Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Island

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Island by Natasha Preston

21 reviews

awesome_archaeology's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

After hearing many positive reviews on her previous work, this is my first time reading a novel by Natasha Preston and, I must say, she did not disappoint. I found some of the dialogue to be a bit choppy and disconnected. The pacing for the first half of the book felt a bit slow but, by the midpoint, the action and mystery come to the forefront of the story. I would recommend this to anyone who would like a good mystery with some good plot twists.

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flutelover32's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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ashleysager's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Very interesting idea for a tory but poorly executed. It was fast paced so that kept me reading, but there were a lot of things that just didn’t make sense. Almost contradictory to the characters and story. Ending was really disappointing.

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anyatqlorjoy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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tspice24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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pluff_mud's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

A good middle-grade or YA horror/mystery. Reminded me a lot of being a teen and devouring Fear Street books. But plot holes big enough to drive a boat through, and the last page brought the whole thing down a hald star. It was fine but I don’t think I’ll read any other of her books.

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bookishchaos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

It was entertaining for a little bit but started to get boring towards 50%. And the story was already ridiculous and extremely unrealistic to the point where you're like "yeah this would never happen." Plus I didn't really care for any of the characters.

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hapalyn's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was enjoyable if you're looking for something fast-paced and filled with lots of action. Preston's books are definitely for younger teens, but I enjoyed this as a 19 year old just for a fun mystery.

Would've been maybe a 3.5 or 4 star (based on enjoyment not because the writing and plot and etc. was objectively the next Shakespeare) but the ending was lazy (unnecessary cliffhanger to avoid writing proper resolutions)

by lazy i mean this is the LAST line bro:

the fmc finally is getting saved from the murderer and last minute the murderer jumps on her and drags her into the ocean - "The last thing I see before I'm dragged underwater is Reeve's horrified expression" -

like Natasha Preston is known for her ridiculous endings (her other books: The Lake, The Lost) or plot twists at the end and leaving you like wtf after finishing the book (The Lake.....), but this felt like a cop out of writing a satisfying ending for a reader. I've been reading her books since I was 13 or 14 and I'm 19 now, so I'm not necessarily the target audience; however, I think this particular ending is maybe the 2nd worst of all her books (Looking at you The Lake or The Twin for #1). Just disappointing because I enjoyed everything (the action was fun) until that last line. Literally CRIMINAL okay.

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lauren_shilling's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book, to me, was a pretty average thriller. It wasn't bad by any means, but it also wasn't mind blowing either. I felt like parts of it were super slow, followed by parts that were super fast, and I also found it a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters. I found myself constantly being pulled out of the story in order to recap myself on which characters were where and why, but even so, I was never fully sure. That being said, it wasn't predictable to me, and both major plot twists definitely got me. The last one seemed to come out of nowhere (as in there was no lead up at all) and too close to the end for a plot twist like that to really matter at all, but it was shocking to read nonetheless. I liked Paisley, the main character, but I didn't love her the way I think I should have in order to really be invested in her story. Still, there were definitely positives, such as the first plot twist, which did surprise me a lot, and the overall unpredictability of it. This made me want to keep reading, even through some of the parts that weren't as interesting to me. However, I did not like the ending. I might have rated this book slightly higher (maybe a 3.5-3.75) if it hadn't been for that ending. It offered no closure, didn't really have a purpose besides shock value, but wasn't well executed enough for that shock value to make me feel anything except annoyed. It felt a bit like a lazy ending to me. Because of that, I would put this book at a very solid 3 stars. It wasn't bad at all, just very average to me.

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ejsimpson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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