442 reviews for:

Never Coming Home

Kate Williams

3.52 AVERAGE

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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: Yes

This was a fun, compelling thriller. YA thrillers are a sweet spot for me. They mostly miss all the grossness that adult thrillers deal with. This one had an interesting premise, flawed characters, and a satisfying wrap up.

Ten up-and-coming influencers are invited to a private island for a special, free event that promises to gain them more followers and sponsorships. These 10 people all have something in common; they are keeping secrets. All of those secrets are about to be revealed as they are picked off one by one. Who will be left standing?

This book was a great summer read. It was fast paced and entertaining. Ten characters was a lot to keep straight at first, but the author does a good job at distinguishing them from each other, and it gets easier as they start dying gory deaths. I liked the premise about revealing their secrets and coming to terms with the mistakes they made in the past. It had a perfect twisty ending that I did guess, but was satisfied with regardless.

This one really had me with the final twist!! It was a great listen from beginning to end.

Intriguing story about who you would trust and what you would do to be the last one standing!

Never Coming Home war eines der Bücher, dem man auf Instagram quasi nicht entkommen konnte. Bis heute bekomme ich noch regelmäßig Werbung dafür angezeigt. Das Buch hat mir direkt zugesagt - das Cover fand ich sehr schön und die Handlung klang sehr interessant. Kurz gesagt: Ich musste das Buch lesen! Wobei "lesen" nicht ganz stimmt, denn im Endeffekt habe ich es als Hörbuch angehört. 20,95 € finde ich aber einen extrem hohen Preis für ein Hörbuch und nicht gerechtfertigt.

Die Stimme des Erzählers Julian Horeyseck fand ich sehr angenehm. Einen Nachteil hat das Hörbuch aber: Ich fand es zu Teilen sehr schwer alle Infos den richtigen Personen zuzuordnen und konnte dann nicht kurz mal schnell zurückblättern. Die Kapitel des Buchs waren wirklich extrem lang, das wurde auch in meinem BuddyRead kritisiert. Ich hatte teilweise vollkommen den Überblicken verloren, wo im Buch ich überhaupt bin. Ohne den BuddyRead hätte ich nicht mal das ungefähre Kapitel gewusst.

Die Story an sich hat mir gut gefallen. Zehn Influencer:innen auf einer einsamen Insel, sie alle werden des Mordes beschuldigt und dann werden plötzlich sie zu den Gejagten. Wer steckt dahinter? Ich hatte von Anfang an einen Verdacht. Dass die Geschichte an sich nicht realistisch ist, ist klar, aber das sollte man hier auch nicht erwarten.

Die Charaktere sind sehr stereotyphaft, nicht nur für Influencer:innen, sondern für den jeweiligen Bereich, in dem sie bekannt geworden sind. Ob das jetzt glaubhaft ist oder überzogen, da bin ich mir selbst nicht sicher. Der Stil hat mir aber gefallen und ich war gespannt, ob ich mit meinem Verdacht recht behalten würde. Leider war es aus meiner Sicht sehr offensichtlich, wer dahinter steckte und so hatte ich mit meinem anfänglichen Verdacht wirklich recht.

Was this the best book I ever read? No. Did I know who did it by 25% in? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes. It was fast paced, and there was only one scene I felt bored through (I hate an unnecessary romance). Even though the teens didn’t really act like teens I feel like it was fitting since they were all big influencers. I also thought the motive was good, but I think making a bit more of a connection to the trigger would have been even better. I recommend this to anyone who wants a good beach read with some murder.

Duuuuuuuuuuuude.
Whoa.

From the jump, you’re dropped into a world of influencers and teens with too much money and not enough supervision.

This book was amazing from top to bottom. Def recommend.
If you’d like to read my full review, visit [http://sltrbooks.home.blog/2022/06/23/never-coming-home-earc-review/]

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Thank you to the publisher & Turn the Page Tours for my eARC!
mysterious 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: Complicated

a fine beach read, but nothing groundbreaking, and far too heavy-handed in the epilogue. characters were underdeveloped, and spoiler alert, the trans woman dies first.

NEVER COMING HOME by Kate Williams is modern take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with the locked-door element of a remote tropical island. After a viral marketing campaign makes Unknown Island the "it" destination, ten young influencers are chosen as the first guests. What they think it going to be a glamorous, high-profile vacation turns out to be a deadly game of revenge.

This was fast-paced read with an intriguing premise and a diverse cast of characters, though I was disappointed with some aspects of the representation (see spoiler below). Since the narrative jumps between all ten characters, it was sometimes difficult to find anything distinct about each character's voice.

SPOILER: I was very disappointed that the first person murdered was a trans woman and the real-world implications of being in such a vulnerable group weren't touched upon.