Martians Abroad

I wanted to like this more than I did, and to be fair, it's probably me. When I was in elementary school I read [b:This Place Has No Atmosphere 2373878 This Place Has No Atmosphere Paula Danziger https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1266770145s/2373878.jpg 1787885] and I think I thought this would be similar to that-only in reverse. What I loved about that book was the descriptions of what life was like in the future on Earth and on the moon. Also, I fell for the gorgeous cover. So, my first disappointment was that almost none of this book takes place on Mars and the Earth that we see is really similar to our own and/or from the confines of a secluded boarding school. The voice is really juvenile. My library has this listed as an adult book and I think the tone is very young. Even though Polly and Charles are 16?17? Polly is really emotionally similar to an 11 year old. What got me through was the idea of this is what a foreigner feels like in a strange land. Ethnocentrism is the word that kept popping up in my head. If that is what Vaughn wanted to achieve, she does. Then again, I could be trying to find meaning where there isn't any. I could have forgiven all of that if the plot would have been more exciting and the action a little more believable. I pushed myself to finish this because I was convinced there was going to be some super awesome ending. That's all I'm going to say. Lackluster is the word that pops in to my head.