I initially read this book as an ARC and it is still sticking with me. Characters are incredibly likable, I immediately wanted to know their story. The plot was unique and fascinating, playing in to the fringes of popular cult stans and podcast topics. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for more by Bethany Mangle!

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

I cannot stress enough how terrifying this book is. And I am eternally grateful that my own father did not present with his mentally ill tendencies in such a way that I was impacted as the children of this book were. But, while I was fortunate enough to escape such a fate, some aren't. And for that, I think Bethany Mangle's Prepped is a deeply important novel.

I cannot say that I had fun reading this, exactly, but I can definitely say that it was engaging. There is so much about this book that strikes me as essential.

Unfortunately, as Bethany notes, most children in situations like this will likely be indoctrinated via homeschool. But, for those who aren't, having a book like this out in the world to shed light on the disturbing nature of the family situation depicted could create such an immensely important lifeline for those affected. Whether it's through finding this book themselves or a peer having their own eyes opened to something around them that they could discuss with their parents.

And while I would not advocate for reporting just anyone, there's definitely something incredibly beneficial about knowing that these situations exist and being able to use this as a conversation starter for how to help if it ever becomes very clear that help is needed.

Becca and her family are part of a doomsday prepper community. Here they do survivalist training and prepare for the worst. Becca is one of the only kids in her community that isn’t homeschooled and it’s her only time to get away from it all. One day a terrible accident happens in her community and it changes everything for her.

I thought doomsday preppers was such a unique storyline, I loved it! I’ve never read anything like this and the pace of the story was great and it kept me reading. I loved learning about all the things they did everyday and how they were prepared for all scenarios. Becca and Roy were great characters and I’m glad you can grow up in a community like this and still have some sense!

And oh my gosh I could not stand Becca’s mom! At one point my jaw nearly dropped at how heartless she was! I didn’t care for the ending, it felt too abrupt. I understand there couldn’t be too much more to it but it felt like it just stopped. Besides that I loved the story!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. This book had me tricked into thinking this wasn't going to be the romance I thought it was for a solid half of the book, which doesn't happen often for me. I found this book really refreshing, not only setting a romance in a community we don't get to hear much from, but also exposing a little bit of what life is like for people living in the same situation as our main character. I thought it was a quite good read.

This book seemed so interesting - doomsday communities! questions about how that mentality affects your psyche! how could any of this possibly disappoint? How could it ever "bore" someone?

I still do not know the answer to these questions, but unfortunately, PREPPED did indeed disappoint me --and even worse, it bored me.

Not recommended.

What a unique book! I love the doomsday prepper focus, I'm absolutely fascinated by that world so to see it in a YA book is really an interesting take. I also loved the idea that family first isn't always the best, that's a super important lesson for teens (and everyone, really) to hear. Maybe some of the characters fell a little flat? And the humor takes some time to get used to because it's darker humor, but I liked the book enough!

The strength of this book was definitely in the concept. It creates a fascinating situation and world, which in turn creates conflict. The writing was easy to read, though not particularly lyrical or unique. Overall a fun and thought-provoking story!

Bethany Mangle’s Prepped doesn’t take the usual steps one expects in YA fiction. There are apocalyptic elements, but we aren’t in a dystopia. Our protagonist Becca is part of a community of doomsday preppers, which means every day for her is like prepping for the Hunger Games – only it’s worse because her father is the one in charge. Becca knows that this isn’t the life she wants for herself, and zealously plans out her next steps, where a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon would mean a new life away from the community – a chance at a fresh start.

Like most YA, there’s also romance at the heart of things, but once again, it is an unconventional one. Just like Becca, we never look at Roy as a love interest, considering his commitment to the doomsday cause quite the turn-off, even if he is fairly helpful during training exercises. But when Becca’s father gets into an accident, Roy proves to be remarkably steadfast in the face of a true emergency, being there for Becca and her sister Katie.

The accident brings other changes as well; Becca’s mum becomes even more of a believer in the cause, and encourages Katie in her training. Becca, who was so eager to detach herself the moment it was possible, now finds herself wondering if she can bring herself to leave her sister behind. It’s interesting since we are taught to always save ourselves first before we try to save others, but Becca has never been competent in doomsday prep, sacrifice so laced into every facet of her being that she is willing to burn her future for the ones she loves.

Mangle handles the complexities of these relationships well. Becca feels like she can’t turn to her mother for comfort but is unable to abandon her in their family’s time of need. She dislikes her father’s role as a doomsday prepper and feels such resentment towards him during these exercises, yet his accident causes quite the emotional reaction. As much as she wants to leave it all behind, these people are also her family and the only world she’s ever known.

Becca isn’t the most likeable protagonist; she’s prickly and doesn’t really confide in anyone, barely letting anyone in to see who she truly is. We understand her situation, seeing as how confiding such truths would lead to more problems, considering her family’s influence in the community. Becca and Roy are also distant from people at school, since they are the only ones from the community who attend regular school.

But with Roy on her side, and another classmate called Sydney, we start to see Becca escape that shell a little, allowing others to help her to carry a little bit of that weight she’s held on to for so long. It is truly a character novel, with Mangle focused on Becca’s journey, which might put off some readers because there isn’t much plot to hold on to; the only question guiding us forward is whether or not Becca breaks away from her community.

The novel also has resonance to our lives today, since we currently exist on tenterhooks, unable to truly live because breaking the rules could result in devastating consequences. But it is different for us since we are in the midst of a pandemic, while the doomsday preppers imagine worst-case scenarios that will probably never come to be, so afraid of death that they never truly live.

Prepped by Bethany Mangle Book Review

I don’t read many contemporary books. I read a lot of fantasy. So this book was a little out of my comfort zone. It sounded kind of interesting, but I didn’t know if it would keep my attention or not. I did get a free ebook of this in exchange for an honest review, so I thought I would give this book a fair chance.


It’s about a girl whose family are doomsday preppers, along with their whole neighborhood. Everything they do revolves around preparing for the end of the world and Becca is tired of it. And when I say they prepare for the end of the world, I mean they PREPARE. They go WAY overboard.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely had times where I want a bunker with everything I’ll need just in case the world ends. (Especially since last year) But damn. The neighborhood in the book goes so far beyond that. If you are in any way curious about what that might look like, then you’ll be interested in this book.

I really liked this book. It did take me a little bit to get totally into it, but by the time I got to the end I was hoping for a sequel!

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was fun, interesting, and even became a nail-biter at times. Becca's relationships with her family, community, and fellow prepper, Roy, felt authentic - made me wonder if Ms. Mangle didn't have some insider information (jk?).

Becca is a third-generation prepper; her grandparents started the community in Ohio, her parents continued it, and she was born into it. Roy's family joined and he and Becca have been promised to each other (by their parents) when they are old enough to marry. But she is not a believer.

Becca thinks the whole prepper life is unnecessary. But she and the other teens are put through training activities regularly. When she is grounded, it means being locked in the underground bunker for the night. Yet she and Roy are still allowed to go to public school where they are shunned as doomsday-prepper weirdos.

After Becca's father suffers injuries from a serious car accident, life takes a sharp turn and she has to figure out how to live her life and keep her little sister safe, too.

My thanks to Margaret K. McElderry Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So let’s get straight to the point: I am obsessed with this book!! Prepped is a fast-paced and exhilarating novel about two teenagers, Rebecca and Roy, who have been forced to date each other by their doomsday-prepping families and community. Yep, doomsday preppers who throw their kids into duck ponds to see if they’ll survive frigid temperatures, who have bunkers underground and spend massive amounts of money every month to maintain them and keep them stocked, who set up deeply traumatic simulations to test their members’ physical and mental strength. And all Rebecca has ever wanted to do is get out, run away and start a new life at college. But it doesn’t help that her father is the leader of this bizarre community, her “boyfriend” is a dedicated prepper, and she has a little sister who needs Becca around to keep her safe. After a series of truly insane events, EVERYTHING UNRAVELS, truths are revealed, people are betrayed, plans are moulded, and Becca’s dreams are suddenly just a wild leap away.

Prepped is devastatingly witty and full of top-notch banter, and I am actually so jealous I don’t have Becca’s wicked sense of humour! And even with all of these crazy adventures that we get to see her (and Roy) embark on, I can’t ignore how profound this book is. A large part of the story could be classified under the “found family” trope and to see Becca decide to leave behind the toxicity of her family and community was a tearful moment for me. It always cuts deep when your expectations don’t match with your reality and let’s just say Becca’s suffered too much to not fight for herself and her future.

Recommending this one to all the YA lovers out there who enjoy books that are in equal parts action-packed and emotional. I can guarantee this will resonate with anyone who has felt trapped and weakened by the rules and norms they grew up surrounded by.

My Thoughts
My husband and I are mini-preppers. We’ve been trapped at home too many times because of ice storms, floods, and power outages not to be somewhat prepared for emergencies. So, we always make sure we have enough supplies of essentials on hand to last from several days to several weeks. Remember the great toilet paper shortage of 2020? We were just fine. I always have backup supplies of of water, toilet paper, certain medications, dry and canned foods… you get the picture. I’m not talking doomsday prepping, but we are prepared for mini-events for sure. So, our minor prepping activities made me very interested in this book. Here are my pros and cons for Preppers:

Pros
1. This book is about so much more than prepping! It is a family drama, a coming of age story, and a love story. It has a lot of emotion and tension and I found it be quite compelling actually.
2. I loved Becca! She is a sheltered, yet amazingly smart, strong, and courageous young woman.
3. Becca’s family relationships are probably unlike any you’ve ever read about before. She had a very odd and dysfunctional family life and it was quickly understandable why Becca wanted out of it. I definitely connected with Becca because she was firmly between a rock and a hard place, and I felt sorry for her and her situation.
4. Ms. Garcia, Becca’s physics teacher, is the mentor and friend I wish every teen could have in their life.
5. I enjoyed the fact that although Becca hated living in the community of doomsday preppers, the survival skills Becca learned while growing up helped her out in the long run.
6. The romance in this book is quite unique and really endearing. It isn’t your typical YA romance at all!
7. I love that cover!
8. The ending was frantic and messy, but ultimately satisfying and hopeful.

Cons
1. I fear a book like this may give preppers a bad name. I would describe the community depicted in this book as a cult, rather than just preppers. This book displayed the extreme side of prepping where it becomes more of a religion rather than just preparation for emergencies. I hope readers can recognize the difference.

Summary
I don’t think I’ve read a book quite like this one before. The author does a fantastic job of pulling you deep into a world of extreme (cult-like) prepping that includes survival training, emotional detachment, strict obedience to those in charge, midnight drills, arranged marriages, and more. I’m all for preparing for emergencies at some level, but when the preparing becomes your entire life, at some point you stop living.

Thank you NetGalley and Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing) for providing an ebook, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

With huge thanks to Bethany Mangle and Netgalley for letting me read this.
As an amateur prepper who is eagerly awaiting the zombie apocalypse, I knew that this was one I was desperate to read and it didn't fail, even though it took a different path than the one I was expecting.
Our main character is part of a doomsday prepper community with her father as the leader. The Young ones are forced to undergo rigorous training, almost akin to child abuse, in order to prove themselves to the group. Their lives are mapped out to the point that their marriages are already arranged.
But Becca just wants out. She doesn't want to be married to Roy who seems to swallow the doomsday rhetoric without a problem.
But when an unfortunate accident shatters her family and the community, Becca has to decide who she can trust and whether survival or family is more important.
I was expecting more of an apocalyptic read but this was more of an 'escape from the cult' story and it was fantastic.
I loved the characters and the way their every action was dictated by the greater good.
My heart really went out to Becca, even though she made some stupid decisions, and I was rooting for her all along.
A fantastic read and certainly one to be promoted to reading groups as there was so much scope for conversation.

I enjoyed this new look on doomsday preppers. I especially appreciated that there was no cult or religion attached to the community.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Prepped but I wound up loving this book! The cover blurb made it sound like the book would be mostly about romance and/or falling in love… it wasn’t. While that portion of the story was important and well done (no instalove here) it was not the main focus. Sacrifice played a large part in this book and in several different kinds. Becca’s story took on a whole new scenario to “being from the wrong side of town” in the format of a child raised in a doomsday prepper community.

I loved Becca’s character, between her emotions, snarky humor, and the situations in the book it was quite a ride. I wasn’t expecting to quite literally laugh out loud at some of the inner and outer dialogue in this book but it happened fairly often. Which was usually followed up by brutally honest truths that stunned me sometimes. I was cheering for Becca and Roy to achieve their hearts desires – after all that took place in the book, they deserve it. I did feel like we just didn’t get to know Roy enough but that goes hand in hand with Becca’s realization that there was more to Roy than he outwardly displayed in the community. Katie was the youngest child to a T – I understand her lashing out at Becca because of what happened. For how close Becca felt to Katie, it didn’t seem like it was reciprocated except in the beginning. Their mother was a whole different animal and in times of stress you never know what side will come out and the side that did wasn’t pretty. I wondered, like Becca, was she always that way, or did the accident cause what fragile hold she had on normalcy to snap?

While originally only planning to escape herself Becca’s plans get altered drastically because of the community and her mother. Becca’s unwillingness to leave Katie behind at the mercy of not only her mother but the community they lived in was heart-wrenching to watch unfold. Becca’s plan to get them safely out wasn’t bulletproof proof but I think that it was a pretty solid idea for someone her age with so many variables in play.

I thoroughly enjoyed Prepped and it was a concept that I haven’t seen before in YA or romance. I would highly recommend this book to those who enjoy reading titles in the young adult genre with light (mostly) realistic romance, doomsday preppers, snarky underdog female leads, and family – however painful that relationship might be. I would like to thank Simon & Schuster, Bethany Mangle, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this unexpected and interesting title – all opinions are my own.

Prepped
By Bethany Mangle

Thank you to Bethany Mangle for providing me an ecopy of this book.

This was a great YA read I enjoyed about a family of doomsday preppers that is centered around Becca Aldaine and her family of extreme survivalists. The family is so prepared that even Becca's future marriage is planned to a tee. Little does everyone know, Becca has plans of skipping all of this when she gets accepted to college. But like all well laid plans, there is just no guarantee in life no matter how prepared we are.

I really enjoyed the storyline and the overall theme of preppers to tie this story together. But in the end, this was a wonderful coming of age story, great supporting casts of characters that really kept my interest in the story, with clever writing and witty dialogue, and overall a great friendship story.

Always be ready for the worst day of your life is the mantra that Becca Aldaine has grown up with. Her family are the leaders of a community of doomsday preppers in an exclusive neighborhood that prioritizes survivalist training over the norms of everyday school life, like class trips and senior prom. They’ve gone so far as to arrange Becca’s future marriage with Roy Kang, the only eligible boy in their community. Becca doesn’t have the heart to tell Roy or anyone around her that she can’t stay here. She’s planning to leave as soon as she can earn a full ride to college. A devastating accident rocks Becca’s family and muddies her chances of escape. Can she still have the future she’s dreamed of or will she be stuck here forever?

I used to be obsessed with watching the doomsday prepper shows on TV and when I heard about the concept of PREPPED I immediately had my curiosity peaked! Last year I started reading more YA, but I’m still new to the genre and not sure what to pick up, so I figured this would be a great fit given my interest in the subject. What I found was so much more than I was expecting!

Mangle has delicately crafted Becca’s community of preppers with an interesting founding story and a power struggle that leaves Becca in a precarious position. I loved getting to know Becca, but it was my introduction to the other community members that really made this story check all of the boxes for me. Through Becca’s interactions with those around her the reader gets to truly understand what motivates her. Easily, Becca’s relationship with Roy steals the show! I loved watching these two interact and experience a multitude of situations that kept both of them on their toes.

PREPPED may be categorized as a YA story, but there are a huge number of relatable topics and events that allow this book to work for any reader. I absolutely loved this funny and heartfelt debut from Mangle and can’t wait to check out what she comes up with next!

A huge thank you to Books Forward PR for my gifted copy!

I enjoyed reading this book. It’s about Becca who is stuck with her parents that are doomsday preppers meaning they do different drills everyday for the future. Becca is sick of it and wants to leave her home until her father has an accident which means she can’t leave her little sister alone at home. This was a very interesting book and I haven’t read anything like this. The author’s writing was well done and of course the plot. The pacing was a little off and I felt that the ending was a little rushed. I think it could have been slower. Overall the writing part was well done and enjoyable.

I enjoyed the characters in this book. Becca wants to leave because she doesn’t like prepping for doomsday and just wants to live. I felt connected with this character because she wants to live which I understand. There weren’t really many supporting characters except her boyfriend but mostly antagonist which you can say is the society. There is some romance in this book but it’s not the main theme of the book.

This was a very interesting book and something I haven’t read before. I didn’t really have many problems with it except the pacing and that there weren’t many supporting characters I was hoping for. This was a great book overall and I recommend it to those who love survival type books.

Prepped was definitely unlike anything I have read before! We meet Becca, who is living with her "parents" (I use quotations because they are evil and shouldn't be allowed to call themselves that) and little sister in a doomsday prepper neighborhood. I had no idea those were a thing. Are they? I don't know, it seems like it could be, because sometimes people are extra. Anyway, because she's still under eighteen, and because she is worried sick about what will happen to her sister if she's left there alone, Becca must participate in these training exercises and absurd rules. Only, she knows she needs to get out.... but how will she ensure Katie's safety?


Let me say here that it cannot be overstated how vile the parents are in this book. Becca has already been arranged in marriage to Roy, a fellow Doomsdayer (is that a word? Let's have it be a word) by her and Roy's parents. She's forced into some very unsafe "training" exercises. Punishments for even the most minor (or, to most people, nonexistent) infraction are extreme. And that doesn't bring into play the mental abuse Becca and Katie are enduring. Katie has been, at best neglected, until Becca's parents begin to attempt to indoctrinate Katie into their web of absurdity. And just as any child would, Katie wants to please her parents, and doesn't realize how wrong this all is.

I want to leave the plot for you to read yourself, and not give anything "big" away. But you will undoubtedly cheer for Becca the entire way, basically yelling at your copy of the book for her to break free of this nightmare. There will be some very pleasant character surprises, and of course a few disappointments. You'll certainly be shocked at how when one of Becca's parents is awful at the start, the other is like "hold my beer", because wow you didn't think they could get worse. And because you'll want to know if Becca (and Katie) end up okay, you'll be flying through the pages!

Bottom Line: It's a unique, fast-paced, readable story that was definitely worth the ride!