bitterlyenthusiastic_books 's review for:

The Island by Adrian McKinty

3.0

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The Island is the kind of book that’s best read fast (preferably in one or two sittings) before you start thinking too hard about it. It’s an entertaining, occasionally gripping thriller that hinges on an American family making one bad decision and paying dearly for it. Once the action kicks in, the book moves at a relentless pace, which works in its favor — there’s no downtime to dwell on how thin some of the character motivations are. A few of the twists landed, others were obvious, but either way, it kept me engaged.

The island itself, despite being the title of the book, doesn’t add much to the atmosphere. I expected the Australian wilderness to play a bigger role, maybe even act as a character in its own right, but it ends up being a pretty generic backdrop. That said, Heather’s transformation from struggling stepmom to wilderness survivalist sniper is both ridiculous and kind of fun, even if her “girlboss army brat” energy rubbed me the wrong way at times. And while the book leans into the classic “hillbillies fighting off outsiders invading their land” trope, there’s something darkly amusing about the fact that, in this case, the so-called hillbillies were the ones who actually invaded it in the first place. I wish there was more about the islands prison beginnings and the indigenous folks that resided there. 

It might seem like I didn’t enjoy this, but I did! It’s a solid, fast-paced thriller with a lot of action and just enough intrigue to keep the pages turning. I just wish it had either more or less of certain elements—more depth in its themes, less clunky dialogue, more tension in the setting, fewer eye-roll-worthy survival feats. As it stands, it’s an entertaining, high-energy read that delivers on tension and chaos, even if it left me wishing for a little more substance. 

And yes, I’ll still be watching the adaptation.