Press + Reviews

Advance Praise for THOSE WHO PREY

Wholly absorbing and utterly haunting, Those Who Prey is most chilling in its eerily memoir-like feel. Fans of (literal) cult fiction, this is your new Must Read.  —Dahlia Adler, author of Just Visiting and editor of His Hideous Heart

Those Who Prey is a chilling debut that takes an uncomfortably thorough look at just how easily one could fall victim to a fanatical group. Moffett’s thoughtful prose made me ache for Emily and her friends. I found myself cringing as the swirling and destructive whirlpool pulled them into deeper waters, but could not stop turning the pages. I devoured this book.     —Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows

Those Who Prey is a slow-burn suspense that crackles into a wildfire. Jennifer Moffett is a masterful storyteller; get ready to devour this piercing and provocative debut.     —Kit Frick, author of See All the Stars, All Eyes on Us, and I Killed Zoe Spanos 

Those Who Prey is a chilling, nuanced debut that artfully explores how the lure of belonging can mask the bleed of manipulation. —Laura Taylor Namey, New York Times bestselling author of A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

This book is so frighteningly real! Those Who Preyis a gripping, unnerving exploration of loneliness, the awful desire to belong and the lengths one will go to be chosen. It’s also a reminder that those who promise everything also tend to demand it as well. The stranger the book became, the less I was able to put it down, and it lingers with you long after the last page. A thrilling and terrifying read.”     —Jimmy Cajoleas, author of Minor Prophetsand The Rambling

Those Who Prey is a smart, provocative page-turner that issues a chilling warning about the danger of cults. Moffett’s deftly written descriptions carry us on waves from the Gulf Coast to Boston, Italy, and back as Emily learns to accept where she’s been and embrace who she has become. Ultimately a book about accepting our whole selves and learning to be at peace with the present even if we never fully understand our past. A must-read for any teen headed to college and all fans of Sadie.               —Shana Youngdahl, author of As Many Nows As I Can Get

It kept me up into the night, then invaded my dreams.     —Eva V. Gibson, author of Together We Caught Fire

This book is a well-paced wild ride.     —Liz Lawson, author of The Lucky Ones

From School Library Journal: Gr 9 Up-Emily envisioned her move to Boston as a fresh start: A glossy college pamphlet photo filled with new friends and cherry blossoms. But after a rough first semester, Emily is left feeling lonely and homesick. When she meets green-eyed Josh and his red-headed friend Heather, the teen is pleased that her college life is finally coming together. But through calculated affirmation and subtle peer pressure, Emily is not only pulled into a new friend group, but eventually baptized into the Kingdom. Slowly, her volunteer work and classes become secondary to partner-guided Bible studies and accountability tallying, and when Emily is chosen for a Kingdom internship in Italy, she jumps at the chance to recruit with her friends overseas. But once in Tuscany, peer pressure gradually turns to shaming and fear. And then Emily finds her assigned discipling partner dead. Corded phones, card catalogs, and Walkman cassette players set the scene for this 90s story. Excerpts from interviews and snippets of an article covering the fall of the Kingdom are slotted between sections of the book to provide foundation and foreshadowing, and the work explores the post-cult emotional healing process in a unique way. Vague character descriptions and easily rationalized situations leave the reader with an uneasy understanding-Emily could be any of us. VERDICT For readers of true crime, thrillers, and cult novels searching for an atypical story.  -Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson Univ., SCα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.