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readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
Easy Prey is a YA high school mystery about Jenna, Mouse, and Drew, three teens who must work on a law project together. But as they work on their project they begin a dangerous endeavour of catfishing all the while dealing with their own issues; Jenna is trying to find out who leaked nude photos of her the previous year, Mouse is trying to get into MIT, and Drew is trying to get back his basketball skills. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, with it's morally grey main characters and thickening plot. The pacing is good and the mystery deepens as each new piece of information is revealed. We're never quite meant to fully like Jenna, Mouse, and Drew and their actions serve as a criticism of catfishing and victim-blaming. The twist in the final third of the book took this from a good book to a great one.
Easy Prey is a YA high school mystery about Jenna, Mouse, and Drew, three teens who must work on a law project together. But as they work on their project they begin a dangerous endeavour of catfishing all the while dealing with their own issues; Jenna is trying to find out who leaked nude photos of her the previous year, Mouse is trying to get into MIT, and Drew is trying to get back his basketball skills. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, with it's morally grey main characters and thickening plot. The pacing is good and the mystery deepens as each new piece of information is revealed. We're never quite meant to fully like Jenna, Mouse, and Drew and their actions serve as a criticism of catfishing and victim-blaming. The twist in the final third of the book took this from a good book to a great one.
soniajoy98's review against another edition
5.0
AHHHHHHHHHHH IF I COULD GIVE THIS BOOK 10 STARS I WOULD EVERYONE STOP AND DROP WHATEVER YOURE DOING AND READ THIS GODDAMN AMAZING BOOK DO IT NOW
ashleyreadstoomuch's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really surprising read. When I was listening to it, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it as I hated two out of the three points of view and that can make a book a hard sell. However, I liked how we got the current timeline and also the past of how they got to that point. I absolutely loved the ending.
epilieaspiechick's review against another edition
5.0
My full review can be found on the Epilie Aspie Chick blog!
These three start their project and quickly end up playing a game with their teacher Miss Bailey by pretending to be a guy on her dating site. Things escalate (you'll find out when you read!) and suddenly nude pictures of their law teacher end up in their hands. Everyone promises to delete the photos and move on, but when they appear on a blog and the school is notified - who will end up being the one who leaked the photos of Miss Bailey?
This is such an amazing story how tge author makes it look like such a simple story and then rips the rug out from under you in those last couple pages. Watching the end play out totally changes your perspective and definitely changed how I looked at these characters. A big moral question asked here is who is responsible when someone's privacy is broken? Why is the blame put on women so often when guys lash out? What's considered crossing the line? I got to end of the line and dropped my jaw in shock, but unsure of some of the answers to these questions. It's a great sign when a book makes you question your perspective and reconsider your outlook.
These three start their project and quickly end up playing a game with their teacher Miss Bailey by pretending to be a guy on her dating site. Things escalate (you'll find out when you read!) and suddenly nude pictures of their law teacher end up in their hands. Everyone promises to delete the photos and move on, but when they appear on a blog and the school is notified - who will end up being the one who leaked the photos of Miss Bailey?
This is such an amazing story how tge author makes it look like such a simple story and then rips the rug out from under you in those last couple pages. Watching the end play out totally changes your perspective and definitely changed how I looked at these characters. A big moral question asked here is who is responsible when someone's privacy is broken? Why is the blame put on women so often when guys lash out? What's considered crossing the line? I got to end of the line and dropped my jaw in shock, but unsure of some of the answers to these questions. It's a great sign when a book makes you question your perspective and reconsider your outlook.
maddiemcevoy's review against another edition
1.0
i’d like to preface this by saying that this would have been at least a three star book were it not for the ending.
also...... there will be spoilers
in general, i liked the plot and concept of this book. i found the writing style and format to be clear and enjoyable, but nothing extraordinary. the only issue i found with the writing was that the dialogue felt extremely forced and at times it felt like the dialogue was straight out of one of those psa videos you watch in health class. i think that the messages the author wanted to get across were valid and important. however, the main theme of this book was destroyed by the twist reveal at the end. i feel that the book would have been much more powerful had the male main characters been challenged on their toxic masculinity and learned from it. had they been able to develop and change their toxic mindsets and behaviors i feel it would have been more powerful than them just being manipulated and punished and their dreams ripped out from under them. instead of painting women and strong in a positive way and portraying men as being able to grow and change, it portrays women as violent and manipulative at best (and catty and materialistic at worst) and men as either violent and unfeeling or womanizing and stupid.
i feel that this book adds nothing productive to the discussion of gender equality and instead perpetuates unfair stereotypes.
basically, this book is about three students who work together on a group project and get sidetracked into cat-fishing their teacher into sending them nude pictures. when the pictures are leaked on twitter, they get swept up into the investigation.
the twist ending (which i predicted from very early on) was that the main female character, Jenna, was the one who leaked the photos because *surprise* the two male characters were responsible for leaking her own private pictures earlier in the year. i personally predicted this from very early on in the story, but from reading reviews it seems that others did not. i don’t know why it was obvious to me, but i tend to be very critical and analytical (hehe it rhymes) while consuming media.
it turns out that everything, down to them all being in the same class and being paired on the assignment together was orchestrated by Jenna. as i mentioned earlier, i feel like this strips this story of it’s moral as it puts Jenna in the role of the villain, and shows her to be manipulative, vindictive and cruel. this doesn’t show society, or men with harmful beliefs that victim blaming and slut shaming is wrong. it just shows them that they should watch out because women are crazy. also, the fact that the two main characters were caught in Jenna’s “trap” doesn’t make a lot of sense. first of all, because although they were not the most likable of characters, we had spent the book reading from their perspective and gaining empathy for them and hoping for them to grow and change. second of all, the fact that Jenna framed them leaves me wanting justice for them even though i don’t like them as people. i have never read a book where the ending is that the main character lied and got away with it. and we are supposed to celebrate Jenna for being a strong female character?
i just don’t understand the purpose of this book, because none of the characters developed in any way and the only message i could feasibly gather from this story is “don’t leak private photos— not because it’s morally incorrect or anything, but because the person whose photos you leak might turn out to be a scheming sociopath who will get you kicked out of school.” this book was definitely original, and i would like to see more YA books that challenge toxic masculinity and victim blaming, but this...... was not it, chief.
also...... there will be spoilers
in general, i liked the plot and concept of this book. i found the writing style and format to be clear and enjoyable, but nothing extraordinary. the only issue i found with the writing was that the dialogue felt extremely forced and at times it felt like the dialogue was straight out of one of those psa videos you watch in health class. i think that the messages the author wanted to get across were valid and important. however, the main theme of this book was destroyed by the twist reveal at the end. i feel that the book would have been much more powerful had the male main characters been challenged on their toxic masculinity and learned from it. had they been able to develop and change their toxic mindsets and behaviors i feel it would have been more powerful than them just being manipulated and punished and their dreams ripped out from under them. instead of painting women and strong in a positive way and portraying men as being able to grow and change, it portrays women as violent and manipulative at best (and catty and materialistic at worst) and men as either violent and unfeeling or womanizing and stupid.
i feel that this book adds nothing productive to the discussion of gender equality and instead perpetuates unfair stereotypes.
basically, this book is about three students who work together on a group project and get sidetracked into cat-fishing their teacher into sending them nude pictures. when the pictures are leaked on twitter, they get swept up into the investigation.
the twist ending (which i predicted from very early on) was that the main female character, Jenna, was the one who leaked the photos because *surprise* the two male characters were responsible for leaking her own private pictures earlier in the year. i personally predicted this from very early on in the story, but from reading reviews it seems that others did not. i don’t know why it was obvious to me, but i tend to be very critical and analytical (hehe it rhymes) while consuming media.
it turns out that everything, down to them all being in the same class and being paired on the assignment together was orchestrated by Jenna. as i mentioned earlier, i feel like this strips this story of it’s moral as it puts Jenna in the role of the villain, and shows her to be manipulative, vindictive and cruel. this doesn’t show society, or men with harmful beliefs that victim blaming and slut shaming is wrong. it just shows them that they should watch out because women are crazy. also, the fact that the two main characters were caught in Jenna’s “trap” doesn’t make a lot of sense. first of all, because although they were not the most likable of characters, we had spent the book reading from their perspective and gaining empathy for them and hoping for them to grow and change. second of all, the fact that Jenna framed them leaves me wanting justice for them even though i don’t like them as people. i have never read a book where the ending is that the main character lied and got away with it. and we are supposed to celebrate Jenna for being a strong female character?
i just don’t understand the purpose of this book, because none of the characters developed in any way and the only message i could feasibly gather from this story is “don’t leak private photos— not because it’s morally incorrect or anything, but because the person whose photos you leak might turn out to be a scheming sociopath who will get you kicked out of school.” this book was definitely original, and i would like to see more YA books that challenge toxic masculinity and victim blaming, but this...... was not it, chief.
jobey's review against another edition
1.0
I’m honestly confused as to how I should go about reviewing Easy Prey, a YA contemporary “mystery” novel that centers around three high school students, their relationships with one another, and the grand issue of digital privacy as they attempt to figure out who leaked their teacher’s nude photos on the internet.
Aside from the fact that the three main characters are an insufferable in-cel, a one-dimensional “it’s not easy being white” jock stereotype, and a girl who seems to think the best way to approach misogyny and double standards is to put other girls down herself, there’s a lot of problems with this book.
The writing style includes very simple wording, generic phrasing… it’s just generally very bland; not only is there nothing spectacular about it but it also doesn’t serve or move the book along in any way. There is almost no nuance or subtlety in this story. I found the time-jumping and changing perspectives largely ineffective storytelling devices. The teen speak is incredibly unrealistic and at times even cringe-y; I kid you not when I say I had to pause several times throughout reading this just to collect myself (not in a good way). And I nearly dnf’ed this… it took an incredible amount of energy for me to trudge through.
There are a few moments of recognition of double standards and assessment of privacy issues (particularly concerning women’s nude photos) that provided a small amount of merit to the read, but they are easily cancelled out and even hypocritically turned on by the majority of the rest of the book. The most problematic part of the book, in my opinion, is the ending— which I unfortunately can’t divulge much about because of spoilers. However, I don’t think you’ll want to waste your time anyways… 1 star.
Aside from the fact that the three main characters are an insufferable in-cel, a one-dimensional “it’s not easy being white” jock stereotype, and a girl who seems to think the best way to approach misogyny and double standards is to put other girls down herself, there’s a lot of problems with this book.
The writing style includes very simple wording, generic phrasing… it’s just generally very bland; not only is there nothing spectacular about it but it also doesn’t serve or move the book along in any way. There is almost no nuance or subtlety in this story. I found the time-jumping and changing perspectives largely ineffective storytelling devices. The teen speak is incredibly unrealistic and at times even cringe-y; I kid you not when I say I had to pause several times throughout reading this just to collect myself (not in a good way). And I nearly dnf’ed this… it took an incredible amount of energy for me to trudge through.
There are a few moments of recognition of double standards and assessment of privacy issues (particularly concerning women’s nude photos) that provided a small amount of merit to the read, but they are easily cancelled out and even hypocritically turned on by the majority of the rest of the book. The most problematic part of the book, in my opinion, is the ending— which I unfortunately can’t divulge much about because of spoilers. However, I don’t think you’ll want to waste your time anyways… 1 star.
karmakat's review against another edition
4.0
Overall, thought this was a pretty solid YA novel. Was the main subject matter handled in the best way possible - absolutely not. But it was very readable (in my case, listened to the audio via SYNC Audiobooks for Teens). Addressed a number of topics very relevant to teens.
engpunk77's review against another edition
5.0
I can’t believe how good this is. Realistic YA fiction dealing with the topic of sexting in an exciting plot that reads like a thriller. Would be great for an upper high school book club; there is so much to discuss! A major point of discussion is the double standard we have for boys and girls in terms of responsibility. I can’t imagine any high school student reading this and not devouring it and wanting to talk passionately about it. So good.
shannak's review against another edition
5.0
Saw the ending coming, but loved it anyway. Great story. Reminded me a bit of Teaching Mrs. Tingle, but way better.