Prey by Imogene Ashton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So… a bit of a slow start, yes, but once this story got going, it got going!
Admittedly, I think it’s been quite a while since I read a straight, pure fantasy story. Growing up, one of my favorite series was The Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo, which effectively introduced me to the genre and made me realize that I personally require a hook of some kind to stay invested, whether it be a mystery, a question, a character to latch on to, whatever. I think my last adult fantasy series was The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, read back in 2018. Still waiting for the third book on that one.
My point with all this is, I think I’ve neglected my love for fantasy recently. I try to read stories across as many genres as possible, but this is one that as of late I haven’t touched.
So, when I was thrown into Ashton’s world head-on, it took me quite some time to get it, and I don’t think that’s the story’s fault at all. Let’s get into it!
Summary
The story opens and we are introduced to Evelyn in a dome city. Evelyn comes from a large family with a lot of power and when the king of her city starts threatening the people, she flees only to be caught and forced into a school for magical beings. But this school has challenges, and Evelyn must quickly learn who is on her side and who is not.
Can Evelyn survive this world she must live in, with other magical beings out to get her?
Thoughts
And again I’m conflicted…
I think part of the issue I had with this story (even though I liked it) was that it threw you into the action right away without really doing too much to talk a bit about the characters. The reason I found this an issue was because I was thrown into the action sequences immediately with little time to figure out who was who. The three characters I feel like I figured out were Evelyn, Rosanna, and their father Ariel.
That said, I still really enjoyed the story as the plot became clearer. Let’s look into this a little more!
Characters
Evelyn
“In the most southern city of Utopia, a dark haired, dark eyed teenage girl lay on her back on a grass verge, looking through the glass dome, up at the passing clouds. As she watched, the sun began to sink lower and lower in the sky, finally disappearing behind the distant mountains.”
It took me some time to warm up to Evelyn, mainly because she’s so cold at first. As the story went on, we figured out why and her surroundings with everyone around her out to get her also helped to explain it, but at first it threw me off because I didn’t yet know why she was cold.
I loved her relationship with her sister Rosanna. The two of them being there for each other at the magic school was great to see, and I appreciated getting an in-depth look at at least one of her familial relationships. It made me care for her more as time went on, which I was surprised was happening because I don’t usually warm up to characters like her.
Rosanna
“‘I am a hybrid. Half vampire, half wizard. Your mother is a werewolf. Quinlan is a werewolf, Miriam is also a hybrid, half werewolf half witch. Morgan is a vampire, River is a wizard, Jedidiah is a vampire, Jeremiah is a werewolf and Rosanna is a witch.’”
I liked Rosanna a lot, too, and her willingness to protect her human sister in the magic school. It was nice to see their relationship fleshed out. I did have an issue with Evelyn and Rosanna having so many siblings because it was a lot to keep track of, so it was nice that the author took one to expand upon.
Without going into spoilers, I want to give a quick comment on Rosanna’s reaction to the climax of the story. I think her reaction showed just how much she cared for Evelyn, and I loved seeing her feelings regarding it. I think the reaction was spot-on given what happened and showed just how close they are. It was amazing to see!
Ariel
“For the first time since entering the clearing, Ariel glanced around him. Blood and broken torn up bodies littered the ground. A feeling of dread ran through him.”
I had a little trouble understanding Ariel at first because his position in the story involved the complicated politics of their world, but as time went on, I started to understand that he was working to protect his daughters.
There was one scene I remember where he and Evelyn got to really be honest with each other about something that was bothering Evelyn, and seeing Ariel really open up made me feel better about their relationship.
Structure
Okay, so we see worldbuilding from Ashton right away in some brief exposition about the politics of the world of the story. Like I said, I didn’t connect with the worldbuilding right away and the plot at first moved a little too fast for me. This is an issue because I was thinking that I didn’t care about Evelyn yet.
It was only when we got time to slow down a bit and meet some other friends she’d made at the school that I really started to care. I felt tense and then upset at the climax, which is what I needed to feel. I’m concerned for Rosanna going forward, and I’m just wondering where Ashton is going to take this next!
Writing
Ashton’s writing was good enough that I eventually grew to care about the story being told. It did take some time, though. The writing is best (I think) in the action sequences that occur – I think Ashton is really good at those.
The dome cities were easy to see and get behind – I could imagine the world right away, and Ashton was able to pull me in right off with this dome city that Evelyn is not allowed to leave. The tension when she does leave is perfect and I was thinking the entire time that the king was not going to be happy. Seeing the fallout from that right away was great, too. Ashton knows how to get in a setup and payoff and both work well.
Conclusion
I’m still trying to decide if I want to move forward with this series. It’s interesting, but as I hinted before, the politics were a bit difficult to get behind and I feel like I still don’t fully understand it. That’s my major gripe with this story and even then it didn’t take away that much of my enjoyment of the story.
I think Ashton has created an intriguing world and some intriguing characters. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who wants to see how fantasy behaves when a little bit of reality is thrown into the mix. It makes for a very intriguing story!
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