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Prey by Lurlene McDaniel

Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 208
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (February 12, 2008)




Thus far, I've only reviewed books that I've really liked, so you may be thinking, "does Jill like every book she reads?" Of course not. I've read plenty of children's books I don't like but have decided not to review them because I really didn't think I had much to say except that they were just okay. I lead a team of writers at a communications firm and know how important it is to give constructive feedback to help writers grow. As a writer myself, I know what it feels like to receive wishy-washy, vague feedback. I need to know what needs work so I can improve, make it the best piece possible, and apply the same lessons to my next piece. So, in my opinion, if I read a book and don't have something constructive to say except I didn't like it, that's a useless review. That's why up until now I've intentionally chosen not to review books about which I had mixed feelings.

Last weekend, I read Lurlene McDaniel's new Young Adult novel, Prey, and I DO have something constructive (at least I think so) to say about it. It's a story about a female high school history teacher, Ms. Lori Settles who seduces her teenage student, Ryan Piccoli. We seem to be obsessed with real-life cases like this in this country. Probably the most infamous of these teachers is Mary Kay Letourneau who had two children with her teenage student and ended up marrying him when she finished her jail sentence. And then the 25-year-old teacher Kelsey Peterson made national news back in November when she was caught in Mexico with her 14-year-old student. As a former teacher myself, I am incredulous when I hear stories like this. Questions run through my head: Why would someone in such a professional and influential position do this? What was she thinking? What happened to this woman that would cause her to act this way?

I was naturally intrigued when I received a review copy of Prey. Perhaps this would answer some of my questions and get more into the head of these female predators. Prey alternates between the point of view of three characters: Ryan, Ms. Settles, and Honey, Ryan's longtime friend who is secretly in love with him.

The book gets off to a promising start. We learn from the very beginning that Ryan is intentionally Lori's target. From the very first day of school, she knows that, "he'll be the One" (p. 15). Upon reading this, I felt a chill and was eager to continue reading. However, I felt the seduction happened way too quickly, and Ryan's situation didn't seem realistic. His father is a traveling salesman and is out of town four days of the week. A housekeeper cleans the house, but doesn't live there and hardly pays any attention to Ryan when she is there. It almost seems too easy for Lori to manipulate him and too easy for them to get together.

Writing in first person is challenging and probably one of the most difficult tasks to pull off well. Successfully writing from the first person point of view of multiple characters is extremely difficult (I'm thinking of Faulkner here, who I believe was a master at this). I applaud McDaniel for taking a risk here. I was interested in the relationship between Honey and Ryan and then Ryan and Lori, but McDaniel never really went deep enough with the characters. While Honey's character was needed to describe Ryan's friend's and family's concern about his sudden change in behavior, I often felt she was just an aside, an interrupter of sorts, especially when her chapters disrupted the flow and momentum of the novel.

In addition, at some points, McDaniel didn't seem to capture the teenage voice in a believable way. For example, at one point in novel, Ryan hears that a coach at the school has been asking Lori out. When Lori picks him up for a tryst, he confronts her. Here's how he describes his feelings to the reader, "Rain is pelting the windows, sluicing in long noisy rivers along the glass, like a knife cutting through my heart. The windows are fogged, moist from our breath and the heat of anger. Hot wetness swells behind my eyes. I'm acting like a jerk, but I can't help myself. I have to know the truth about her and Coach" (p. 76).

To me, language like this coming from a 15/16 year old seems inauthentic, while at other times, he's completely thinking like a teenage boy. McDaniel did, however, make Lori Settles seem to be the most authentic and consistent of the characters. We see what's going on in her mind, what makes her tick, and her deliberate plot to seduce him.

Oh, and let me address the white elephant in the room: how were the sexual encounters portrayed? McDaniel tastefully describes the seduction and subsequent encounters. Without going into detail, she leaves much to the imagination and doesn't get too graphic. But don't get me wrong--we are talking about a teacher having sex with a teenage boy. It's in the book, but I was never shocked or offended or thought McDaniel went too far. Given the sensitive subject matter, I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you think it's appropriate for your teen, and I would only recommend this for teens.

Overall, Prey was a good story on surface level, but it lacked the depth, consistency, and authenticity that would have made it a great story. McDaniel herself admits in the author's note that this is not typical of her writing, and I commend her for stepping outside of her comfort zone. I also admire her for addressing such a serious issue and hope that teenagers who read the book will be able to spot the warning signs if their friends start to behave differently and secretively.

Good Morning:

I'm up and about and looking forward to a new day. I'm hopeful that it will be a better day than yesterday was.

Thinking back on my day yesterday, I can find it intriguing, but in the heat of the happenings, it wasn't such an intriguing day.

It was a nice enough morning, and I found my way to the back gardens as usual. I thought I would check the strawberries for any signs of buds. Generally, I'm not a glove wearer, so I blindly stick my bare hands into the strawberries. I did find a few buds, but I also pulled out a freshly dead goldfinch with a broken neck. Seems she flew into my sliding glass door and dropped dead into the terra-cotta pot full of lush, green strawberry plants.

I didn't really think much about it, as I often come across death and rat skulls and such, in my garden. I threw her on my hill to let nature take her. I always think this is a much better option than the trash can method. So, on with my day.

Next, I'm off in my car to my daily destinations. Driving on a street that I'm familiar with, but has unrecognizable construction work going on. Part of the street was roped off and I needed to make a left turn onto a smaller street. I did manage to make my left turn, but in doing so, I absolutely cut off a police officer. Just like that. I saw him across from me, but I wasn't sure if he had a stop sign because of all the construction hullabaloo. Like the "polite" person that I am, I look directly at him, put my hand up in a little wave and mouth "sorry" to him. Well...of course, he pulled me over. From that point on it was just surreal. I had never been pulled over before!! It really was just like the show "Cops". He asked me to turn off my vehicle and if I had any weapons or drugs in my car or on my person, and asked if I had any outstanding warrants. I showed him my driver's license, which I had to fetch from my purse, which, of course, was in the backseat. I knew enough not to reach behind me without first asking him. So, I had to turn my car back on, roll down the back window so that he could "get a visual" on my purse, and then he allowed me to reach back and get it. He took my license and "ran" it through wherever they "run" it through. Then, he came back, handed me my license and said to slow down a little and have a good day. What??? No ticket?? Thankful of the outcome, I was on my way.

Well...as I'm carefully driving on to the bank, probably a little too carefully, I decide to take a backstreet that goes through some horse property. There's a charming old barn and hundred year old Cacti. So, I'm driving along and in a simple heartbeat, a bird flies right into the front of my car. He hit with enough force to kill him instantly and fall to the side of the road. Two dead birds in one day. What the heck is going on? I continue on, as there's nothing I can do for the bird. I find my way to the bank, although slightly shaken and a little confused. Once inside, I'm immediately helped. I sit down to get my paperwork together. I open my wallet to grab my debit card....it's gone. Yep, gone. I think to myself "What the heck is going on?" I looked through every nook and cranny of my wallet. Emptied my purse. Checked my pockets. Nothing. My debit card had vanished. I finished my banking and carefully, very carefully journeyed home.

I spent the rest of yesterday mentally backtracking my steps. Trying to figure out when the last time was that I used my bank card. Needless to say, I haven't found it yet...

All in all, it was an odd and curious day yesterday. I seriously hope that today is calm and predictible.

I'll leave you with a few photos today. A picture of the progress of the garden path, a few pictures of our herbs and edibles and...yet another picture of my sweet Jr. doing what he does best....

Jr. staring at "ground fairies"


Making progress on my garden path


My daughter's kitchen garden


Cinnamon Basil


Yellow Crook Neck Squash


Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
gnarly-dolls
Kim's Kandid Kamera

I pottered around the house all day today - like I had nothing else to do! I would actually love to spend all my time pottering. I can't think of anything better to do. Apart from draw that is. So these two drawings are a combination of both of those things. One took around 15 minutes the other took considerably longer.

I thought I'd have a clear out; throw out some of the herbs and stuff that had gone out of date. I found that that was about 95% of them. I reconsidered and decided that actually most of them may 'come in useful in the future'. Take these porcini, for example, I'll get at least one more drawing out of them.