Prey by Lurlene Mcdaniel

 

Summary:
A teacher is supposed to impart a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge. It’s a bit different with Ms. Lori Settles. All the kids are talking about how hot she is–and she is especially interested in Ryan Piccoli. When she starts giving Ryan extra attention, he’s feeling more than happy–at first. He’s used to being the class clown, but really he’s a loner. One day after school, the friendship with Lori Settles goes farther than he ever expected. She’s his teacher. She’s at least twice his age. Intimacy with a teacher is wrong, yet it feels so good in every way. Soon, Lori is making demands and Ryan begins to feel overwhelmed, but Ryan refuses to even admit anything is going on. Something immoral is going on and before too long the choices made will change lives forever.
Summary taken from Goodreads.com

W.O.W. that was my first reaction after reading this book. The author has really evolved in her writing. The topics she's choosing the last few years seems to mirror the changes in the things that teens face in this ever changing world.

This book is told from the POV of three characters, Ryan, Lori (his teacher) and Honey his friend. It seems to me that she is using this style more and more in her newer books and I enjoy it because we get a feel for the other characters from the way the others see them and think about them.

While I found this book to be very thought provoking I didn't connect to her characters as much, Maybe it's because traditionally the main characters in her novels are female. For me its hard to let go of the way she used to write her books. I didn't like Ryan at all and I didn't care for Lori which is a given since she was having sex with Ryan her student I couldn't like her. The only person I did like was Honey who I felt deserved more attention she really cared about Ryan and he shoved her to the side like an unwanted toy. I know that Ryan was messed up because of his relationship with Lori but even before it began I found him difficult to connect to and that became even more evident as the book wore on I just couldn't stand him talk about whiney.

Despite all my issues with the characters I still think this was a powerful book written at the perfect level for younger teens about the taboo student/teacher relationship and that it still felt like the author's writing. Just because this isn't one of my favourites that she's written I can appreciate it for what she was trying to and in my opinion did accomplish and that is raising awareness that this kind of sick thing does happen. Once again I strongly urge you to give her writing a try.

★★★★