Exile

By Rebecca Lim

A drink of cold water can be very refreshing.  The feeling of cold water on your tongue which then slips down through your throat can feeling amazing.  But now, make that water a little warm.  Not quite as refreshing but still pretty good.  Now, put some red, yellow, and blue food coloring into the warm water to make it brown. Then dump in something that makes the water a little chunky. The warm brown water  with chunks is not nearly as appetizing as the cold water.  If I was going to chose between warm brown water or almost anything else I probably would.

Exile is about an angel who has been banished and calls herself Mercy -- mmm, water.  Mercy wakes up in different people's bodies, in Exile she is in Lela's body.  This idea was pretty interesting and I couldn't wait to start reading.  But, unfortunately, that wasn't all.  She is in love with Luc, an angel who has not been banished and talks to Mercy in her sleep.  She is also in love with Ryan, a boy who she knew from an earlier life -- warm the water up a little.  She calls Ryan Luc's mortal counterpart.  For the first 18 chapters Mercy, astonishingly quickly, learns to live like Lela, including balancing taking care of her dying mother and her job.  She then mixes herself up with a boy named Ranald when she promises to go out with him if he finds Ryan on the internet for her -- oh, here's the food coloring.  But, she never plans to do this because Ryan is going to come for her! She is so excited about that.  In fact, it is all she can think about; it is all I read about -- was that a chunk in my water?

One of the better aspects of the book was Lela's friend Justine.  Mercy learns to feel compassion for her and eventually sees how hard Justine's life is and tries to help her.  In general Mercy's feelings and actions seemed unrealistic.  They seem the most realistic in regards to Justine.

I think the book could have been better if just a few things were added.  I think the book would have been a lot better if Mercy/Lela was more realistic.  Everything seemed a little removed and her priorities didn't to make sense. As Mercy waits for Ryan, Lela's mother is less and less important.  This seemed weird because Lela's mother was dying.  Even if it wasn't actually Mercy's mother I think she should have cared for her a little more. I also think it would have been better if there was more conflict in the book.  Not enough happens to challenge Mercy's will or give Mercy a chance to prove herself or anything really.  The book just seemed a little pointless.  Many of the ideas were good but weren't done as well as they should have been.

This book is a 1.