Real Easy

I may be butthurt because I WANTED to love this book so much. But there's way too many povs, and because of that, the pacing is hurt and the book often feels like it's going nowhere. I didn't mind the lewdness (but if you're that kinda reader, maybe stay away) - it was really the set-up that got to me. So as much as I wanted to love this read, and though the characters themselves are interesting (which maybe, on second thought, makes me more upset because I WANTED to get to know them but found their characterization skimming the surface) the book didnt pack the punch I expected/wanted it to going in.

Great audio production. Strong characters (maybe too many?) with a relentless plot.

Real Easy, Marie Rutkoski
historical fiction (1990s), mystery, slice of life
320 pages, published January 18th 2022

I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost in exchange for my honest opinion.

Well I loved THE MIDNIGHT LIE by Marie Rutkoski and this book has an intersex main character (it sounds like she has XXY chromosomes and she refers to her variation as “her syndrome” and is super embarrassed about it, but it is the 90s and I was personally not around to bake her a cake about it!) so obviously I HAD to read this. It's absolutely incredible as a book; it's gritty but also full of heart, it's queer, it's about dancers at a strip club, there's cute kids in it who are written well. It's ALSO a murder mystery! It's literally all my favorite things wrapped up in a book!

HOWEVER. I don't think you should read this on audiobook. This is a many-multiple perspectives book, and I think that it would be a lot easier to follow were it not on audiobook. I feel like at some point I stopped paying attention for thirty seconds and I lost the thread of it, and I, personally, just would have preferred to read this via print. The narrator is excellent, but she _is _the same narrator for all of the perspectives, so that didn't help me get back into it. I ended up re-listening to a big chunk of it, which was frustrating, but this is almost certainly my problem and not something you're likely to encounter if you read it As A Book. I think I will probably check it out of the library in print and re-read it later this year!

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I got approved for this ebook unexpectedly after reviewing the audiobook back in January! My main problem with the audiobook was that all the characters are voiced by the same (excellent!) narrator and there are many many different perspectives. I... unfortunately had the same problem with the ebook. Also I found myself uninterested in some characters' perspectives and started skipping their chapters. It reminded me of reading My Sister's Keeper as a Youth and I always skipped the dad's chapters because I thought he was annoying. (And I was right!) Unfortunately, this brought down the review to three stars. But also an intersex perspective! I just think there should have been more intersex perspective and less everything else. I'm not biased at all. Published on January 18th, 2022. Bookshop link here.

Real Easy is a tapestry of police procedural, the harsh realities of life, and the struggles to move on beyond it. Rutkoski doesn't provide easy solutions because there aren't any. Real Easy is a crime that you can't take your eyes off of and you don't want to.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Check out the rest of my review at Phoebe's Randoms. Link in bio.