This made no sense. First of all, it was a mashup of Hunger Games and The Squid Game, and both of those were better. Secondly, if you're going to write a non-original concept/theme, you damn well have to make the rest of it original.
Instead, I found myself in a survivalist situation which somehow ended up being more about insta-lust and almost-insta-love. How did I get here?? Also, the reverse harem thing wasn't even hinted at, so color me surprised. This is not the genre I was looking for!
As for the rest of it.... It wasn't slow, but it felt like it. And then I got to the end and I was wondering what even really happened? How could it be over? I still don't fully grasp what happened, and I still don't know any of these characters or how they got to be who they are or why I should feel attached to them! At what point was it supposed to feel like a fight for survival? And when was I supposed to be feeling this powerful bond between the five of them? Cause I must have missed that. But that could also be because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to enjoy this one, before I was even halfway through.
There were a lot of weird bits, too, like how 9 out of 10 chapters ended with some sort of threat, like 'this rabbit will bite back' and 'it's their blood that will spill' and 'I might not fit in here, but I won't be Prey'. Literally, almost every chapter ending. And if you have to keep saying it, then it's not the thing. Also, it's just plain repetitive! There was a lot of other repetition, too, sometimes single words being over-used, sometimes repeated phrases, as well as redundant descriptions and dialogue. Oh, yeah, the dialogue sucked, too.
And then you have the cherry on top. I'm 99% done with the book, 110% over it, and still, there comes one last thing that I knew I would have to put in this review. Billie is thinking about the guys, and she literally contradicts her first thought with her second, and then the second with a later sentence in the same paragraph. And I'm left wondering if she is drunk.... 'It isn't like they've reached out. They don't even have a phone number to call me on, or my address to send a letter. .... If they didn't reach out, it's probably because they didn't want to be bothered.' So, let me get this right: They haven't reached out (terrible boyfriends!), but they can't reach out because they have no way to do so, but also...they probably haven't reached out because they don't want to. Right. Got it.
Last but not least, the ebook had some weird formatting. Like a word crossed out in the middle of a sentence, when it should have been erased. One of these words was only half-spelled. There was one random 'LOL' in between two sentences, neither of which were dialogue or internal thoughts. It's like when you're writing, and you mark a spot to come back to or a scene you're pretty sure you'll rewrite, only somehow, the book got published with those metaphorical X's, not the changes. Moreno? Are we missing an editor again?