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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
Short YA Thrillers like this are palate cleansers for me between reads of bigger more complicated Sci-Fi/Fantasy etc, but this one has a simple idea and a simple execution. It's just YA Fyre fest, but take the general stupidity and stereotypes of influencers and crank that up to a 12+ and have the plot go at a breakneck pace and what you get is a short, albeit humerous novel, that really doesn't have much to say.
I would say if you picked this up used or paperback for half the price I think you can find enjoyment from it. Idk it wasn't for me so back to big Sci-Fi I go at least it was short.
I would say if you picked this up used or paperback for half the price I think you can find enjoyment from it. Idk it wasn't for me so back to big Sci-Fi I go at least it was short.
I really enjoyed this book but there were two things that made me drop it down to 4 stars, one of which is kinda a big deal (to me). Find out the details on my BookTube channel!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhCWYyTrNao
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhCWYyTrNao
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
TLDR: The cover is gorgeous and that’s what sucked me in. The book was not great, not even okay but not absolutely horrific. The only reason I made it through to the end was because the narrator of that audiobook did a great job.
So when perusing the bargain isle at my local Books a Million, this book grabbed my attention. The cover is gorgeous and I can honestly say that's probably the only good thing about this book.
From the title alone I could tell it was a generational retelling of Lord of the Flies which I thought had SO much potential. I am a libby girl so I snagged the audiobook from my local library and planned to make my work day fly by with this tale of woe. The whole book was a tale of woe in itself.
Right in the beginning I was already annoyed by all but one of the characters. Rafi is the only character of the book I liked. I understand that everyone was supposed to come of "entitled" but it was just so stereotypical that I could not stand anyone.
Ten percent into the audio I was waiting for something gruesome to happen, some die, go missing, I was begging the book to give me something. I was secretly hoping it was Jack. My goodness I think I hated him the most.
Nothing even remotely exciting happened until 40 percent of the book and even that excitement left me disappointed.
The only reason I finished this book was because I needed to know the “secrets” which weren’t all that great and the fact that the narrator did in amazing job holding my attention when the book itself did not.
While I believe this book had SO much potential before starting to read it, it just fell so short for me. The remote island, the influences, the desertsion gave me real The Island by Natasha Preston feels and I loved that book. Sigh. Maybe I am just not a generation parady girly.
On to the next read!
So when perusing the bargain isle at my local Books a Million, this book grabbed my attention. The cover is gorgeous and I can honestly say that's probably the only good thing about this book.
From the title alone I could tell it was a generational retelling of Lord of the Flies which I thought had SO much potential. I am a libby girl so I snagged the audiobook from my local library and planned to make my work day fly by with this tale of woe. The whole book was a tale of woe in itself.
Right in the beginning I was already annoyed by all but one of the characters. Rafi is the only character of the book I liked. I understand that everyone was supposed to come of "entitled" but it was just so stereotypical that I could not stand anyone.
Ten percent into the audio I was waiting for something gruesome to happen, some die, go missing, I was begging the book to give me something. I was secretly hoping it was Jack. My goodness I think I hated him the most.
Nothing even remotely exciting happened until 40 percent of the book and even that excitement left me disappointed.
The only reason I finished this book was because I needed to know the “secrets” which weren’t all that great and the fact that the narrator did in amazing job holding my attention when the book itself did not.
While I believe this book had SO much potential before starting to read it, it just fell so short for me. The remote island, the influences, the desertsion gave me real The Island by Natasha Preston feels and I loved that book. Sigh. Maybe I am just not a generation parady girly.
On to the next read!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Definitely a Lord of the Flies meets influencer parody!
Rafi is a podcaster with a Musical Mysteries true-crime podcast where she delves into the strange circumstances and secrets of various musicians’ lives.
So when the chance to attend the exclusive Fly Fest comes up, Rafi plunges all her savings into it, in the hope of getting an interview with hottest singer of the moment, River Stone, and getting the scoop on a scandal from his past which he’s never talked about publicly.
However, on arrival on the remote island where the festival is due to take place, everything seems to go wrong.
No one is there to meet the guests, the luggage has gone missing, and there’s no accommodation to be found.
Cue a bunch of influencers stranded on a desert island, when they had been expecting the festival of a lifetime.
If it reminds you of the catastrophic Fyre Festival saga of 2017, it should. This is a reimagining of real life as well as fiction, the title being a dead giveaway for Lord of the Flies. The author has taken the William Golding classic, in itself a dark response to a plucky 1858 children’s adventure story, The Coral Island, added a bunch of different characters like models, (one even called Hella Badid), social media make up artists, singers, wannabe entrepreneurs and people famous for being famous. Every reader will notice different references as there are no doubt many more than I caught on to.
I’m not a big follower of celebrity culture even if I feel like I absorb a lot of gossip through osmosis, but I was in the mood for a light, frivolous listen while doing jobs around the house, and this was ideal.
It’s silly but self-aware, and despite the tongue-in-cheek ness of it all there are thought-provoking moments.
If you were caught up in a festival gone wrong like this, would you want your millions of followers to know you’d fallen for a scam, or would you be doing your best to make it look like the party of the century it was promised to be?
Rafi is a podcaster with a Musical Mysteries true-crime podcast where she delves into the strange circumstances and secrets of various musicians’ lives.
So when the chance to attend the exclusive Fly Fest comes up, Rafi plunges all her savings into it, in the hope of getting an interview with hottest singer of the moment, River Stone, and getting the scoop on a scandal from his past which he’s never talked about publicly.
However, on arrival on the remote island where the festival is due to take place, everything seems to go wrong.
No one is there to meet the guests, the luggage has gone missing, and there’s no accommodation to be found.
Cue a bunch of influencers stranded on a desert island, when they had been expecting the festival of a lifetime.
If it reminds you of the catastrophic Fyre Festival saga of 2017, it should. This is a reimagining of real life as well as fiction, the title being a dead giveaway for Lord of the Flies. The author has taken the William Golding classic, in itself a dark response to a plucky 1858 children’s adventure story, The Coral Island, added a bunch of different characters like models, (one even called Hella Badid), social media make up artists, singers, wannabe entrepreneurs and people famous for being famous. Every reader will notice different references as there are no doubt many more than I caught on to.
I’m not a big follower of celebrity culture even if I feel like I absorb a lot of gossip through osmosis, but I was in the mood for a light, frivolous listen while doing jobs around the house, and this was ideal.
It’s silly but self-aware, and despite the tongue-in-cheek ness of it all there are thought-provoking moments.
If you were caught up in a festival gone wrong like this, would you want your millions of followers to know you’d fallen for a scam, or would you be doing your best to make it look like the party of the century it was promised to be?
mysterious
medium-paced
I'd read and adored Goldy Moldavsky's "The Mary Shelley Club" last year - it was one of my very favorites with its moody atmosphere and creepy murders. I had been hoping for more of that vibe with "Lord of the Fly Fest", and sadly did not get it. That's not really "Fly Fest"'s fault; it's just a very different genre: satire. "Lord of the Fly Fest" is a send up of Lord of the Flies, featuring influencers rather than young boys. Unfortunately, while the dialogue was fun, the overall plot left me cold - some of the satire was a little on-the-nose ("Hella Badid?" Really?) and it was filled with purposefully unlikeable characters. Even the protagonist who was supposed to be smart kept screwing up. It just didn't land for me.
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Violence, Excrement, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
all you need to know is that there is a celebrity character in this book called hella badid
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
There's nothing quite like watching a bunch of influencers slowly lose their minds on an abandoned island. If you are like me and a fan of influencer and celebrity drama, I highly recommend checking this one out. There were moments I genuinely laughed out loud and I enjoyed the slightly horrific turns it took without being too dark.