Conspiracy of Us

I just finished Conspiracy of Us.  If I had to give it an elevator pitch, I'd say this book is like 39 Clues for young adults and sexier.

I don't believe in conspiracies in the least. I generally think people are to venal or to self obsessed to be willing to work together to pull one over on the world.  So that's the first issue I have.

But the second is how much of this book is an exposition mess. Since Avery, the main character, has to be our stand in to figure out what the hell is going on in this world, there is just too much of people talking at her.  Enough.

I would like to, though, examine why YA books that have a chosen one be a girl holds such appeal. Is it because teen girls are so otherwise disenfranchised that they feel powerless and this feeds into needing to read about under-estimated young women with bottomless power?