Review: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepety

4 Stars

Out of the easy is rather a simple story if you dig under the layers of the plot. I don’t mean that in either a good or bad way. The story should have been slightly more complex for a historical fiction. I’m not particular sure if it intended to inform us about the life in New Orleans back in the 50’s, because nothing was added to my knowledge that I didn't already expect of 50’s New Orleans. Out of the easy taught me the importance of social class and your background in 50’s New Orleans and...basically that’s all. 

“My mother’s a prostitute. Not the filthy, street walking kind. She’s actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute.”

So from the opening paragraph you can already guess there was going to be major mummy issues. This book was based on mummy issues. I thought there might be some fights between the heroine and her mother about her being a prostitute. But the would have been too ‘simple’. The mother instead had to be the most cold-hearted parent that every existed – or that’s how she’s portrayed. Well, she’s not far from being the worst, however the constant mention of all the bad things the heroine’s mother had done got extremely tiring. 

Josie on other hand is the opposite of her mother. She’s intelligent, demanding and caring. I’m not particularly sure how many times the secondary characters had to mention that Josie is intellectual, but they did it enough times that I finally remembered. You know because I can’t understand the first time. So you have to do it again and again and again. 



Cincinnati is the primary antagonist of the novel. He works for a mafia apparently. He once beat Josie’s mum, and her close friend’s father, and he has done a list of other terrible things that Josie mentions. 

“There was something ice-cold, dead in Cincinnati.”

Really Josie, after everything you told me…you think so? 


Something? SOMETHING?

The love triangle was actually…unique. It was different and I never thought it would turn out the way it did. The romance is definitely the positive part of the story. 

The mystery is negative aspect of the story since the author clearly makes it obvious who committed the crime. I kept thinking “No, the author is trying to trick me. It’s not who I expect. It’s someone different.” But it was exactly who I expected. 

Character development was decent, and the book was fast-paced which I loved, but the ending was rushed and I felt things happened to quick, and came together slightly perfect at the end. 

This feels more like a negative review when I go over it, but honestly it’s a good novel. It’s just not a good historical novel. I still rated it four stars because as I was reading I desperately wanted to found out how everything turns out for Josie. I was addicted. It absolutely was not mind-numbing. It was entertaining. 

Some might enjoy/others might not. But overall I would suggest this.