Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Island

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Island by Natasha Preston

5 reviews

hapalyn's review against another edition

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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tyler_machotka's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I'm really no sure how to rate this book. Because I really did enjoy it but I'm not sure if it's because I just finished it so my rating may change in the next couple of days. But overall I think this is my new favorite book of hers. If you are a fan of Scream I think you will really enjoy this. A slasher with a unknown killer! I did guess the killer right but it was a random guess because I had no idea who it was for most of the book, so I was still quite surprised!

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daringreader13's review

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challenging mysterious 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

0.25

0.25 out of 5 stars

Wow. I knew I wasn’t going to love this book early on. But I thought it would be a solid 3 stars.

However- between the implausibility of the “twists”, the lack of research done regarding social media influencers (which I can say as a social media manager- so much of this isn’t plausible nor would these people that clearly have nothing in common content wise be brought together), and just the total unbelievabity of the story in general makes this the first and only 1 star read of the year.

First off- I HATED Paisley with a passion. Her lack of personality combined with the fact that she’s “not like other girls” gives her no reason to root for her to live. But then to killed on the last page because you’re telling me they wouldn’t have pulled away from the island as soon as the two people said 7 victims and I’m supposed to believe that? Absolutely not. It’s just not plausible.

Secondly- so many “twists” that didn’t make sense. The whole Robert situation was too convient and the Harper thing makes no sense.

Third off- Harper pissed me off almost as much as the author putting only Booktokers in quotes in her acknowledgment section as if you didn’t write an entire book focusing on social media influencers that you need to make it seem made up? But here are all the reasons Harper’s “cover” never worked for me- 1. Eleven books for a three day trip? I am a mood reader and I would NEVER bring that many books for a three day trip that you’re supposed to be running around an island/hotel/park. It just isn’t plausible. 2. 350+ books as her goodreads goal every year? Sounds like a reach. The average booktok, booktube, Bookstagram reading goal tends to be 100. So 350+ a year, every year is unlikely. 3. You’re telling me she has 500,000 followers and still reads 350+ books a year? Do you know how much time, planning, filming, editing, and community engagement goes into 500k followers on any channel? It’s just not logical. 4. Her personality switch gave me whiplash as it just didn’t work. You’re telling me she couldn’t look at Ava’s dead body but she can kill multiple people? Absolutely not.

Fourth off- a beauty guru, a true crime, a lifestyle blogger/dancer, video game player, a cinephile, and a booktoker all going for one opening of a hotel/park/island doesn’t make sense! When I’m pulling influencers to reach out about doing something like this, they all fall into the same category of content. Plus there is a required here’s what you have to post. Not just letting them run around and do whatever. Added to that- Paisley states she is posting 5 videos in a day. Not stories- posting them. The logic of that is absent. If you post that often in a day, not only will the algorithm not like you, but you’re telling me she’s getting 5 videos out 30 days a month but her three day trip is supposed to produce a month of content/podcasts? How? Like none of what was supposed to happen could have been content for her? So what 150 videos is she supposed to have filmed?

Overall, this book reminds me why I gave up on Natasha Preston and I’m glad I got this from the library and didn’t buy it. Because this book, while it made me want to finish it to understand the absolute dumpster fire of a story, it honestly shouldn’t have been published without WAYYYYYY more research going into it. If you ever see me contemplating buying or reading another of her books, send Robert after me.

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marenm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

1.0

how i wish i could take back the time i spent reading this book. imagine the worst parts of one of us is lying and mix that with the most cliche teen horror movie with stupid characters, then turn that up to 10. the characters and motives are cliche, incredibly stupid decisions, and a hard to understand setting. i was willing to look past the influencer grab of the book because, with a horror/thriller you can usually get past it but the book reads so juvenile. it really really needs some more editing because, for a dark book with cussing and gore, characters acted like 8 year olds and talked like a millennial despite their influencer status. nothing the characters attempt to do actually gets done, and the characters are so unmemorable they all blur together. i barely knew the difference between the 4 main guys. not to mention the killer was so obvious to me from the beginning, and i’m usually never right. for those of you who appreciate closure, rest assured this book has none. it “wraps up” in literally the last 4 pages with a horrible reveal and ending with absolutely no way to tell what really happened. i would also argue that too many people died. we never felt authentically for any character, so not a biggie, but honestly like the fact that everyone was dying for what?

what was up with killing will first? there was no motive there. it should’ve been him killing the leaders then going after the crew once they find will or something. and WHY DID HE HIDE WILL BUT NOT ANYONE ELSE?!? the fact that his motive was “were gonna be so famous” BOI WHATT

i actually cannot with this book. i recommend this to no one, it’s not even worth reading to make fun of. it’s so incredibly juvenile and cringe. 1/5 stars

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brittmariereads_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I really hated the ending of this book and kind of felt cheated - how dare you, Ms. Preston! 😅 The book kept my attention and was a pretty easy and fun, albeit predictable (in some ways) read. I felt like the main character jumped to certain conclusions too quickly and with no real evidence to do so, but also couldn’t piece together what would have been genuine clues as to who the killer is. The ending.. it was absolutely the best and the worst part of this book.

I probably would have loved this book as a teen, so it’s perfect that it’s marketed to that age group. As an adult, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. And I wanted it to be. SO BADLY. The entire premise was so intriguing, but overall it just fell flat.

Disclaimer: I was given this book as a digital ARC in exchange for my review. I was not compensated in any way.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the digital ARC of this book.

Cross-posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Instagram

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