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A review by jobey
Easy Prey by Catherine Lo
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.