Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Island

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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archaicrobin's review against another edition

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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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sasoif's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Fast paced and grabbed me from page 1. Always wanted to read just one more chapter. Rollercoaster type emotions and full of action. Highly recommend.

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sunshinemilk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Australia is the Florida of the continents. It’s beautiful and swampy and the white people are questionable at best. I’ve lived both places and I wouldn’t be offended if anyone approached me cautiously:( I get it.

That being said, I find it really fucking weird that the author took the time to write a tribute to the true keepers of Australia - The Aboriginal people - only to then create characters out of thin air that were incredibly racist towards Aboriginal people.

This reminded me a little of the move You’re Next where there’s one young lady that has hidden talents due to their childhood and the baddies underestimate them. I’m not gonna lie..I’m a sucker for that trope! Especially when it involves a woman.

The book carried on a bit and honestly this could have been a four star read for me but it really fell short.

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