[Review] The Prey by Tom Isbell

Title: The Prey
Series: The Hatchery #1

Author: Tom Isbell [Twitter]

Publisher: HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins

Genre: Young Adult Fiction - Science Fiction, Dystopian, Thriller

Release Date: January 20, 2015

Source: eARC provided by the publisher, opinions are honest and my own. – review policy here.

Run!!!!!!!

Immediately we kick off with folks hiding in caves and almost dying in deserts, oddly called the No Water. There's the potential for high action and we know there are some bad and suspicious people in this world. They're called Brown Shirts. They wear Brown Shirts. Be aware of the Brown Shirts.

Twists and Turns
Interestingly we have two POVs, one is first person past/present through Books who is an LT at a boy's camp, and the second is a third person present showcasing Hope. This makes things a bit hard to follow, despite the change in tenses, but more so the change in narratives. I'm really curious why Hope's POV isn't also first person. If there's going to be a third person narrative I'm looking for a lot more regarding world building and character development.

For the first half of the book the world building is laid out depicting a post-apocalyptic US in which the boys and girls have been separated, some people have defects due to, what I can guess is, radiation exposure.

The plot really is the driving force here. The concept of hunting people for sport and using the population for scientific testing is all very intriguing. Tell me more. How did this start? Once the boys and the girls come together in part three things really get moving and the action packed journey begins.

I made little attachments to the characters so when people died it was just a shrug. The character I enjoyed the most is Cat and the story does reveal some info about him that is interesting but he's mostly an unexplored character like the rest. Also Hope's father's past shows some potential to add character value so I'm waiting for more in book two.

Descriptive Disasters
The writing is really interesting here. Putting aside the tenses and POV issues. There are several times I snickered at descriptives such as "purpling," the act of turning purple. There's also the possibility of "masculine smells." At some point I started glazing over them because I found them to be more distracting than off-putting.

Um, no. That's a strong no.

But I stuck with it. Mostly because the plot and concept were still interesting to me and I was curious to see it all play out. Once the ending started creeping up I was excited and anxious to see how the set up for book two played out. Whomp, womp! I was extremely let down. I'm not going to spoil here but I will say it comes off as underwhelming.

I'm not sure I'm reading book two but if I do this is what I'd like to see...

By far to me one of the most interesting character's is Cat, who Books and his friends find in the desert, ahem, No Water. At this point Cat's POV is more interesting than Books' or Hope's. Overall more character development to make me invested in who lives and dies.

The ending was redundant. I really hope book two skips some pieces since this one was already a journey book. So I'm looking for lots of action! 

2.5 Stars – Good premise, but ultimately not for me.