Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Island by Adrian McKinty

15 reviews

lexithelion's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is SO good I could not put it down. I had a tough time deciding between it being character or plot-driven because the plot of this book is so straightforward, driving, and easy to feel and understand but ultimately the characters' growth describes their choices and makes me feel tense. We begin with a seemingly normal and very realistic family that ends up in a very 0-100 tense situation and the terror is real. The way that Tom's true character comes to fruition lines up with how Heather would experience finding out who he truly is. The book's resolution is extremely satisfying and every character arc feels real. I love the potential super-naturalness that occurs from the islander's perspective, viewing Heather as a sort of Karma for their past sins. Excellent book; would read again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Rape, Stalking, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Gore, Violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Suicide, Infidelity, Excrement, Medical content, and Vomit

This is a very dark book. There is only peaceful bliss in the very last chapter. Please see my content warning tags for dark themes in this book.

fernandes's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Car accident, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

destinied's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I don’t normally like books where there is this much gore, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. I truly have no idea why, but I believe the fast pace, semi-fantastical storyline, underscored by the off-the-grid type backdrop just did it for me. While some characters behaved a little more dramatically in the story than they (probably) would in real life, I felt the storyline echoed something real. I definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a quick, intense thriller. Perfect  for Halloween 🎃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Xenophobia, Violence, Murder, Confinement, and Torture

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Minor: Genocide and War

jkar7's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

4.75

This book was fantastic. I had no idea what it was about going in, and was quickly intrigued. I found it to be pretty fast paced. I grew to like the characters. The only things keeping me from rating this 5 stars is that I often found myself thinking "how would they know that?" or "Yeah right". If the characters' backgrounds were built out a bit more, I might feel differently but overall I appreciated that it ramped up quickly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Gore, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Bullying, Car accident, Colonisation, Cursing, Animal death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Blood, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Infidelity

peighorse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Sexual assault

blkwwwaffle's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 The dialogue was cheesy, but the plot moved quickly so this wouldn’t be too bad as a movie. Once I got past all of the Gen Z and Millennial arguments I was able to immerse myself in the story and I ended up having a lot of fun. However, the reason I’m not giving this 5 stars is because of the dialogue about indigenous people’s history. The information was interesting, but I’m not indigenous, nor am I fully educated on indigenous history, (I plan on reading more about it though) so idk if they were represented in an accurate way. Lastly, I want to include a quote of dialogue that made me laugh so hard that my mom looked at me sideways.
Mind you, this was said DURING a very intense standoff. “If he so much as farts in my direction, shoot him the way I showed you.” like…LMFAOOOO 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Pedophilia

Moderate: Racism

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I didn’t hate this book but I did not enjoy it for a single second. I love thrillers, I’ll read twisty, literary, domestic, even the crazy out there ones that require suspending disbelief, but honestly The Island just isn’t worth it.

Heather is 24, a massage therapist, and suddenly a mom of two teenagers after marrying a man much older and more successful than her. The family travels to Australia for dad, Tom, to be a keynote speaker for some medical convention, and they decide to double the trip as a family vacation. 

The kids are terrible and want to see koalas so they agree to follow some backwoods yokels to their “island” to see some koalas, but unsurprisingly this is a poor decisions and soon Heather is responsible for keeping the family alive as they’re hunted by said yokels. 

This novel was boring and the characters were not only unlikeable but poorly crafted. They all make stupid decisions, the growth that occurs makes no sense and characters seem to change viewpoints at the flip of a coin. The twist was stupid and honestly didn’t make any sense, and the whole book was just jump scares and shock value. A couple gets eaten by ants? The main female character is threatened with rape and trivialized, the kids all have mental health issues that magically disappear after their experience, it’s all just poor writing and honestly, no man has the right to write about rape and threats of rape so trivially. Whenever rape is used for shock value I am 100% out. 

If you’re looking for a good thriller, don’t bother with this one. There are way too many great thrillers out there that are actually worth spending your time on. If you want a good survival horror with a strong female lead, read Getaway by Zoje Stage and pass on this one. The fact The Island is getting a Hulu adaptation while good thrillers by female authors like Getaway, are being ignored is beyond infuriating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Body horror, Car accident, Gun violence, Gore, Death, Torture, Animal cruelty, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

luvey_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Child death, Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Colonisation, Death, Animal death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: War, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Genocide, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Racism, Pedophilia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

mstadhei's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Animal death, Torture, and Physical abuse