The Island - Adrian McKinty

Thriller

Rating: 7/10

Think Survivor but with whiny, irritating teens and armed madmen seemingly plucked straight out of the film Deliverance.  Which was in my head long before I read the authors note admitting to channeling the film for the plot idea.

Whether that’s a good thing or not, I am still undecided.

A newly married couple, who with every passing page seem more ill-suited to one another, embark on their first family trip together.  That’s right, he comes complete with two children that I regularly wanted to maim myself, never mind the killer(s) intent. But I digress.

On the hunt for Australian wildlife, they make the wildly poor decision to get on a boat with three random men with questionable hygiene to see all that a remote island has to offer.

You know what it has to offer?  Catastrophe that’s what.

Once let loose to explore on their own, they have a tragic accident that results in a choice that unleashes the wrath of these strange Islanders upon them.  

Now you might think from my tone that I didn’t think much of this book, and you would be wrong. Equivalent of a made for television movie, all the action, depth of character and plot development will just skim the surface. And that is just fine for a few hours of pure, mindless entertainment.

My thanks to NetGalley, Little Brown & Company and the author for the advanced readers copy.

Book Pairing(s): The Chain by Adrian McKinty, The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan, The Club by Ellery Lloyd