Review of 'Those Who Prey'

College life isn't what Emily expected.

She expected to spend freshman year strolling through the ivy-covered campus with new friends, finally feeling like she belonged. Instead, she walks the campus alone, still not having found her place or her people so far away from home.

But then the Kingdom finds her.

The Kingdom, an exclusive on-campus group, offers everything Emily expected out of college and more: acceptance, friends, a potential boyfriend, and a chance to spend the summer on a mission trip to Italy. But the trip is not what she thought it would be. Emily and the others are stripped of their passports and money. They're cut off from their families back home. The Kingdom's practices become increasingly manipulative and dangerous...

And someone ends up dead.

Review

Those Who Prey follows Emily, a lonely college freshman, as she unknowingly joins a cult as desperately tries o escape.

Interesting Setting

What connected me to this novel was that it took place in Boston, at Boston University specifically. I grew up in Cambridge and went to college in Boston, taking the T every day from my apartment and passing this college campus and its three separate tops on the B-Line. That is what drew me in as a reader. That said, the opening chapters were very slow.

Moffett is establishing the lure of the cult. Emily meets a guy; she meets his friends, she gets introduced into this world that seems very warm. For Emily, who feels alone at his school, that is incredibly powerful. Nevertheless, her loneliness is what made her susceptible to the allure of the cult, and it is what made them want her so badly.

So, the intent is there, the intent is easy to understand, and it does make the reader want to shout warnings to her to run away, to tell her that the cult is wrong about her. However, despite the tension that the reader feels as they read, the pacing does make it hard to lose oneself in the storytelling.

Narrative Development

However, once the reader reaches part two of Those Who Prey, the reader is hooked.

Emily’s narrative is interesting, and her development in the story is engaging. Emily grows as a character. It is satisfying to see her bond with her rebellious mentor in Italy. The reader sees all the things that make up this cult, the danger and zealotry, and its delusions. There is no more hiding behind this façade of love and family. It is an awakening for Emily to see what she has gotten herself into and try to escape desperately.

What is also interesting is to see Emily on her road to recovery. When she finally returns home, the reader gets to see what she was struggling with while away. The reader saw her journey to finding peace outside of the cult, and they get to see her move past the brainwashing, giving the reader this sense of hope in the long run.

Final Thoughts

Those Who Prey starts slow, but the rising tension and the character development make this a novel worth reading, leaving readers with his sense of warning and hope.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband and son and their two cats, Mr. J the Kitten and Nyx.