Bumpy Oak Books

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Marie Rutkoski’s adult debut, Real Easy, delves into the backstage of a strip club. The story is told in multiple perspectives and discusses the day to day happenings of the club as well as an ongoing double homicide investigation.

This novel has been advertised as a psychological thriller, which is concerning to me. I feel like this book is quite possibly being mismarketed and I hope that this book finds its audience. Typically, in a thriller genre, you expect to have an overarching sense of tension and dread concerning a possibility of something bad. This book had very brief moments of tension, but they did not thread throughout the book. I would argue that this book is a literary crime novel.

The police procedure in this book is shockingly well done and well researched. Likewise, the backstage intricacies of dancer life was handled with delicacy and deliberate care. After learning of Marie Rutkoski’s background as a dancer and her family on the police force, it seems evident that she really put in the work in ensuring she got these details right.

What seemed paramount in this book, which is set in the 90’s but whose message carries to today, is the impact of being somehow other in the world. Whether that impact is by being a Person of Color, queer, intersex, female, or some different variety of other, those things impact life drastically and establishes a certain expectation of violence or of opposition. These themes are strong in this novel and the exploration really is reminiscent of literary fiction. The book also happens to surround the murder investigation, which is why I stand firm in my classification of this book as a literary crime novel.

Unfortunately, I do not tend to enjoy literary fiction. I may not have picked this book up had I known what I would be getting, or I would have entered the book with appropriate expectations for what it was. I recognize fully that Rutkoski did a great job with this book, but people who are expecting or seeking a thriller may find themselves disappointed as I did.

I have enjoyed my previous reads of Rutkoski’s works and will continue to read her works in the future. While not to my taste, it is my hope that this book finds its audience.