Utterly thrilling and fantastic. Dark, edgy, and every page filled with fabulous writing that you will be unable to put this book down until the very end, and even after that, you will want more. I love this author, and I will ALWAYS read everything she writes, and I recommend her to everyone.

Marie Rutkoski knows the world of exotic dancers because she used to be one. Working as a stripper in her 20s to help pay for higher education, Rutkoski garnered plenty of fodder for her later adult novel debut Real Easy, a book about a series of murders revolving around a strip club in the late 90s. Real Easy is an “own voices” novel of a different sort, not detailing a marginalized author’s personal experiences based on their race, disability, or sexual orientation, but rather on their career. Rutkoski lends her experience to this story to create a dark, gritty, and authentic tale of power, lust, and fear.

The year is 1999 and someone is killing strippers. Samantha and her fellow dancers at the Lovely Lady have been hearing rumors that a recently murdered sex worker was only able to be identified by the serial number on her implants. Needless to say they are all spooked. Much to her horror, Samantha finds herself coming up against the killer when she gives the new girl at work a ride home, launching an investigation that strives to uncover the murderer’s sinister plot.

Real Easy is a book that I have strong feeling about because it is such a mixed bag. The novel starts off incredibly strong, following Samantha through her nights working at the Lovely Lady, and details what life is like as a sex worker. Samantha, a wholly intriguing character in her own right, was written with such voice and spirit, and I was excited to follow her throughout this novel. Until I realized that I wasn’t. Following her, that is, because the book soon switches perspective to another character, and another, and continues to follow this pattern throughout the rest of the novel. We receive the POV of every person who has an iron in the fire, and what results is a confusing amalgamation of narratives that is often difficult to follow. Because I was listening to an audiobook production of this novel, I found myself lost several times, not fully realizing that the story had switched perspective. This isn’t at the fault of narrator Eva Kaminsky, who does a fine job of telling this story, but rather because there wasn’t much distinction written into the voices of the various characters.

Rutkoski showcases her talent in Real Easy, and she obviously has the skills to write a compelling story; I just wish that she had focused her novel on fewer characters, providing a more intimate tale of lust and murder. As it stands, Real Easy is still a good book, albeit one that isn’t the easiest to follow.

Recommended to fans of Ivy Pochoda’s These Women.

This was a really quick thriller and it was super easy to get through. I really enjoyed how the author left hints about who was the murderer throughout the whole story. Definitely left me unsettled at points.

Real Easy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Rounded to 5 ⭐️ for rating)
Genre: Thriller
Format: Audiobook
Date Published: 1/18/22
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Goodreads Rating: 3.66

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for providing a digital advanced readers copy of the book for me to read for my honest opinion. NetGalley provided the ebook version but I used an audiobook version as well that I purchased.

Synopsis: It’s 1999, and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She’s not used to taking anyone under her wing but when Samantha overrides her better judgment to drive a new dancer home, they are run off the road. The police arrive at the scene of the accident―but find only one body. Georgia, another dancer, is drawn into the investigation as she tries to assist Holly, a Harvard-educated detective with a complicated story of her own. How do women live out their lives knowing that men can hurt them?

My Thoughts: This was a great read! I really loved the audiobook narrator, she was great. The story is narrated by various girls that worked at the strip club, the serial killer (few parts), and both detectives. The characters were well developed, had depth, were intense, intriguing, and worked extremely well for this story. The author’s writing style was complex, intriguing, well-thought out, the scenes were descriptive, as you felt a part of, and kept me engaged the entire story. At the end of audiobook, there is a short interview between the narrator and the author, she gives her inspiration for this story and it absolutely made sense why she wrote this book. I highly recommend!

Emotional, fast-paced, this one has it all.

I think many of us are interested in the lives of women in this professional and it was a very compelling and interesting story to tell.

I really felt for these characters in a way I don't get from other books in the genre.

It's amazing to know that this story was based in part on the author's real life experiences. And that authenticity shows.

Great job.

Short synopsis: Strippers at the Lovely Lady Strip club start to go missing.

My thoughts: I have mixed thoughts on this one. I know there are many true crime stories where sex workers or strippers are taken, and never found.

I guessed who the killer was, but the story was told in an Interesting way through multiple perspectives and multiple time frames.

We get the perspective of Samantha who goes missing, and some of her time during her captivity. Of Georgia, another stripper who is ultimately worried about her missing friends. Holly, the detective on the case. And “him” the person responsible for the abductions.

While these perspectives helped drive the story along, it got somewhat confusing due to all the different characters involved. It could be partially because I did a mix of audio and reading the ebook.

Parts of this book were very detailed and crude. After listening to the author interview it makes sense. The author herself was a dancer in her early 20’s and there were similar situations she dealt with when girls drinks would get drugged. I am just so glad that I haven’t had to know this type of life, where my body was displayed for the sole enjoyment of men paying to oogle it.

Read if you’re a sucker for:
* Multiple perspectives
* True crime feeling fiction
* Page turner thriller

The author provides evocative descriptions of the culture and her characterization is well defined.
Many thanks to Henry Holt and Company and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a good thriller, but I honestly did not get out of it what others have seemed to. It didn’t floor me, or hold me absolutely captive. But that being said, it didn’t necessarily mean that it was a bad thriller. I feel like this would be good summer reading

Utterly unique and completely captivating adult literary debut from Marie Rutkoski, this book truly stands out from other books I've read this year and I truly hope Rutkoski continues to write more in this genre in the future.

Real Easy is a gritty thriller that shines a spotlight on the lives of strippers in a seedy club. There were interesting moments, but ultimately this was a three star for me.

This fast paced thriller peels back the layers of a seedy strip club by diving into the stories of its strippers. Learning about the sister/frenemy relationships paints a picture of a world that is made for men not women. As more strippers are going missing, it’s the ones not chosen that will have to make it up for the others. I loved the aspect of the relationships between all the women. Everyone is different and everyone has a different dynamic. As they try to find out what happened, you’ll realize that these women may fight but they’re always have each other

I was surprised at how sucked into this book I was! It was dark & gritty, taking place in a world that is foreign to me ... but the author made you feel like you were right there in it. I loved the mystery aspect of this book, and the fact that the amateur sleuth was another one of the dancers, trying to figure out what was going on.
I will say that I maybe considered who the killer was at one point, but that I didn't expect it to play out how it did (or how things would go down in the end). This was a really interesting book, but definitely is not for those easily offended by descriptions of the things going down in a dark strip club.
I listed to this on audio & I think that made me feel very immersed in the story, and super invested as to what was happening. I enjoyed that the book switches perspectives between characters too, as that helped lend to the overall mystery of what was going on.

This book is messy and disappointing - first and foremost in that it relies on too many POVs and fails to really establish more main characters, which leaves you feeling unmoored. Its saving grace is that it's written from Rutkowski's lived experience, so it feels very real. The low level hum of constant danger these women are in from men feels very real and very familiar to anyone who lives as a woman.

I loved this thriller and really enjoyed the pacing, the cast of characters, and the reveal. I have heard a lot of mixed things about this book, and some comments from people who found the content too dark. It deals with some dark stuff, but I will say that I think the author is quite respectful in terms of the viewpoint of the story. I am very squeamish when it comes to torture and sexual violence, and I felt like the author did a good job of keeping the violence somewhat euphemistic so you could enjoy the story and not get bogged down in very scary details. That being said, I was also on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who the serial killer is and alternately hoping against all hope that the viewpoint characters don’t get caught by the serial killer.

Eh, this was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't bowled over. Marie Rutkoski is clearly a fantastic writer, but there was just too much going on in this book and I couldn't connect with it as much as I thought I would in the beginning. It's certainly a literary fiction/thriller that tows the line well, but still doesn't quite know what it wants to be. I enjoyed the mystery and I wanted to know what the ending would bring, but it was a bit underwhelming all in all. Perhaps because it leans too much into literary fiction int art sense.

Set in 1999, we follow detectives trying to figure out the crime of a murdered stripper, and a missing one, who leave the club they work at together one night. It is told from multiple POVs, which allows for interesting perspective, but also forces you to really have a handle on all the characters at any given time. It is very dark, and also often disturbing, and not a light read by any means. If you are interested in a blend of thriller/mystery and literary fiction, give this one a try, but don't expect to be on the edge of your seat.

This was a thriller/mystery that centered around a strip club and the dancers who worked there. A couple of girls are murdered and the murderer is hidden in plain sight. This is one that kept me guessing until the last third and then I figured it out.
What I did enjoy was a look into the lives of the dancers and the clear message that they are as human and worthy of respect as anyone else. They have their families, their struggles, their goals and hangups and hopes for the future. It presented them as women who deserve the same out of life as anyone else and I was glad for the learning experience.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I heard mixed reviews and I was nervous to read it, but I’m so glad I did. It was the perfect book to binge. The multiple POVS was perfect and I enjoyed it!

This book garnered a lot of pre-publication buzz, so I've been curious about it since I first heard about it. It's Rutkoski's debut novel for adults - though a decade earlier, I read her YA fantasy novel set in Chicago. This time, the book is set in the fictional Fremont, IL - mostly at the Lovely Lady strip club. When picking out books for my newest book club, one friend joked that she wanted our next one to be about hookers (though not all of the girls participate in the after-hours business), so she and I read this one as a fun buddy-read.

We both agreed that the cast-size is a bit cumbersome - especially since many of the characters have stage names on top of their given names. Some of the girls tend to blend together. Plus, the book comes from multiple perspectives and they don't all actually add much to the storyline - some sections could be entirely removed without any impact to the overall plot. And as for the plot itself, I myst admit that I was just about halfway through when I figured out the rest of it. There were some minor surprises, but in the end, I was correct. I did appreciate the 1999 time period as well as some of the factual Illinois details that made it I n here - like the shout-out to Harvard's Milk Days in June and girls physically manning the dressing rooms at Sears with numbered placards.

All in all, this kept my attention all the way through. It is something of a page turner - though I felt a bit less intensity in the latter half because I was so certain in how it would all turn out. My friend listened to the audio version and I think enjoyed it less than me - probably because she couldn't as easily flip back to remind herself on names with the cast size... I am curious, though, to see what Rutkoski will write next!

I like character driven stories so I enjoyed the detail and getting to know the background and motivations behind each character, but found the storyline a bit hard to follow as there are a lot of points of view. I really liked the ending and how everything came together, especially the last chapter and the author interview at the end of the audiobook, which explained a lot!

Set in 1999 in a suburb of Chicago, this character driven thriller uses its strip club setting to full advantage. The Lovely Lady has a colorful staff and questionable clients, and when two of the dancers, including Ruby the top earner, go missing, everyone plays a part in the ensuing investigation. Told from alternating points of view, from the dancers and their families to the local detectives, Rachel Howzell Hall keeps the pace brisk while fleshing out the nuances of every character. The mystery is intriguing, but getting to know each player is equally engaging.