It’s like Big Brother but the contestants are on an island for 12 months with none of the luxuries or conveniences of modern life.
And there’s always one who doesn’t fit in with the rest, the one who’s a scapegoat for things that go wrong.
I really enjoyed this book, the deprivation felt real, the hunger was palpable.
Really good ending.
Looking forward to reading more by this author.
Very much recommend this book.

I think that this book will be one which you will either love or just abandon out of the fear of the chase. I read it in a couple of days but there were times when I was almost too scared to read on. I had to go and do something distracting but then I was desperate to get back to find out how the main character, and narrator of the story, Maddy, was coping.
Others have explained the plot already but basically its about 8 adults left as a social experiment on a remote island. One girl, Maddy is telling us what happens and its scary stuff!
It's a book I'll remember for sometime and if you like a good psychological thriller and to be a bit scared then this is for you. I can see it as a great film too. However please change the title. 'Stranded' does not really describe the circumstances and I'm sure a more thrilling title could be thought up.

Survivor: Scotland. Lord of the Flies in Scotland, with adults.

This is an amazing page turner. The descriptions are breathtaking and I was quickly immersed into the setting. Sarah Goodwin has an uncanny ability to create settings and characters that are totally authentic and credible - if not always likeable. Consequently, it is very easy to find yourself being drawn into the scenario that she paints...she absolutely nails it in "Stranded" and enhances it with her own individual and seemingly effortless style of storytelling.

With a fascinating and chilling setting, a twisty plot with surprises I never saw coming and a dash of tragedy in the main character’s history, Sarah Goodwin has written a classic castaway thriller. The end is a shocker and some of the reveals on the way will haunt me for quite a while (the crew ewwwww). I loved every bit of this book. Lots of tension and suspense, with the story never dragging for even a moment. Very well written. I couldn't put it down...All. The. Stars.

I really enjoyed this story of a group of individuals who are intentionally located on a uninhabited island off of the coast of Scotland. The are there to film a reality show based on the premise of surviving and apocalyptic event. Our main character is a woman who struggles with social skills and has chosen to deal with the death of her parents by running away from her life. She struggles to connect with the other participants and someone on the island may be a killer. When bodies start turning up things go from awkward to deadly serious. A really good read.

Wow! I absolutely loved this book! Such an amazing story with many twists and turns that will keep you gripped and turning the pages. It is dark and atmospheric and keeps you interested throughout the whole book. I found it hard to put down.
Eight people go to Buidseach Island to participate in a reality-tv survivor programme. But things don't really go to plan and the group start to divide and things become hostile. Things keep going from bad to worse, especially when they don't get picked up from the island when they are meant to, and they end up having to stay there! Tensions rise in the group and it becomes a real fight for survival!
I loved the concept of the book and found it a different and really interesting read. I would definitely read more books by this author.

4 stars
Stranded
By Sarah Goodwin
Wow, what an incredible tale. I was barely able to put this book down. Stranded is dark, delicious and oh so devious. This is the first book that I have read by Sarah Goodwin but it will not be the last! Goodwin has written an incredible story of deception, greed and strength of character.
Stranded is “Survivor” on steroids. The characters within these pages are people we all know and either hate/love in our own lives, which in strong part makes Stranded so wonderfully good.

I highly recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

What a page-turner! This was an atmospheric read that kept me on the edge of my seat and dying (lol) to know what would happen next. I thought this would be a locked room whodunit, but it's actually more of a survival thriller that turned out to be quite refreshing and unique.

The author did an excellent job in portraying the characters' moral decline as they spend more and more time on the island, become increasingly frantic and start forming cliques. You can feel the tension, fear and desperation of the characters oozing from the page.

What I remember most distinctly about this book was all the anger I felt while reading it! But in a good way because that's how realistic the characters were. Same for the decisions they made.

There are some plotholes and this book does require suspension of disbelief to some degree, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

✨ "Sometimes survival comes at the cost of pain — to you or someone else."

I love a story like this with unsuspecting people are at a location where something inevitably goes wrong…like murder. Take a look at the synopsis for Stranded by Sarah Goodwin:



When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.

Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She’s desperate to explain what happened to her. How the group fractured and friends became enemies. How they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come.

But first, she must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave…

Out on September 16

In “Stranded” by Sarah Goodwin we see eight strangers left on a deserted island as part of a reality show – they are to live alone on the island for a year. But when no boat shows up after their twelve months are up, the already fractured group loses its grip on reality. Six months later one survivor is found in a remote fishing village with a devastating secret. What really happened on that island, what did they have to do to survive and how did she end up there?

I received an advanced copy of this book, and this is my honest review.

This story is like a modern adaption on lord of the flies, the story is wild yet is definitely believable with you feeling like you are there with them on the island,

Loved this! The characters are truly horrible, which made for an exciting read! The pacing is fast and I couldn't put this book down.

Survivor (and the far superior Alone) meets Lord of the Flies in this unputdownable take on groupthink and the chaos that ensues when the social contract breaks down.

Maddy is one of four women and four men chosen for a reality show that involves them being dropped off on a remote island for a year and expected to use their combined skills and ingenuity to survive. They are allowed to bring some survival items and rations, and they are each given cameras to be worn at all times, but other than that, there is no interference. No host, no silly games, no rewards to be won (outside of a few hidden “caches” randomly scattered around the island). Each of the eight has their own reason for being there, and Maddy’s is that she needs an escape. She’s always been a bit of a loner and having just lost the only two people she truly feels any human connection to, her parents, she feels lost and without a purpose. Unfortunately for her, her lack of social skills comes back to bite her nearly immediately once she’s on the island. She’s often objectively correct, but lacks the finesse to get others on her side, leaving people bristling with defensiveness or slowly taking sides against her to avoid their own ostracization. Tensions build, tempers flare, and soon outright hostility has Maddy fearing for her life. We know from the prologue that something has gone truly and terribly awry on the island, but just exactly what happened, and what lengths did Maddy have to go to in order to survive?

I’m not going to say it’s absolutely necessary to have an interest in the outdoors to enjoy this, but you should know going in that a very large portion of the book is dedicated to the minutiae (and inherent squalor) of survivalism. I don’t “do” camping, but I find things like Alone fascinating to watch from afar. If you don’t, I think this is going to be a tough read for you, as it will feel like a slog to get to the thriller “good stuff”.

But man oh man, was there good stuff. This was a slow build, but after about the halfway mark I could not put this down. My stomach was rumbling with hunger (though of course not nearly as bad as the starving islanders’ stomachs I’m sure…), and yet I found I wanted to finish this more than I needed dinner. I was so angry on Maddy’s behalf that I’m sure my heart rate was spiked. And I couldn’t even content myself with thoughts that I knew she survived because what’s to say this wasn’t all her dying fever dream? (I’m curious if I’m the only one who wondered about this?) I had to get to the end and know!

My biggest criticism was a fairly obnoxious overuse of foreshadowing. We start the book knowing something has gone very, very wrong and the events themselves provided a nice slow build of foreboding atmosphere. So every time there was an “If only I’d known what was to come…” stuck in there, it felt unnecessary and only served to take me out of the reading experience.

I also felt this was slightly too lopsided. Maddy is our protagonist and storyteller, so of course there is going to be a heavy bias in favor of her, but there was just very little to like about most of the other people on the island, and nearly all of them had failings much more glaring than “doesn’t play nice with others”. It made it somewhat unbelievable to me that they would turn on her with quite such ferocity (especially when she provides a huge source of food for them) and it gave a bit of a cartoon villain vibe versus a realistic feel to the whole thing.

4.5 stars that I ended up choosing to round down because of the above issues, but still highly recommended especially if the nature aspect is already appealing to the reader.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an advance copy of this title for review.

To steal from The Real World...."This is the story of eight strangers, picked to live on an isolated island, and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting real....."

Stranded is ....wow. It is hard to read because people.are.the.WORST. Honestly. Duncan, Gill....just....they got what they deserved, to be honest. What awful people.

Maddy is a loner and has been all her life. After a tragedy, she signs up and is selected for a television show to live on an island with 7 other people for a year - to live and survive with little to nothing. While everything seems to start somewhat okay, it quickly dissolves into seven against one and Maddy is cast out of the community.

It's frightening, the aloneness of it all. The terror of Maddy having to sleep on the cold beach by herself, scared that she's being watched....because she is. Not knowing if she would have food for the next day.

The last 1/3 of the book kind of speeds by in a flash. So much happens in a rapid fire way that I ended up reading it twice. It's excellent thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was fantastic. A really descriptive and atmospheric story. And I'm Scottish so can relate well to the unpredictable weather 😊brilliant and nail biting story x

Really, really good! A modern Lord of the Flies. Eight people come to an island as participants in a reality TV show. This is a beautifully written account of the descent of the eight, into violence hatred and savagery. A very engrossing and well thought through novel that will chill you

It is excellent. I am currently gripped and right now whilst I’m eager to find out what happens to Maddy.

Such assured writing; hard to believe it’s a debut. Oh, but what a debut, eh?
As I said I am currently in the midst of a book so enrapturing I’m leaving my review now in order so that I can process it properly.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sarah Goodwin’s publishers for allowing me to read this prior to publication.

Oh my goodness - this was one book I just couldn't tear myself away from. Have I slept in 2 days - a wink, only.. Why? The story! I kept imagining how I would respond if I was in a reality show like Stranded / Survivor. How much money would entice me?

The book however has nothing to do with the loot possible in the end, but the unraveling of humanity. Few words that come to my mind to describe the experience of reading this book would be insane, brutal and roller-coaster!

Maddy and 7 others are stranded by choice of an island. People, as usual in the beginning, try to be their best version till of course their minds unspool. I wish they'd meditated on their actions / words before they turned on each other. I don't watch a lot of reality TV or TV per se - so maybe for such people this was an expected outcome.

Can't believe this was a debut novel... You hit out of the park, girl! Kudos.

This book is a tense and dark story of survival and social interactions. Maddy is a socially awkward woman. Possibly because of her sheltered upbringing. She lost her parents and feels rather hopeless. So she applies to be on a TV show that is a sort of survivalist social experiment. The premise is that you are stranded on an island with the only other survivors in an end-of-the-world scenario. What follows is a breakdown of relationships and sanity.

I wanted to read this because I’m a huge fan of Survivor, the show, and locked-room mysteries. It definitely didn’t disappoint in that aspect. I was pulling for Maddy the whole time as she is a very likable and relatable character. The long descriptions of all of the survival activities were a bit much for me, as were the extremely unlikable other characters on the island. But overall, it is a well-written book with a unique and intriguing premise.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

4.5 stars

This book contains most of the elements that I look for in this type of thriller/suspense story. The first chunk has a few too many “if only I knew then what horrible things would be coming next for me” statements, but once I moved past those lines, I really enjoyed the story. Some of the characters were interesting, the plot was good, and some of the twists were well-crafted. I started the book and then put it down when I got busy with a few other things, but I actually read most of it over the course of 24 hours or so because it really pulled me in; I needed to see how it would turn out. All in all, I really enjoyed this one.

This story. THIS. STORY.

I am still thinking about it long after I put the book down. It is one of those crazy Survival, meets Alone story that keeps you eagerly turning the pages and wondering what horrific thing this group of seemingly normal turning Lord of the Flies people can do next.
It was nail biting, terrifying, and down right heart pounding at times and I just completely ate up all the unexpected twisty turns the author threw at me next. I absolutely loved this story and couldn't put it down. This author is definitely on my radar now and I will eagerly be awaiting their next release.