelty lights. He found them utterly hilarious - and yet totally functional! he'd add.
It's just another thing I'll never understand about him.
Not his love for something so stupid - I get that.
It's more like: how could someone so full of life, so ready to be thrilled, just... go?

What caught me off guard was the ending, which was really rushed and not thought out at ALL. How can you bring up incestuous rape so casually and just brush it off in the next scene? What even was that? 

Just, ugh. I get that the 80s are becoming big and popular again but why bring up these issues (for shock value it seems) without addressing them accordingly? 

In short, this The Breakfast Club-esque story was an okay read up until the ending, which gave us a bunch of sucker punches that weren't unexpected, but unwarranted.