Wow! Shocking!
Contestants are taken to a remote island - for a year. Tasked with providing their own supplies yet only allowed to bring so many items onto the island, all eight must determine what they cannot live without.
Maddy desperately wanted to be selected for this challenge - after her parents' sudden deaths, Maddy felt removed from life, wandering and aimless.
After the drop off, along with two cameramen to live in a cabin on the island for technical assistance, the hierarchy is clearly established - the leader, the lazy, the judgmental. Though Maddy spends considerable time foraging food, few see the merit. Eventually Maddy is forced to live on her own, though her food continues to be stolen.
And of course the others begin dabbling in homebrew.
This book does an amazing job answering the question - what is only a few of us survived a catastrophic event? Would the human race survive?

This book had tons of action! It was fast paced and very quick read even though it was longer. This was like a game show. Would be a great movie too. The characters were great and you can really connect with them. Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book. I will definitely be recommending on my social media and to friends.
4.5

Thrilling, gripping and intense edge of your seat thriller!

Eight complete strangers accept the challenge to survive on an uninhabited island for an entire year as part of a reality TV series. A social experiment intended to pretend the world had ended and build a new future for themselves using the limited natural resources available to them. They knew it was just for a TV show and it wasn't real, right? So what could possibly go wrong?

This is an absolute mind blowing must read!

This had a very interesting concept …think castaway meets survivor with a dash of survival I’d the fittest. The author does a great job giving the stranded vibe. The characters are all down right despicable and it’s amazing the lengths people will go in certain circumstances. I’m going three stars because I felt besides Maddy the rest of the group felt not as developed. In my opinion if we got a little more backstory on them and different POVs that would have made me more invested. All in all good read

Thanks Avon and Netgalley

What an exciting atmospheric thriller. I really enjoyed listening/ reading it and found it difficult to put down. Brilliant debut from Sarah Goodwin.
The book revolves around eight strangers stranded on a remote Scottish island for a TV show. Reality TV is not my usual choice however think this book was a very good atmospheric read/listen. Enjoyable fast-paced story, great descriptions of the remoteness and wilderness that builds the atmospheric tension. The characters were not that likeable during their time on the island but you would expect to see changes living with strangers over time and personality clashes. If you are looking for a great read, thriller and a great twist at end then this is for you. It is a book of human behaviour, survival, friendship and lies.
I'll definitely be looking out for any other books by Sarah Goodwin.
Only criticism is I wouldnt read blurb before the book as it does give away some of the story however I still really enjoyed it
The audio book is narrated by Esme Sears who was brilliant at keeping the suspense and pace flowing.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Omg I want to shout about this book so much but at the same time I don't want to give away any spoilers but this was a brilliant brilliant read.

Complete Lord of the Flies vibes which drew me right into the story and I was hooked from the word go. The characters were a bunch of hugely complex people and all rather vile which made for a very intriguing group. It was really hard to predict what was going to happen next. Parts of the story really set my heart racing and when I finished it at 1am (as I couldn't put it down) I then didn't get to sleep for ages as I couldn't get thoughts of the book out of my head.

Massive five stars and highly recommended. This is a must read!

Stranded very much gave me Lord of The Flies vibes, or a survival of the fittest. My heart was pounding and some expletives may have escaped my mouth while reading this. The description in the book made death, hunger and fear palpable!

Synopsis

Eight strangers, 4 women and 4 men are chosen to live on the remote island of Buidseach, off the coast of Scotland for one year. They were allowed to bring very limited supplies. While there they had to build a shelter, and create a community that was self sustaining.. All this is for a reality TV show with the premise they are the last remaining surviving people on earth.

Our protagonist, Maddy has led a very sheltered life. Her parents were overprotective and pretty much kept her from the rest of the world for a good part of her life. They just recently died and now she has no one. Unsure what to do with her life brings her to the show. It’s not long before Maddy feels like an outsider with her new community. Her efforts at being a skilled botanist and her ability to forage for food and turn plants into medicine are only bringing resentment from the self appointed leader, Duncan. Some of the other women, Maxine and Zoe, share her concerns but are not willing to stand up in her defense.

It’s not long before Maddy finds herself alone and having to fend for herself. What’s worse is she feels threatened by the rest of them. Will she get off the island alive?

I really enjoyed the spine tingling suspense in this book. The ending was perfect! I do think it could have had a little less detail to shorten it a bit.

This book is a great reminder as to why I prefer staycations!

Maddy signs up for a reality TV show that basically throws her and 9 other individuals (7 contestants and 2 cameramen) onto a deserted island for a year. They’re meant to rough it out and pretend like the world outside of the island has ended.

Mob mentality eventually turns everyone against Maddy (the narrator). Not all of them will survive. And NOTHING will go according to plan.

This is such an atmospheric read that’s hard to put down...but I will admit, the beginning was a struggle. It was hard remembering who was who, and took awhile to get going. Once that was settled, the scenery and dread of the situation took over. The ending felt a bit rushed though.

Whether you like to camp and be adventurous or not, you’ll find something here that raises your anxiety. Kudos to the author for letting that tension build to almost fever-pitch proportions. This is highly suspenseful, and will keep readers gripped.

TW: Poor rabbits. Granted, I should’ve known...given the plot. In this case, it fits into the storyline, and only one scene is a little more descriptive than I would’ve liked.

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Now available.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

Did I need to request a new book the week of publication? Why yes I did after seeing it pop up in my Instagram feed. Did I push every other book out of my way? Why, yes, I did that too! If Stranded doesn't convince you that reality TV shows are a bad idea, I don't know what will!
Eight people are chosen for a show where they will live on a remote island for a year. There will be two cameramen staying in a different location, monitoring their activities by cameras placed around the island and with each participant wearing a body cam. The rules clearly state the lucky eight are only to go to the cameramen's hut if there is a true emergency, and they will not interfere in the group dynamics.
The story is told from Maddy's point of view. She was homeschooled and has never been comfortable socializing. The deaths of her parents have truly left her alone, and this to her seems like the perfect way to escape her lonely life. Of course, she has no idea that each person was chosen based on their different personalities, and she has no idea how hard it will be to work with the others. For someone who has difficulty dealing with people, Maddy will soon learn what it means to truly be an outsider.
I almost would say it was amazing that such a group of unlikeable characters with questionable survival skills would be chosen. Then, of course, I remembered that reality TV shows thrive on controversy and drama. Who wants to turn in every night and see eight people working together and getting along? I did wonder more than once why Maddy didn't just walk away and get the cameramen to call to have her taken home. I think the fact that she had such limited life skills made her believe that things were okay. We will see though that they were not. By the time the story ends, we will know what group dynamics and adversity will do to this group.
A debut! Say what! A very enjoyable book that was difficult to put down. We have a good idea of who is the ultimate survivor in the first chapter, but it didn't lessen the tension of trying to figure out what ultimately happened on this island.

This was a good book to get me started in my fall/thriller mood. The setting (an island in Scotland) was perfect for this book. I thought the characters were a good group to watch while they live on this island for a year during a reality “survival” competition. None of the characters were really likeable, but I didn’t find that problematic for this book. I liked how in the beginning the present-day chapters showed that everything wasn’t perfect on the island, although do feel it ended up being a little too much foreshadowing than was necessary. Overall really enjoyed this.

Maddy is selected to participate in a reality show where eight people are delivered to an island off the coast of Scotland for a year to document how they subsist and develop a community without assistance from outside influences. I don't want to say too much because it would be easy to include spoilers plus the book blurb already gives a lot away. When I first read a description of the book I thought I had read it before but of course I hadn't. After much googling, I finally realized that this story reminds me a lot of a tv series called Siberia that we had watched in 2013, except this book is much better.

The book is extremely well written and very riveting, a wonderful debut novel. The cast of characters is quite varied although not really developed except for Maddy for whom I felt a great deal of empathy. There's a lot of suspense and tension and I experienced a wide range of emotions while reading it. I liked that there seemed to be a nod to Tom Hanks and Wilson from Castaway in the book! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Sarah Goodwin does next.

Many thanks to Avon Books UK via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this excellent novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

Publication Date: September 16, 2021

This book was absolutely insane! Maddy, the main character, quite literally goes to hell and back in her year on the island. She is ostracized from the other members of the group and it’s unreal what she goes through. It started out as a slow burn, but when Sarah Goodwin turns up the heat she really cranks it up! I don’t think I ever left the edge of my seat. If I had to survive on an island for a whole year, I’m not sure that I’d make it 😅 Special thanks to @netgalley and @avonbooksuk for the E-ARC!

Rating 4
As soon as I started reading this book I could tell it wasn’t going to be your typical thriller. Instead this book was filled with twists, turns, and hidden surprises that will keep you reading until the end. The author does a great job of keeping the reader engaged. This story goes from bad to worse back to bad back to worse and your morbid curiosity will be what keeps you reading. I kept reading because I had to know how and why Maddy was the only one to show up 18 months later. I also had to find out what everyone’s deal was. The side characters were so hateable! Some characters did show growth throughout the story but Maddy was the only character to truly change. Everyone reacted in a way they thought they had to in order to survive. It was interesting to see how some people kept their humanity and others immediately lost it. Not only is this a great thriller/mystery it was a great survival story. I enjoyed finding out how the characters were going to survive on their own especially after the one year was over. The author did a great job describing the dire situations the characters were in. Honestly, at certain points I felt I was on the beach right beside Maddy. She is such a relatable character. She comes from an overbearing family which has left her soft spoken, unsure of herself, and lonely. No matter where she goes she feels like an outcast because she doesn’t know how to communicate with others. Being stranded on this island was no different for her. It was hard to read everything she was forced to go through during those 18 months because at certain points I just wanted to give her a hug. Overall, this was a great book that I would definitely recommend to those who want a unique spin on a survival thriller whodunit story. My only complaint is the book would go into a sprint then back into walking. However, I do understand with books like this not every page can be as exciting because there is much to explain.

**Received an advanced copy through NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

I really loved this book - all the way through!! It was so well written and the characters were amazing! You really felt yourself feel everything they did, especially for the main character Maddie.

I picked up my kindle every chance I got with this book, which was a nice change as I’ve had a bad run of books lately!

Highly recommend this book and the author, it’s one of my favourites of the year so far.

#NetgallyReview

A dark and somewhat creepy thriller which I read in one day as I couldn’t wait to discover what was happening!

Maddy is one of eight people selected for a reality tv show - The Last Refuge. Four males and four females are sent to a remote island for a year on the premise that the world has ended and they are the only survivors. Can eight strangers get along, work as a team and become self sufficient and survive for a year?

Eight hand picked characters, all with issues, none really likeable to be honest. Was this ever going to work?

Written in chapters from the point of view of Maddy’s journey on the island, present day and also previous to her trip to the island. It all ties in perfectly as it flows really well.

Such a compulsive read as the tension was mounting from page to page. I felt my pulse racing as the story slowly unfolded. There were times when I loathed some of the characters and felt really immersed in the storyline. This just shows how brilliant the writing was.

Absolutely blown away by this. Don’t just take my word for it, read some other reviews on netgalley too.

Many thanks to netgalley, the publishers and the author for an arc. Really happy to read this. Now I need to go and have a lie down to recover!

Note to self-- Never sign up for any survival reality T.V. shows!

I don't even enjoy camping, so this one really had me unnerved as things started to spiral downward.

Tons of tension that builds as the story progresses, many love to hate characters, and lots of backstabbing behavior. Sound like the perfect storm? It was.

If you want to bite your nails off while spending time stranded on a deserted island with a bunch of gossipy cliques, selfish, reckless mates, this is a trip you won't soon forget! The victor tells the story. "The truth is a slippery thing......"

My GR friends made me pick this one up! I'm glad they did, check out all the glowing reviews.

Wow! What a way to begin your writing career! I really begrudged the occasions I had to set this book aside to do other things. I would have read in one session had I been able to. It’s a compulsive read showing that once people are out of their structured environment, how easy it is for the thin veneer of acceptable behaviour to be stripped away. Maddy, who narrates the book has grown up with overprotective parents. In fact, her mother is very controlling. This has followed her into adult life where she appears to be the target for bullying behaviour in the workplace. This leads her to prefer temping. In that way she never quite becomes part of the team. It is more convenient. Less dangerous.
Applying to become part of a year-long reality project – four men and four women chosen to build a community on a remote Scottish island, she feels in some way this may change things for her. Although the group begin well, their camaraderie soon begins to fracture with chilling results.
I totally enjoyed this book. A powerful and compelling read showing the darker side of human nature and one woman’s determination and resourcefulness to survive.

My thanks to Avon Books and the author for an AVC copy via Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books UK, Avon for the arc! This is a fantastic debut. I was hooked from the beginning and never lost interest because the momentum just kept building. The characters are not likable, but they are memorable. The writing just drew me in and made me keep wondering what was going to happen next. The story seems like it will be your typical 'locked room' story, but it ended up being so much more. I won't give any spoilers, but all I can say is WOW.

Stranded is a book that surpassed my wildest dreams…it went far beyond what I expected, and had a haunting quality that will stay with me. This is a book I expected to like, but it was so well-written that I can’t wait to recommend it to others.
The story focuses on eight very different people, cherry-picked by a team of producers to take part in a new reality show. They are to be taken to a remote island off the coast of Scotland where their every move will be recorded as they have to live in a new community for a year. As is made clear, something goes terribly wrong and not everyone survives this experience. Of course, we want to know what happens and how, but we are made to wait!
Our main character is Maddy. Something of a loner she wants to participate in the show as a way of escaping her reality after the death of her parents. Fitting in with new people doesn’t come naturally to her, so we are placed in the enviable position of watching things through Maddy’s eyes…outsiders, monitoring the interactions of the group and left to second-guess the motivations of others based on what Maddy tells us about them.
The other group members have - it’s clear - been picked as a way of generating conflict. Things begin positively enough, but it doesn’t take much to set off a deterioration in the group dynamic. All too soon we’re in a Lord of the Flies-style hell, with each of the group fighting for survival.
There was a certain tension that came from knowing that Maddy survived and was being interviewed about her experience. I feared this knowledge would mar the reading experience, but it actually heightened the tension for me since I was desperate to see exactly what had happened and how she’d managed to escape when things looked so very bleak. I also found the introduction of the supernatural at key moments a positive as it illustrated the extreme mental duress she was under.
I can’t thank the publishers and NetGalley enough for allowing me to read this before publication. A truly exciting book…

‘Stranded’ by Sarah Goodwin is 'Shipwrecked' the TV show meets Lord of the Flies and I really quite enjoyed it!

The book itself is about a group of 8 strangers, 4 men and 4 women, who have signed up to take part in a reality TV show where they are abandoned on an island off the coast of Scotland and are challenged to live without any involvement from the outside world for an entire year – the idea being, they must try recreating society for better after a fictional apocalypse.

Eighteen months later, one of the cast members reappears on the Scottish shore frightened, starved and with a rifle slung over her back and the question is – what happened on the island?

I read this entire book in one sitting; I honestly couldn’t stop! There were so many twists and turns that kept you hooked and guessing right up to the very end. Goodwin has created so many very realistic characters here, I could really imagine these people being on a reality TV show. Almost all of them having no redeeming qualities whatsoever – perfect for TV! Saying that, I did find it quite hard to believe a bunch of people being THAT awful though and turning on each other so quickly, maybe that’s just my hopeless optimism that people are inherently good at their core though, but it was really quite extreme and extreme FAST.

The book did annoy me slightly with how much awfulness and abuse the main character Maddy was willing to take from her fellow ‘contestants’ I kept saying to myself if it was me, I would have just been like ‘NOPE I am out’ but it made sense for the plot direction so I could overlook it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, despite a few little flaws! I would happily give it 4 out of 5. Very enjoyable read and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers at @AvonBooksUK for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.