I’m really starting to enjoy YA thrillers and knowing C.L. Taylor also writes adult thrillers, I was eager to check this one out. I was granted the audio book through NetGalley and I started listening to it pretty much straight away.
The Island follows six teenagers on a group holiday together. During the trip, they wind up on a survival trip on an island with a guide. But when that guide has a stroke, they find out they are stranded on the island and soon all their phobias are being thrown at them. The book is narrated by Jessie and Danny. Jessie lost her brother a while ago and this the first group holiday since and Danny is worried that his girlfriend, Honour wants to move on from him.
With thrillers, it’s important for the twists aren’t obvious and that the atmosphere is really good. The story was interesting, and it was really quick to get through as, yeah, I wanted to know what happened yet. But it wasn’t as tense as I’d hoped and not at all scary. I didn’t really like how the phobias were handled. It just…didn’t feel like much happened with any of them, and though the end twist is the reason why this is the case, it was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for something that would keep me on edge and freak me out. But I didn’t really get that. And the final twists just seemed obvious.
The characters were interesting though. None of them felt like characters I’d seen before and I wanted to know more about them. Things between them were tense and the relationships and issues worked really well. There was some romance, but, aside from the couple who were together at the start. It didn’t really feel necessary. Like, you could have cut it out and it basically could have still played out the same.
I wouldn’t say I had fun with this book, but, I did enjoy it, kind of. It’s really hard to say. I enjoyed the process of going through the story and I really didn’t want to put it down. It was really good in that case. But whenever I’m not listening to the book, I can’t really think of anything good about it. I probably wouldn’t want to read this again.
With this being an audiobook, I want to comment on the narrators too. I didn’t really get along with them. I had to listen to it on 2x speed as the way they spoke was so slow and felt so emotionless. It was a little dull. Not sure I’d want to listen to anything by them again. They didn’t change voices for different characters or anything and I wasn’t a fan.
It’s a shame as I was really excited for this book but it definitely wasn’t one for me. Not sure I’ll be reading anything else by C.L. Taylor!
2/5 Stars
BUY LINKS
Lace and Dagger Books 