Wow, well that was more addictive and compelling than I was perhaps expecting

It got under my skin early one and I read it in two sittings, barely pausing for breathe,

It's claustrophobic in places, utterly terrifying in others, and it's amazing how fast a group fo people can turn on each other and make someone fear for their life.

This is arguably when a reality TV show goes very wrong, and when civilised people collapse into mob rule, the world becomes a very scary place.

At least it is when on a remote Scottish Island trying to survive on the land for a year with 7 strangers,

I know I can't do this book justice, but I urge you to give it a go if the blurb has remotely caught your eye. You won't regret it.

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Think Survivor but so much more!

A little slow starting but once you are into it you just want to keep reading. It is tense throughout and completely worth the read!

Brilliant concept, well executed! Thoroughly enjoyed the remote island setting and raced through the pages. Highly recommend this taut thriller.

I tore through this book so quickly! So much suspense and action. Maddy has decided to participate in a Survivor-style reality show with three other women and four men. The idea is that they will live on a remote and primitive island for one year with just each other, whatever basic supplies they brought, and a few hidden loot caches hidden around the island. There are two cameramen on the island who maintain communication with the producers, keep everything running, and reach out for medical assistance if needed. Otherwise, they are on their own.

Everything starts out great, with the group feeling enthusiastic and eager about their time on the island. It isn't long though before tensions arise. Personalities clash, people are accused of not pulling their weight, rations are going missing, and so on. Maddy becomes the target of the group's ire and there comes a day when she no longer feels safe. And then, after the year is over, the boat never returns for them.

And that's when things get really, really bad.

I could not put this book down. Every page was exciting and drew you into the island. I only took off one star because there was one thing I found too unrealistic towards the very end of the book, and to share it would be a spoiler.

Stranded

Stranded is definitely a book that could be read in one sitting, that is, if you’ve got the nerve!
I definitely didn’t have the nerve - this is one hell of gut-wrencher!
The bullying, isolation and barely-bubbling-under menace/direct threat was so anxiety inducing.
Remember what it felt like to read ‘Lord of the Flies’ when you were younger? The rage you felt at the mistreatment of Ralph and Piggy? Well I felt that ‘Stranded’ was altogether more sinister because the reality show contestants are all adults and Maddy is completely isolated with no Ralph to act as a moral arbiter.
If, like me, you’re a fan of these kind of ‘social experiment’ reality shows (and we’re not talking Love Island here), then you’ll recognise the different personality types that tend to get chosen. Producers know that at some time it’s going to kick off and it’s only the fear of being caught on camera that seems to stop the uglier side of human nature from crossing over the line too far.
But in ‘Stranded’, when the producers seemed to have run out of budget and left the contestants to literally fight it out amongst themselves, the security afforded by the cameras is meaningless when the majority of the cast switch them off and discard them.
There are definitely some holes regarding what the producers were up to side of the story, which is briefly (and unsatisfactorily) explained at the end of the book. But aside from that, Stranded is a well thought out, tight and brilliantly paced novel which definitely fits into the reading category of ‘way better than expected’ titles.
Excellently gripping!

* Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

If you loved Lord of the Flies, then you are going to love this novel.

This is everything – 8 adults stranded on an island for a year as part of a Reality TV experiment. Disagreements, Cabin Fever, paranoia, and alienation and the Scottish weather.

I enjoyed Stranded, which kept me on the edge of the seat, and even having completed it I am still not sure we were told the real story or not.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon books for the advance copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Fantastic! This was a gripping story that I didn't want to put down. Tense, thrilling, full of twists and turns. Great book.

Wow that was an intense and gritty read. Great characters, great storyline, truly an edge of your seat thriller.

Stranded was quite an intriguing tale of survival of the fittest along with the need of the characters to hide their inner secrets. As written in the blurb, 8 people were left stranded on a supposedly haunted island owned by a witch and only 3 of them survive. Did they? Or was it one man standing at the end?

My first book by author Sarah Goodwin, I loved the research that must have gone into this book to write about the right plants and herbs used for foraging and cooking. The 8 characters were part of a reality show which was an experiment to depict to the viewers the end of days kind of scenario and how humanity would react to it.

Initially it was all honky-dory and complete co-operation. Far away from civilization the groups were made and politeness was left slowly behind. Human psyche was well shown as slowly the masks were pulled down, and real nature of primitive humans came to play. Our main character Maddy soon found herself right in the middle of maelstrom of groupism and being targeted at every point.

The book had some graphic details of how all of them hunted her, the scenes shook me to the core even when they were thought provoking. Were we all animals in reality, where left to nature, would we become one? Kill or be killed. Would that have been the rule if the pandemic had killed more and left very few of us behind?

This book was more of a dark thriller; Maddy was fabulous in her role. This would make a great movie where each character would leave the viewers with a deep impact. Maybe then kindness would be more ingrained in all of us.

In this, the author gave me a different kind of a read where the story kept calling my name even through my chores. I read the last section at one go as I needed to know if Maddy would survive it all.

Read it! It is different!

What do you get if you cross The Island with Bear Grylls and Tom Hanks in Castaway? Well, if you sprinkle in a bit of murder, this book that’s what!

Maddy just wanted to get away from her sheltered life and the reality TV show based on an island off the coast of Scotland seems like the perfect escape. Now I’m not gonna lie, I e always loved the idea of doing a show like The Island, or Hunted - not for a whole year like this one, but something ‘different’ - so I can understand the draw for someone like Maddy.

There’s snippets in the book from before (recruitment process for the TV show), what she had to endure on the island, and after (TV interview). Now, the book is written from Maddy’s perspective and as such, after finishing the book I’m not sure whether we will ever truly know what happened on the island as it’s all told from Maddy’s side. I’d have loved to have had some chapters from some of the other islanders to try and understand their actions a bit more, as from Maddy’s perspective some were quite unexpected and harsh.

Thank you Netgalley, Avon Books Uk and Sarah Goodwin for the copy of this book.

Eight Strangers. One Island. A secret to kill for.
Our main narrator, Maddy is reeling from a recent loss and wants to make a change. So when the option to go on a reality show staying on a deserted island for a year appears, she jumps at the chance. She'll be fine, she can heal, make new friends and put her botany knowledge to good use.
This is a social experiment showing what happens when strangers are put on an island after the world ends with limited food and no shelter.
What follows is a insightful look at human behaviour and the lengths we will go to to survive. And only the strong will survive.

I loved this book! The tension and stress Maddy portrays is amazing. You can just feel the isolation and fear like she does. Each chapter ends with a tension filled cliffhanger.
I read this book in a day! And I have purchased the paperback and re-read it again recently, it's that good! I can't wait to read more by this author.

5 well deserved stars

Really gripping read about people who will be living on an island for a year by themselves. A lot happens I this time and the boat does not come to collect them so what is going on. I just wanted to keep reading and see what was going to happen.

I couldnt stop reading this book. It reminded me of one of my favourite tv shows Survivor. It was extremely well written and held my interest the whole way through.

I wanted to love this especially after reading amazing reviews but this was just ok for me. A few times I actually put it down and then started again as forcing myself to continue, not sure if it was the pacing or if I just couldn't get in to the plot enough to really be invested.

Warning: Review contains mild spoilers

This fast-moving thriller is a MUST read. From the moment I started it until the moment I finally had time to finish it, I was glued to my Kindle screen. I was even getting annoyed that anyone would dare to bother me while reading this because it was so nerve-wracking, exciting, and tense in nearly every moment. This is one of those books that you just NEED to see through because every moment has you wondering what could possibly happen next and how this was going to end.

I will say that the cover and description does NOTHING to promote this book. It makes it seem like any other run of the mill police procedural or psychological thriller, and not the exciting Lost/Hunger Games/Naked and Afraid-esk crossover it turns out to be. As the characters quickly descend into hopelessness and feeling desperate, the drama and intensity really ramps up. I even loved the beginning before all of the drama starts when we just get the feel for the characters and how their year on the island is going to work. As we get to know the characters, its clear early on that things will go awry. This only made it more exciting to see how things would play out.

I particularly loved how this was written, with snippets of the current day interviews interwoven between the chapters to show that in the end the main character was always going to survive which gave me hope and really intrigued me because for most of the book it seemed hopeless for her and all of the odds were constantly stacked against her. If it wasn't for her wit and survival skills, she wouldn't have lasted a day. But because of those things, her endurance, and her will to live, she was able to outlast all of them and live to tell her tale.

This was brilliant from beginning to end and is in my top thrillers of the year and of all time. This will stick with me for the foreseeable future. What a tale of determination and what is it to survive and show humanity. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Stranded was first published September 16, 2021.

This book was so good I didn't want to put it down! We follow Maddy who agrees to take part in a television show stranded on an Island for a year with 7 other strangers. Maddy is a complex character who soon becomes alienated from the rest of the group as they think she is quick to argue everything and isn't doing enough to help the camp. I was on her side throughout the book (although this could have been very different if we ever saw her reactions from any other members of the camp), and with every new thing that the camp throws at her made me so angry on her behalf with the way she was treated. This is a brilliant psychological thriller that is sure to keep you up reading all night and the ending will surely shock you too!

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin

Eight strangers are taken to an isolated island to live together for 12 months. Must hunt for their food and build shelters. How many come back? 18 months later, one woman arrives in a fishing village., ready to tell her story.

A definite mystery thriller about survival! How can any person put up with all the challenges? A must read. Different character, with different ideas. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

I was excited to receive this book - the premise sounded amazing! This one did not disappoint! The writing is incredible, the twists are unexpected, and I am still thinking about the ending days later. Would definitely recommend!

Reading this book felt like I was watching a survival reality show… but only better! Goodwin gets the mixture of characters just right as we are introduced to typical personalities that seem to form up such groups on the television.

With my heart in my mouth, this became a true page-turner. Goodwin has presented a very claustrophobic atmosphere as the community of the island begins to fracture from very early on. I felt anxious for Maddy and I think that Goodwin completely taps into the feelings experienced from the being the victim of abuse. The group of islanders are cruel and two-faced towards Maddy; I disliked all of them in various degrees and was horrified by their bullish and isolating actions. On the other hand, I did want to see Maddy defend herself a bit more, but this comes later in the story.

I could not put this book down as I was so absorbed by this survival narrative. Opening the story with a dishevelled Maddy, the book then becomes a record of what happened over the twelve months. Sickened by the actions of those around Maddy, I could not believe that the production company did not intervene when the group ostracise Maddy, threaten her and go out of their way to ensure she is uncomfortable. Indeed, I think the behaviours demonstrated towards Maddy were ones that I believe many readers could relate to, so common is bullying as we all grow up.

The significance of the island’s history and the mysterious witch that Maddy describes early on in the novel, only really becomes more important in the latter half of the story. Seeing Maddy literally fighting for survival, it was interesting to see how symbolic the witch becomes for Maddy’s existence. Furthermore, I enjoyed the relevance that the writer gives this creature at the end of the story, adding to a kind of mysterious, supernatural feel and one where I didn’t feel wholly comfortable with Maddy’s character.

This book was really gripping and I had to keep reading it to find out what happened. A bit like the voyeurism you experience when watching reality television shows, I think Goodwin successfully recreates this within the novel. Disliking the characters as much as Maddy herself, I was rooting for her survival and also fearing for what happened next. After all, despite what she applied for, this one year experience proved to be far from the Eden she was expecting…

With thanks to Avon books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an amazing page turner. The descriptions are breathtaking and I was quickly immersed into the setting.