Gr 9 Up—All Becca wants to do is find a way out of her survivalist community and live a typical life postgraduation.
When her father is in a tragic accident and her community becomes even more extreme, it will take everything
Becca has to save herself and her little sister. A compelling glimpse into a fringe lifestyle that will have readers
anxiously veering between dread and hope.

This was a different book. Doomsday preppers. Teens who want to break away and do everything they can to accomplish this feat. I would give this 3.5 stars, for originality. It makes me wonder, the way the story was written, so realistic, if the author has any experience in doomsday prep. I liked the way the character Olivia was written: strong, knows what she wants, willing to protect her younger sister and stand up to her horrible, delusional mother. Still need time to process this story. ( )

TW: psychological and emotional abuse; parent death. Star and a half but barely. Years ago, I followed her on social media via a mutual, because she made me laugh. I was surprised when she made reference to writing a novel, and was so excited for her when this book popped up in my library's new releases. Ooh, the premise had me fascinated, and the reviews looked great too. This story wasn't what I thought it would be at all. I had imagined it something like "Armageddon Summer" by Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen, a YA apocalypse romance written in the 90s. This is a novel about a teenager under the control of her doomsday prepper hobbyist parents, who harbor various delusions and whose utter control of their children and worldviews breaks my heart. Becca starts out understandably bitter and angry at the whole world--she doesn't share her parents' beliefs, doesn't even like the guy they have arranged for her to marry, can't stand her younger sister, and has no friends. It took a bit for me to get used to everything. The world-building and pacing are jumbled, and it was hard to keep up at first.

The parents are military-level doomsday preppers as a -hobby-. It affects their financial situation severely, and pouring money into it is more important than their -children-. An insanely expensive, adrenaline-spiking hobby that they force their children to participate in where things could constantly end in serious injury or worse. They live in a community that supports their worldviews. There probably really are parents and communities like this, as much as I want to tell myself there aren't. It's because I've only met people like that in specific circumstances.

Becca hates everyone, then falls in love with the guy she's despised since their parents got them together because they're preppers. I disliked this, and quickly realized that's the whole point of this book: everything happens, but backwards and in a way that doesn't make sense. Like going from disliking her bratty sister who loves prepping, to being willing to sacrifice a full-ride scholarship for her because...why? The sister believes the prepping! Like magically getting into a fancy college -and- getting an unusual housing situation--okay, that -does- happen but it is way, way harder than the author makes it look and it's rare. It turns out the boyfriend doesn't like all this prepper stuff either, and somehow convinced everyone he's stupid. THE AUTHOR EXPECTED ME TO BELIEVE IT. And they get one friend, who's open and accepting after Becca hits her in the face, WITH NOT A LOT OF RECONCILIATION OR EXPLANATION OF WHAT DREW THEM TOGETHER. I didn't like the story development, either. Becca is a third parent to little sister Katie despite not liking her, then her dad gets into a crash and Becca is -fiercely- protective of her. WHY, BOOK, WHY? The mom is a cold-blooded monster who became a cartoon villain -fast-. I had to convince myself not to DNF at the 45% mark. I was gonna see how the book ended.

It got progressively implausible from there, and I shall not drive up my own blood pressure by describing everything. It could have been so much better with a few simple fixes, the main one being: 1. Have the dad get into the crash on the first page, which leads to 2. the mom getting massively into prepping which leads to 3. having indeed to work doubles as a nurse and be exhausted and arguing. She could have then wondered if she should have ever had kids because she never imagined being a single parent; which leads to 4. Becca having to become the third parent to Katie, who's suddenly more understandably into prepping and being so bratty and 5. Becca has grown up with Roy, doesn't really have time to notice him or is not interested until he is there after the dad's crash and helping her out, and commiserating about living in a prepper community when they don't believe in it and THAT WOULD BE SUCH A MORE INTERESTING, BELIEVABLE BOOK.. ( )

Don't have time for a full review, but HOLY CANOLI! What a breakneck ride! What a story!

Later on...
Although the Doomsday cult in the story goes to what I consider ridiculous and harmful extremes, this novel did make me think about the concept of preparation, of being prepared to deal with unexpected events. But how much preparation is too much, to the point where we stop living in the present?

In this novel, the teen main characters want to escape their restrictive cult upbringing. Becca is a gifted student, who is hoping for a full-ride to Carnegie Mellon to study Physics. Roy, to whom she has been betrothed since the age of 13, just wants out. Their lives are a lie: Becca has applied to Carnegie Mellon, while her parents think she will marry Roy, produce offspring (to repopulate the world) and train to be an electrician. Roy, who has been pretending to be simple for many years, has been tapped to become a mechanic. During one of their disaster trainings, Becca discovers that Roy is not the simpleton and cult fanatic that he has pretended to be and these two start to plan their escape.

Meanwhile, her abusive cult-leader father is severely injured backing out of his driveway in a freak accident. The cult elects Becca's Mom to replace him, and their lives become even more circumscribed by fear and paranoia.

And yet...it is the survival skills that these two young people have learned that will make a difference to the outcome of their story. I couldn't put this one down. It was a unique coming-of-age story. It would make a good book club read. ( )

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. ( )