If you have read The Chain, and loved it, then you should read The Island. Similar to The Chain, The Island is a pulse pounding race against time to survive. It is suspenseful and terrifying.
I didn’t fell any sort of love for the characters, but that’s totally ok. The chase is bigger then the characters. You have the crazy, backwoods islanders who have a whole The Hills Have Eyes vibe, as well as a bit of Deliverance, and the innocent but not so innocent intruders they are chasing. Those intruders are a wealthy couple and their two kids, all of which are used to a life of privilege and technology. Putting them on a barren island of scortching heat, no food or water, no electricity while getting shot at and hunted by angry ATV driving locals who answer to “Ma”… yeah this is an excellent horror movie in the making.
I read this so fast, and enjoyed every part of it. It is exactly what you need for a quick terrifying escape away from everything else you’re reading. Don’t go into this hoping for some sort of moral enlightenment or happy ending. It’s a wonderfully wrong game of hide and seek, where the seekers plan to kill.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Island by Adrian McKinty.

This is the second book I have read by Adrian McKinty and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one The Chain. These books are always full of twists and turns and the book never ends where you think it is going to.

Holy fast paced! I’ve never flown through a book so fast. This was my second book by Adrian McKinty & definitely my favorite. I loved Heather and her deep will to keep pushing in the face of murder obsessed lunatics. The twists kept coming (moment of silence for Tom) & I couldn’t turn the pages faster! The whole O’Neill family is full on batshit and I couldn’t get enough! I will recommend this to anyone and everyone!

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Heading for their family vacation to Australia - which is a working vacation for Tom. They accidently hit a women on her bike killing her.
The island holds locals that are extremely dangerous - Tom is shot by the husband of the woman killed on the bike.
Heather and the two kids escape but how will they get home - no water - no food -
Follow along for the unbelievable tale of survival. You will be on the edge of your seat!

I got about 30% into this book and then had to put it down because it wasn't great for my mental health at the time. Very anxiety, don't like. However, I picked it back up and then powered through the rest of it. Once you get past that initial tension, then it's...well, not relaxing, but still not as stressful as I imagined it would be.

Good Lord, this is a terrible review. Anyway, the point is, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.

I’ve seen “The Chain” swirling around for a while now, but never got the chance to read it. I was excited to see that “The Island” was on netgally. I enjoyed this one a lot! It kept me engaged throughout, and I love that one of the main characters was a bad ass female. I did not even realize that it was almost 400 pages. Usually those books drag for me but not this one!

"The Island" is a family vacation gone wrong. Tom and his preteen son and teen daughter take his new wife to Australia on a work trip and try to get in some fun. The kids are not so nuts about Heather, the new wife, since their mother has only been dead a year but they are hoping to see some koala bears. When they do not see any on their excursion they decide to book a trip to an island where wildlife is promised. The situation seemed sketchy to me but they jump it and another older couple joins them. Once on the island all talk of koala bears is forgotten as they deal with one crazy thing after another and try to escape with their lives.
This book was a page turner (I read it all in one session) and with the first chapter being a glimpse into what is going on after they get on the island you know immediately you are in for a gripping thriller.
Some things seem a bit outlandish or obvious to us but not to the characters, but this is a good read!

McKinty has done it again. He has managed to make my skin crawl, turn my stomach, make me yell, make me pissed off, make me feel elated and most of all highly entertained me with his new book. After reading, The Chain, I was excited and hopeful about this book. I was definitely not disappointed! This is a must read if you like constant action, rollercoaster emotions, suspense and some horror peppered in. Great book!

A real pageturner of a book. The turns (not exactly twisty enough to be twists) could be seen coming. A diverting read but in retrospect it doesn’t stick with you.

Thank you to Netgalley & Little, Brown and Company for the eBook ARC!

This book lives up to all the hype. Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. We find them starting their vacation in Australia, where Tom is to be attending a conference. Hoping to see some real Australian kangaroos and koalas, the kids convince their father and Heather to venture out and explore! That does not end well for them. They wind up on remote Dutch Island, where things start to go downhill very fast. Like, incredibly fast.

My favorite thing about this book is the "full speed ahead" of the plot line. We get several short chapters leading up to their arrival on Dutch Island and once they're there... It's all about survival. We get into the nitty gritty of the story. Getting separated from Tom, Heather is now in charge of keeping two kids alive, who seem to be extremely over their new "stepmom" but must trust her in order to survive.

I definitely didn't see the ending coming and that's the best part of a good thriller book. The twists and turns of the storyline and the character development was perfect. I honestly felt like I could picture it all like a movie... which is why I'm so excited this is going to be a Hulu original series!

110ish pages into this book and am DNFing it. This simply is not my kind of book. I think I would potentially be more interested if we found out more about the “bad guys” in the first 1/3 of the book, but as of this far into it the motives just don’t make sense to me and I’m not invested at all.

I received. Free arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an okay read. There was a lot of action. Some of it believable and some a little far fetched. Some of it was very predictable but it flowed pretty well.

One mistake can have devastating consequences...

Small-town Heather marries Tom, a doctor in Seattle with two children. Still mourning the loss of their mother, the kids are not fond of Heather at all and want absolutely nothing to do with her. But when a tragic accident on vacation leaves the family in danger, Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, and she is the only hope they have for survival. Hunted by a group of locals on the remote Dutch Island, Heather is forced to do whatever it takes to protect the children. She won't let anyone hurt her family, even if she has to go to unimaginable lengths to keep them safe.
This novel pulled me in from the very beginning and didn't let me go. I love survival thrillers, especially when most of the story takes place in real time, making everything so much more intense. I read the eARC and listened to the audiobook, and the use of sound effects made the story even more immersive and thrilling. I hope to experience sound effects in other audiobooks in the future as I loved them in The Island! The narrator was also wonderful at setting the scene with her tone and creating distinguishable voices for each character, even down to their accents. I highly recommend The Island to anyone who is looking for a fast-paced, engaging survival thriller!

This was such a good book! I loved how fast paced it was. A family takes a vacation to Australia and while there decided to go to Dutch Island where an old prison is located. Shortly after they get there something tragic happens which kicks off a series of deadly events. What would you do to survive? This story explores how to survive on a island with everything against you! I received a free ebook copy for my honest opinion from Netgalley.

The Island is a horror novel about transgressions, punishment, and redemption. I haven't enjoyed getting to know a main character as much as I've enjoyed getting to know Heather, and I was engaged with her revelations, and the revelations of her family as they went through their...experience. I read this straight through and loved it.

I'd recommend this to anyone with this caveat: This is a VERY violent book, and there are some close r*pey moments in it early on, but while I find those moments difficult (and came close to DNF'ing this one), I pushed through and was glad that I did.

Fighting for your life, the life of your stepchildren, and wondering who you can trust - this book was packed with action. I had no idea what to expect when I started reading, but was pleasantly surprised! The descriptions of the sweltering summer heat and remote setting conjured a very uncomfortable atmosphere - right in time for a steamy summer. If you are looking for a heart pounding, action filled survival story, you will enjoy this book. Just maybe don’t read it right before bed.

I really liked the book The Chain by Adrian McKinty so I was excited to read his new one, The Island. I had both the ebook and the audio and went with the audio, which was quite an experience, as sound effects were included! This was an exciting thriller that made me feel like I was on the hot and dry island along with the family. The amount of violence in this book reminded me of Taylor Adams's books. While I sometimes wondered if there was a point to the the locals acting the way they did, I enjoyed the action and the story and it kept me interested throughout!

The Island was exactly what I needed an isolated survival thriller/horror to be. This was a masterpiece. Those who loved No Exit by Taylor Adams will probably also love The Island.

Go read this one now!

Heather is everything I wanted and needed from a heroine. The story was believable and the stakes were high. The tone was immaculate, it was so easy to read and such a fun time. I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you Little Brown & co and Netgalley for giving me an ebook early for an honest review.

3.5 rounded to 4 stars
"Be not afraid; the Isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not."
Willam Shakespeare, The Tempest 1611

Well this book was certainly a wild ride. I was hesitant to read this one because when I read The Chain by Adrian McKinley, it wasn't my favorite... but everyone deserves a second chance, so I took the leap. This book is told in the third person and kinda hops around between POVs, but mainly focuses on Heather and the Kids, Owen and Olivia. I really loved the character development with Heather and her relationship with not only the kids but herself as well... the experience made her believe in herself again and it was good to read about.

The writing style was very different in this one., and sometimes confusing following along. I did really love though how the author described in detail how being stranded on an island with native people would be like... made you feel like you were there with them. I also really loved reading about Australia and the indigenous people who lived on the island (Bunurong) on which he took inspiration from.

Overall this book was ok. I liked the plot and the characters, but the writing style and the pace kinda threw me off a little. Great of fans of stranded island mysteries.

Thank you to Little Brown and Company, Hachette Audio, Netgalley and Adrian McKinty of an arc of this book and audiobook in exchange for an honest review !

I loved The Chain, so I was extremely excited to check out this new book from Adrian McKinty. I went in blind based on the author, and assumed I knew what the story would be about based on the title. While I was correct on the plot, it did not diminish my enjoyment of this book at all. I was glued to the edge of my seat and devoured this book in just one day (which is unusual for me). There were some slow points that caused me to skim the details a bit, but overall this book was pretty fast-paced and gripping. Another winner from this author, and I can't wait to read what he puts out in the future.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Little, Brown and Company for this ARC.