Prepped

Becca is a high school student living in a fringe community of 'preppers' who are obsessed with surviving a global catastrophe. Her life is defined by drills, stockpiling, and her father's paranoid rules. When she begins a secret relationship with Roy, a boy from another prepping family, she starts to question the logic of her upbringing. As she plans for a college scholarship and a life outside the compound, she must navigate her family's expectations and a looming sense of dread that their world might actually be ending. SENSITIVE TOPICS: The book deals directly with psychological abuse and religious/cult-like isolation within a secular context. The trauma is presented realistically, focusing on the mental toll of living in constant fear. The resolution is hopeful but grounded in the reality of difficult family separations. EMOTIONAL ARC: The story begins with a heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere of anxiety and control. It builds slowly into a tense thriller-like pace as Becca's desire for freedom clashes with her father's demands, ultimately ending on a note of hard-won resilience and liberation. IDEAL READER: A high schooler who feels like an outsider in their own home or who struggles with 'perfectionist' pressure from parents. It is perfect for those who enjoy survival stories but want deep emotional stakes rather than just action. PARENT TRIGGER: Parents may find the father's controlling behavior and the scene where a drill goes too far particularly unsettling. It mimics the feeling of watching a child being gaslit. PARENT PREP: Parents should be aware of the intense themes of emotional manipulation and anxiety. No specific page preview is required, but a post-read conversation about healthy boundaries is recommended. AGE EXPERIENCE: Younger teens (14) will focus on the romance and the 'cool' survival skills, while older teens (17-18) will likely resonate more with the themes of breaking away and the fear of the unknown future. DIFFERENTIATOR: Unlike many survival novels, this focuses on the 'pre-disaster' trauma. It asks what happens to the human psyche when you are taught to fear everything before it even happens.