Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Island by Adrian McKinty

7 reviews

jkar7's review

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

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. 

---

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

---

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

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

harleybrewpup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

stephaniezd's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

WOW! What a fantastic book!! The story was so driven and the twists were unexpected (at best). I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. The ending wrapped up a bit too cleanly, but otherwise - such a phenomenal story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Gun violence

blujade's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Body shaming

TW