I’d waited so long to read this, and it was definitely worth the wait. This was a good old-fashioned suspense/thriller that I liked a lot … when I first read the synopsis, I knew I would!

The dancers at the Lovely Lady strip club come and go, so when a fresh new face starts, nobody bothers to help her out except Samantha (stage name, Ruby). One night when the owner finds out that the new girl (stage name, Jade) is on drugs, he fires her, and Samantha offers to take the incapacitated girl home. On the way, things take a deadly turn, and the rest of the story is a murder mystery.

The story is told from multiple POVs: Our main character of course, but also several of the women she worked with at the club, and some of the detectives working the case. To me, the best part of the book wasn’t the story itself (though it was a really good one), but the characters. They were all written very well, with a look into lives of all of these people who have quite unconventional professions.

This book was quickly-paced, investing and had an exciting ending. I can’t really think of any complaints - it wasn’t anything that blew my mind, but I really enjoyed it. A solid four stars for a book that was “Real Easy” to like (sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

(Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, Marie Rutkoski, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @henryholtbooks for this one I was able to do a read/listen combo!

When I found out this thriller takes place in the 90s at a strip club I knew I had to read it. I’ve read a lot so I’m always looking for unique reads and this was definitely one of them.

I enjoyed it on audio, but I also had a hard time following it on audio, I had to go back a lot, so maybe not your easiest audio to follow, but if you can give it your full attention it is well worth it. I do wish there were more narrators in the story as the story is constantly changing view points, but the narrator still did do an excellent job.

As for the story @marierutkoski mentioned working at a strip club in her early 20s and it really comes through. The characters are very real, and the 90s setting worked perfectly in this one. I definitely hope to read more from this author in the future.

Real Easy got under my skin. Told from a variety of perspectives (dancers and their families, club patrons, police detectives, a murderer), Marie Rutkoski's adult debut is both a riveting thriller and an immersive glimpse into the inner workings of a late-1990s strip club, and it succeeds on almost every level.

Real Easy is a gritty, intensely atmospheric novel that is provocative without being exploitative. Rutkoski draws on her experience as a former dancer to bring the environment of a strip club completely to life -- the sights and sounds and smells, the behind-the-scenes happenings -- providing texture and perspective for a group of women and a profession that people often see as black-and-white. The novel shifts perspectives often but still manages to provide deep, thoughtful, complex and authentic characterizations for all of the characters, exposing their strengths and vulnerabilities -- while also balancing a suspenseful, propulsive, tightly-plotted narrative. The book also weaves in social commentary that is still so relevant today, more than 20 years after the events in the book: the way strippers are perceived by both their clientele and society as a whole; issues of race and gender identity; themes surrounding motherhood and womanhood. It's so impressive.

Real Easy is not a "real easy" book to read. The subject matter is dark, and the overall tone of the novel is melancholic. But there are some truly unforgettable characters in these pages, and moments of brightness sprinkled throughout the darkness of the plot. There were a few characters and relationships I would have liked to see explored more, but other than that, I found this to be a truly satisfying read. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book -- thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for my digital copy.

Hey ! Check out this book! It's the 90's and we are immersed in the culture of The Lovely Lady strip club. It's everything you think it is, but completely engaging as you meet the dancers and learn their stories.

Early in the story we meet Ruby (real name, Samantha), a long time dancer who is a true professional that does not mix work with pleasure. The other dancers respect her and are shocking when her decides to assist the newbie Lady Jade and drive her home one night. Even ore shocking is that her cars turns up on the side of the road and she is deemed missing, and Lady Jade murdered at the scene.

The story is told from alternating perspectives of the dancers, police detectives, and club "clients." Real Easy provides a fascinating story and great thriller and mystery where you will learn about a truly dangerous world where women are viewed as objects for pleasure, Marie Rutkoski, a former dancer, is a fantastic writer and I am so glad I picked this up and gave it a try. If you like thrillers and mysteries and stories where women work to overcome the obstacles then I would highly recommend you read #RealEasy
#NetGalley #HenryHolt

Dark. Gritty. Realistic. This story will stay with me for a long time.

It’s 1999 in the Chicago suburbs, and the Lovely Lady strip club is booming most nights. Samantha (stage name Ruby) is the top dancer who brings in the most cash. New dancer Jolene, who eventually switches her stage name to Lady Jade, is the least popular. Samantha feels bad for her and tries to give her tips to success.

One night when Lady Jade is drugged, Samantha decides to drive her home. Samantha doesn’t return home to her boyfriend and his daughter that night. It turns out that Lady Jade was murdered, and Samantha is missing.

Is there someone preying on strip club dancers?

This is the adult fiction debut of author Marie Rutkoski, herself a former dancer. Color me impressed by everything!

This is a dark and richly atmospheric thriller, written vividly. You will feel like you are in the late 90s. You will feel the darkness and thumping baseline in the club. You will feel the despair and hopelessness that many of the characters face. You will feel dread as you slowly come to realize what is going on.

Rutkoski successfully uses multiple POVs to tell the story. Not only do we hear from Samantha, but we also get glimpses into her personal life with her boyfriend and his daughter (whom she loves dearly). Other POVs include dancers, patrons, police officers trying to find Samantha, family members, and one dark twisted individual.

I couldn’t help but get a Simone St. James vibe while reading this, minus the supernatural aspects. The writing is similar in the way the mystery slowly unravels and we are fed key pieces of information. The characters are complex and fully dimensional, and Rutkoski does a phenomenal job of breaking stripper stereotypes…and maybe giving a glimpse into why some women choose that profession.

The pace is smooth from start to finish, and every piece of the plot is satisfying. There’s tension throughout that makes this a difficult one to put down. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Now available.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

Murder of a dancer from a strip club. You may have read a mystery with that plot line, but I promise you it wasn't anything like this one. Set in 1999, Real Easy, the illuminates the daily grind of the dancers, their professionalism, and a surprising camaraderie tinged with jealosy. Samantha Lind is Ruby, the star of the Lucky Lady. When she offers to give a ride home to an outfit dancer, it turns to be a disastrous mistake.Told in multiple viewpoints, you really see the different perspectives among the dancers, bouncers, and several police detectives. However, I did find it tad confusing with so many characters and the dancers having additional stage names. Drawn into the story from the outset, I remained intrigued throughout. The plot was well thought out with plenty of suspects and red herrings.

Wow, this is a book to devour whole and then immediately place on your “Best of the Year” lists.

Our story is set in a Strip Club. From the beginning, the author welcomes us into a world where danger is possibly lurking around every corner. We gasp in horror as these unsuspecting ladies are studied by a figure with evil intentions. After one is killed and one is kidnapped, the tension escalates to claustrophobic levels. Suspects abound, but can the real monster be found before he strikes again?

While this is a whodunnit, it is not a mystery in the traditional sense. The plot may be key, but this is a very character-driven story. We accompany these characters to work each night, but we are also given glimpses into their homes and into their lives. They become women we care about, and we desperately want to see them thrive and survive. Even one of the detectives proves to be a complex addition to the book’s cast.

The pages fly by, and the narration dares you walk away. You can’t. Plans must be cancelled, and schedules must be changed. You won’t come up for air until the resolution is complete. If you’re looking for a book to keep you warm on a cold winter’s night, or cool on a hot summer’s night, you’ve found it. Enjoy.

This was about 3 stars for me. Almost 4 but I didn't enjoy the ending. Had a hard time relating to the characters but I can see how others would enjoy the story. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

“She does not want to forget goodness, how we offer ourselves to one another - that danger, that grace.”

REAL EASY is a character-driven and expertly paced thriller set in a midwestern strip club in 1999. It stands out in this genre, both introspective and propulsive, horrifying and hopeful. It’s told from multiple perspectives, some repeating and some one-off, allowing the reader to get to know the full cast of perspectives - even the more disturbing ones - as the story slowly circles towards its resolution. Two of the main perspectives are cops, lending this book the feeling of a police procedural as well. The other significant perspectives are several dancers at the club, following their stories before and after one of the women is found dead.

The atmosphere in this story is pitched perfectly: grim, suspenseful, and also mundane. We learn about horrific kidnappings and murders interspersed with characters’ backstories, laden with past wounds and abandoned hopes. The writing is strong, beautiful jewels of sentences glittering throughout the book, buttressed by a weaving structure that keeps you turning the page (despite the slightly slower pace) and hurtling you faster toward the conclusion in the last, clipped chapters. I really enjoyed getting to know each of the main characters, and even characters we only spend a few short pages with are fully fleshed out and compelling. There’s a diverse cast, with queer rep too: one of the main characters is intersex, there’s a lovely sapphic slow-burn romance, and there’s even a brief sighting of two repressed homosexual rock climbers.

A thriller about the deaths of women who dance and strip for a living could do all kinds of wrong. This story centers those voices and contextualizes them, showing the agency these women have and the society they’re in that leaves them often with few other realistic choices. I wasn’t surprised when I learned the author herself had worked as a stripper in her 20s; the women in the story feel authentic, uniquely motivated, and well-rounded, and I really loved the complex representation of motherhood as several of the women navigate work and parenting. Rutkoski also pulls back the layers of the men involved - patrons, boyfriends, bouncers, club owners, cops - to show the toxic masculinity and abuses of power lurking beneath. It’s no abolitionist manifesto; while critical of some aspects of the police force, it leans into typical police procedural tropes of valorizing the cops’ attempts to take advantage of suspects during questioning and, with its detective heroine, sends an overarching “not all cops are bad” message. Plot-wise it does subvert the typical detective genre and I loved that aspect.

It’s a powerful book; I imagine I’ll be thinking about Samantha, Rosie, Georgia, and Holly for a long while. Thanks to Henry Holt & Company for the eARC and to Macmillan Audio for the ALC (the audiobook is fantastic, by the way)!

Content warnings: kidnapping, murder, intimate partner violence, body mutilation, sexual assault/rape, sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia

This is an atmospheric and dark read told through multiple perspectives. We learn these characters through and through. We learn their vulnerabilities, their fears, what got them to wear they are, and we understand them.

A great crime read that I highly recommend.

Bestselling YA author Marie Rutkoski makes her adult debut with REAL EASY, an incisive and gritty crime thriller about what it means to live as a woman in a world run by men.

By 1999, Samantha Lind, or “Ruby” as she’s known to her regulars, has danced at the Lovely Lady for years, becoming the small, carefully run strip club’s quiet star. She easily pulls $1,000 a night when she dances. Because she is not flashy or snobby about it, she has earned the respect, if not the friendship, of most of her fellow dancers, including Violet, the club’s only Black dancer; Bella, the house makeup artist; loudmouthed Sasha; and quiet, studious Georgia. When she's not dancing, she spends time homemaking with her long-term boyfriend, Nicholas, and his young daughter, Rosie.

When we meet Samantha, Jolene has joined the Lovely Lady. The world of dancing is built on contradictions. The women are sisters in that no one else understands the wear and tear of the job, but they are also competitors. They have no trouble inspecting one another for ingrown hairs or new stretch marks, but rarely confide in one another about their lives “outside.” In taking Jolene under her wing, Samantha rocks the boat a bit, drawing tension between Jolene and some of the other girls, and giving this newbie a bit too much to latch onto. Jolene is noticeably unlike the other dancers: she is clingy, desperate for approval and makes mistakes almost on purpose. On the night that she turns up high as a kite on what the girls believe to be ecstasy, Samantha agrees to take her home to avoid the club owner’s wrath and firing.

But Samantha, ever the expert, makes a vital mistake. Typically, the girls are not allowed to leave until the club has closed and the bouncers have surveyed the parking lot and made sure that no men have stuck around. In leaving during club hours, Samantha and a nearly unconscious Jolene, slipping out of her silvery dress, have bypassed this safety and caught the eye of…someone.

The next day, neither Samantha nor Jolene show up for work. When Samantha’s (or rather, her boyfriend’s) car is found crashed and abandoned on the side of a road, the police suspect that someone has pulled a runner after a DUI to avoid arrest. But when Detective Victor Amador notices that the seat belts have been cut and two purses remain in the vehicle, he knows he has something very different on his hands. When a silver dress-sheathed body is found nearby, a search begins for Samantha.

REAL EASY is written in multiple perspectives. In the days following Samantha’s disappearance, Rutkoski writes from the points of view of a captive Samantha, her kidnapper, Detective Amador, multiple dancers at the club, and even Rosie. Through each chapter, we gain a deeper understanding of not just Samantha, the club or life as a dancer, but life as a woman. As sex workers, the Lovely Lady dancers know that the police will not treat them with respect when they question them and often do not even care about the missing girl among their ranks. As a female detective, Amador’s partner, Holly Meylin, deals with ignorant and snide commentary from her peers as they investigate the people closest to Samantha. And Rosie starts to recognize that the world is going to be very different for her than it has been for her father or any of the men in uniform who try to speak to her.

With Samantha more or less gone within the first third of the book, Georgia emerges as a main narrator. She was once on the track for higher education, but when her single mother fell ill, she became her primary caretaker and was forced to shelve her dreams in favor of finding fast, stable income. As a biracial dancer, she has dealt with both gross, token-based sexism and its more violent twin, outright racism. Quickly realizing that the man who took Samantha will strike again, she becomes an informant for Detective Meylin, a path that forces her to question everything about her life as a dancer, daughter and woman.

REAL EASY is a dark, utterly gripping, character-driven procedural thriller. Rutkoski effortlessly manages multiple viewpoints, storylines and motivations with the air of a seasoned crime writer. Though she begins casting a wide net writing from several perspectives, the voices are always crystal clear, instantly alive and easily recognizable. When the threads narrow to just Georgia and Detective Meylin, punctuated by brief chapters from the perspectives of other, surprising characters, the tension ramps up to a breathless, breakneck pace. Rutkoski delivers not just suspense and mystery (though she deals that in spades), but skewering, searing observations on womanhood as it intersects with violence, race and power.

There is much to love here, and though Rutkoski excels in her diverse representation, her observations on the violence women must expect and even prepare for makes this book unforgettable. Early on, Detective Meylin observes the autopsy of a female. When asked how she can tolerate such a gory scene, Rutkoski writes, “She didn’t know how to express the expectedness of sexual violence, how it felt nearly inescapable. It is so common that a warning might as well be stamped on the birth certificate of every newborn girl.” On Jolene’s disappearance, a dancer thinks, “Some girls, when they’re gone, it’s a good thing, because they either stopped stripping or found a better club. Others, you know that wherever they are, it’s worse.”

With the psychological underpinnings of Paula Hawkins, the utterly brilliant examination of femininity and womanhood of Gillian Flynn, and something wholly her own, Rutkoski has emerged as a thrilling new voice in crime fiction, a rare gem whose ability to craft suspense is matched perfectly by her keen intellect and resonant themes.

3.5 Real Life And Experiences Stars
* * * 1/2
This was my first reading of Marie Rutkoski and her ability to tell a tale was front and center. That she took past experiences, put all the ugly, emotional, and human front and center is commendable. Her talent showed through.
'This is a Mystery/Thriller with lots of insights regarding all the players' inner thoughts and actions. This is not for the faint of heart as there are some serious looks at how women are viewed, taken advantage of, and hurt.

It’s 1999 and we’re at a seedy strip club called The Lovely lady. This story follows roughly 15 employees of the lady and it’s owner, Dale throughout an abduction of two of its girls.
How is goes down- a new girl, Jolene, shows up and is drugged during her first week of dancing and needs a ride home. Samantha, a OG stripper, offers her the ride home and that’s when things take a turn.
The majority of this book happens after the first few chapters where we begin to follow each stripper, the owner, the detectives, and “him” also known as the abductor. It’s a heck of a lot of people to keep track of. I listened to the audio of this book prior to being approved for an advanced copy from NetGalley. The same narrator is responsible for each persons story so the voices don’t change. It did get confusing but not as confusing as some others novels with way less characters. We don’t read about each girl for long, we begin to solely focus on just 5 characters for the majority of the story about halfway through.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this but in the end, I did. The author knows how to write- she told a really detailed story of the stripping world. There was a bit of crassness and often times really raunchy aspects to this book. After researching Marie, the author, turns out she was former stripper twenty years ago. I could appreciate the inside look into a strip club just for my own knowledge. I also enjoyed the relationship between Samantha and her boyfriends young daughter, Rosie. It was heartbreaking in some areas of the book but very special at the same time. While the ending didn’t surprise me, I still enjoyed getting there. I would recommend this book to readers!
Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for this e-ARC

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for this e-ARC.

I received my approval email for this book yesterday, and unfortunately I already listened to the audiobook because I was approved for that before the digital copy. However, I loved this book/audiobook all the same.

I LOVED this book! I felt like I was right in the middle of The Lovely Lady club alongside all of the characters experiencing their night-to-night drama and gossip. This was such a fun, suspenseful thriller! I really enjoyed Marie Rutkoski's style of writing. All of her characters were likable and relatable. I felt a connection with each of them. All her descriptions of Freemont, IL, the club, and the characters lives made the whole story feel so real. Incredibly good! I HIGHLY recommend this book!! Adding this to my list of top thrillers I've read this year!

I have posted my review to @thrillersandcoffee on instagram.

This book did not really work for me. I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at the strip club and learning about the personal lives of the dancers, but the mystery was kind of predictable and the various points of view made it hard to fully warm up to the characters. I did love how the story connected to the authors experiences as well.

I didn’t have the highest expectations going into this book. I love thrillers, but a literary thriller following strippers and detectives didn’t sound that appealing to me. I know that I love Marie Rutkoski’s writing though, so I wanted to give it a shot.

I ended up loving this book. I love the way it was written. We follow sixteen different perspectives throughout this 300 page book. Rutkoski did it in a way that absolutely worked. I found myself interested and invested in all sixteen POV chapters. We mainly follow two strippers, two detectives, and Him (the murderer/kidnapper). The other eleven perspectives only got one chapter each, but I love how that helped me see inside the lives of several of the strippers, family members of the victims, and suspects throughout the story.

Not only was this book written in an interesting and unique way, it was also filled with diversity and kept me guessing right up until the end.

This was a gripping thriller that kept me on my toes. I kept thinking I knew what was going on, but I was shocked by the ending. Such a great story.

Unfortunately, this story was not for me.

I really wanted to enjoy this. I think the idea of a murder related to the seedy confines of a strip club is a classic crime combo. And I did find the dynamics between the dancers really fascinating, but man. The execution is just something I couldn't get on board with.

The pacing is positively glacial, having 12+ POVs is obnoxious and makes it near impossible to really connect with any of the characters, the vulgarity and crudeness (which normally isn't an issue for me) ended up being pretty grating throughout, and the biggest let down is the crime itself feels really uninspired.

I think it's really neat that MR drew upon her own experiences as a dancer when writing this and the scenes within the strip club definitely feel authentic for that reason, but it's everything else that didn't quite work for me.

Real Easy tells the story of the The Lovely Lady strip club in 1999. Samantha has danced there for years, she makes good money, the dancers are mostly cordial to one another, and Dale, the club's owner seems to be a decent boss. Privately she has a boyfriend who doesn't love her job and she is a good mother figure to his daughter Rosie. At the club one evening a new dancer seems to be on drugs, so Samantha offers to drive her home but they never make it their destination. The police find the car abandoned on the side of the road and only one dead body. Where is Samantha? Is she alive? Who took her and why? The remainder of the story is told from multiple POV's of the dancers, cops and the abductor. The primary narrators are Samantha, fellow dancer Georgia, police detective Holly. With Samantha's profession and the people who frequent club there is no shortage of suspects.

Being equal parts plot and character driven I'd say this is more of a mystery than a thriller per se. Mysteries to me are more of a slow burn which is the case here, but I was still invested and wanted to know how everything would turn out. I loved the ending and I didn't see it coming. I am still not entirely sure what the title means/references.

3.5 stars Based on other reviews and the premise of this book, I was really excited to read this one. Unfortunately, this one did not live up to my expectations in a lot of ways. There were so many points of view, and the single narrator for the audiobook/the use of both stripper names & real names made it very confusing and difficult to follow. I also didn't find myself surprised at all by the ending-- I had my suspicions very early on and was disappointed when they turned out to be accurate. I found Rutkoski's inclusion of Samantha/Ruby having a rare chromosomal condition very interesting, and it was a wonderful added layer to to the beautiful relationship between Samantha/Ruby & Rosie. It seems that Rutkoski depicted the world of strip clubs accurately and authentically, which I appreciated. I just wish I had been captured by this plotline a bit more.

Note: this review is for the audiobook, which I had been approved for long before the book.