It is impossible to resist 17 year-old Josie Moraine, the protagonist of Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys. It isn’t often a character comes along who completely wins a reader over, but the reader will find themselves rooting for Josie from the opening pages. Josie has moxie, nerve, and a heart full of hopes. As if a spectacular main character wasn’t enough, Ruta Sepetys gives us a complete supporting cast–each one perfectly articulated in mere phrases so that they are thoroughly created in the readers’ mind. (Loved them all!) Some writers struggle with a large supporting cast, but Sepetys pulls it off with flare. Throw in the danger of the mob, the setting of New Orleans, a terrible mother, a man called Cincinnati, an unexplained death, snappy dialogue, and a whole lot more and you have a page-turner!
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 5 religious exclamations; 16 mild obscenities; 10 derogatory names; 3 scatological words; 2 anatomical terms.
Violence/Gore: Report of a syndicate boss disposing of people; report of a woman being beat; report of a person being shot in the leg; report of a character being hit on the head and mention of blood stains on the floor; report of a death; character pulls gun another character; several verbal threats; report of a beating; character injures self with scissors resulting in a lot of blood; report of a death in a car accident; report of a death from natural causes; knife is pulled on a character; character has a dream about fighting another.
Sex/Nudity: The main character’s mother is a prostitute and the main character cleans a cathouse to earn money so there are many sexual references and the theme of prostitution is omni-present. Many sexual references including, but not limited to: brothel, cathouse, “selling sex”, asking if a character is ready to spread her legs, characters are propositioned, “sex on a stick”, and so forth. A character is said to be naked underneath a fur coat; reference to a character sleeping naked in a feather boa; a character puts a hand on another’s thigh; implied homosexuality of a character; report of a wife running away with someone else; an extended scene where a character goes to a rendezvous for an implied sexual encounter which ultimately does not occur; a character is said to be “buck naked”.
Mature Subject Matter:
Prostitution, Crime
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Adult drinking, sometimes to excess, and smoking. A character is slipped a drug in their drink. Seven year old child mixes drinks for adults.
