4.5
I've stopped reading synopsis in thrillers, coz I have found out that the more I go into the book blind the more I enjoy it. So, when starting this one I didn't know that it was gonna be them on an island running from the locals, I thought they were going to be vacationing on an island😂

I didn't know what I was getting myself into and wow it was a huge surprise!!
Very fast paced and action packed I enjoyed every minute of it:)
It was also very intense and coz we didn't know what was going to happen next it made it that much more thrilling.
This had well rounded character's, an amazing plot that keeps you on ur toes and I wasn't bored for even a second.
Def going to be reading his other book the chain soon:) Highly recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley, the Author and Little, Brown and Company for my advanced copy to read and review. :)

A dream vacation turns into a nightmare in this high octane thriller from Adrian McKinty.

Seriously, buckle up, because there’s very little downtime.

This has a different vibe from The Chain, so don’t walk into this expecting it to be similar. And check TW before reading!

I’m not surprised this is already being developed by Hulu, and I think thriller fans will love the book and adaptation.

Definitely a 4 star read for me!

**Many thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.**

Adrian McKinty is one of those authors that I hear discussed among many reviewers and I was so excited to finally receive an ARC(advanced reader's copy) of his work. Talk about an edge of your seat/page turning/nail bite suspense!

American massage therapist Heather, her doctor husband, Tom and two step children, Owen and Olivia are traveling in Australia. Although Tom is very busy with a medical conference there, he and Heather are determined to show the kids as much of Australia as possible. When they meet up with some locals living on a nearby island, the adults have some reservations but the teens soon convince them. It will turn out to be one of many mistakes that they will make.

The best suspense thrillers are the ones that make your heart race and forgetting about everything and everyone around you. The plot was fast moving, the characters intriguing(and sometimes infuriating) and a lot of gasping for breath moments. Honestly, it had all the makings of a blockbuster movie. I now count myself among the Adrian McKinty book club members.

I have auto approval for Little, Brown and Company.

Expected Publication Date 17/05/22
Goodreads review published 30/04/22

The Island by Adrian McKinty was pure entertainment! Don’t look too closely at the coincidences like how the family had special skills and knowledge of survival/shooting just sit back and enjoy the ride.

If you are ever traveling and someone randomly offers to take you to a private island to see exotic animals, DON’T GO! Unfortunately for the characters in this book, they went and with horrific results. Sidenote: I probably wouldn’t last long in this situation.

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

What I love about books like this one is that there is no downtime in the reading, it’s just a totally wild ride of suspense and adventure. I guess I’m not the only one who thought so because this book is going to be a series on Hulu! I can’t wait!

Don’t miss this fun book, it’s out on May 17.

3.5 stars

Wow! This book was intense! There are some twists and turns to be sure, but the plot is largely pretty straightforward. Even so, the pacing was non-stop. It has action, terror, suspense, and tension. Oh so much tension.

With that said, this book is also dark and disturbing with some violence and just weird turns.

It was an entertaining read and most certainly a page-turner.


My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Company for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I picked this one up because I'd had a pretty good experience with this author before- I read The Chain and found it very fast and easy to read, an unrealistic but engaging thriller.
Unfortunately, this book did not work for me at all. The plot was very predictable (and nearly every single thing that happens in the book is in the synopsis), the characters were all unlikeable, and the tone was frustrating because it kept changing from extremely tense to light and humorous, but in jarring ways. The "oh no we're being chased and we have to run" portion of the book quickly got repetitive and I expected there to be some big reveal that would shake things up, but it never came. The villains were unrealistically bad and didn't have a lot of nuance to them.
On top of everything, there were also a lot of lines/moments that made me uncomfortable. It felt like there were a lot of stereotypes in this book that were used to characterize people rather than actually revealing information about them and developing them naturally. TW for threat of rape that is mentioned throughout, violence against animals, torture and violence against humans.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Phew! This book was suspenseful from the start. I was anxious (in a good book way) the WHOLE time. It was one that makes you stay up to finish. If you’re in the mood for a creepy, suspenseful and a little over the top action packed thriller, this is it!

Adrian McKinty's THE ISLAND is a quasi-domestic thriller that abandons the elements that made McKinty's earlier writing great.
As a longtime fan of McKinty's work, I was disappointed to read this entry. His Sean Duffy books are some of the best detective fiction that I've read. I haven't read THE CHAIN, which was his major commercial success, but it seems like that success has watered down his writing. The Sean Duffy books are remarkable for their complicated characters, their elegant prose, and their taut storytelling. In contrast, THE ISLAND feels like yet another book about a somewhat unlikable group of characters caught in a horrible situation of their own making.

This story follows Tom, his new wife, and Tom’s two children, Olivia and Owen. While on a work trip made into a family vacation, an unexpected accident occurs that sends the family straight into a nightmare. They are faced with battling for survival against the inhabitants of the island they found themselves on. Only problem is they are crazy people seeking vengeance for what the Baxter family has done while visiting the island. Heather and the kids get separated from Tom and must find a way to carry on and survive. They’re being hunted by the locals and there’s no way off the island as the waters surrounding it are filled with sharks. Will they survive? This is a twisty, edge of your seat, dark, and wild ride!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn’t put it down and had to know what was going to happen next. The pacing was good and the atmosphere was claustrophobic in a way that I felt like I was there right alongside Heather, Olivia and Owen. If you are into this genre, I’d definitely recommend this one! I saw on the cover it’s going to be adapted into a Hulu series and I can’t wait to watch it!

Pub date is scheduled for 5/17/2022.

Thank you to NetGalley + Little, Brown and Company for the ARC!

This book kept me on edge the whole way through. Very original and different than thrillers I've read. It made me think of movies by Rob Zombie in regards to the family that lives on the island, so I can't wait to see how it turns out on Hulu. Definitely recommend for thriller lovers.

Pub date: 5/17/22
Genre: thriller
In one sentence: Heather, her husband Tom, and their stepchildren head to Dutch Island, Australia to see penguins - but that dream trip quickly turns into a nightmare.

Adrian McKinty's The Chain is a great thriller, so I had to grab this one. I enjoyed the "vacation gone wrong premise",especially at the beginning when Heather and Tom are trying to sort out what's going on. Heather is a great MC for this kind of thriller - she's crafty and gutsy, and she did a great job keeping her family together. This one is a 3-star rather than a 4-star read for me because the last 20% got a little over the top plot-wise. But I still enjoyed the ride!

I think readers who like action-packed, violent thrillers like No Exit and Falling will enjoy this one. It's already being adapted for the screen by Hulu, and I think the action will translate well to TV!

Thank you Little, Brown and Company for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely bonkers. It's not the type of story I typically read, but for some reason I requested the ARC and therefore felt duty-bound to finish it. <i>The Island</I> is a very tense, violent, action-packed thriller set on a small private island off the coast of Australia. When a family (widower father, young new wife, and two stepchildren) ends up visiting a private island populated by one crazy, isolated family in their attempts to see koala bears, a tragic accident occurs that sets an incredibly violent, murderous, pulse-pounding sequence of events in motion. There is little in the way of character development, but for what this book is, it is well done. Just not my speed. I had to finish it in one day and quickly start a new book to attempt to forestall any nightmares. Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for a digital review copy.

The Baxter family is on vacation in Australia on what was originally a work function for Tom. His two kids convince him to let them go and he capitulates in hopes it will help them bond with Heather, the young massage therapist he married after the death of their mother. Heathers’ friend cautioned her about marrying him so soon after his wife’s’ death and taking in two kids who resented her but Heather longed for a stable home life. Now on vacation with a husband who spends his days in meetings she is stuck with the kids and questioning if she wants to be a mother figure. Tom takes a day off to take the family out in hopes of spotting native wildlife. They are offered an opportunity to visit a private island where an accident happens and are soon in a fight for their lives and Heather remembers long ago lessons from her childhood and she will need them all to save herself and her family.
I enjoyed “ The Chain” by this author and couldn’t wait to start this one. The action begins early and doesn’t let up. This has already been optioned by Hulu for a series so make sure to read it when it is released on May 17th!

The Chain was one of my favorite books I read during 2020. Adrian McKinty has once again written another nail-biting, edge of your seat thriller, which has already been acquired by Hulu for a limited series! Heather, her new husband Tom, and his children, Owen & Olivia, travel to Australia. They wind up on a private island when a tragedy occurs, and are not permitted to leave the by the family living there. Their fight for survival begins… Heather is such a badass female character!! I can’t wait to see who will play her in the adaptation. If you love a good survival thriller/horror, then definitely read this. It’s so atmospheric…the sun, the heat, the lack of water. You feel like you’re right on the island with them. I have a feeling this is going to be “The Book” this summer that you’ll see at the beach/pool and all over BookTok & BookTube.

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.

Heather and Tom are recently married and travelling to Australia with Tom's children from his first marriage (he's a widower). The kids desperately want to see everything the country has to offer. They find a remote island which does not allow visitors, but they buy their way in. Then the accident happens and their dream vacation turns into a nightmare. With twists you will not see coming, this book is a must read, absolutely unputdownable!

#TheIsland #NetGalley

Wow! 4.5 ⭐️ Rounded up to 5. I love the "vacation gone wrong" trope, but there are so many of those lately that I wasn't sure what to expect - I certainly wasn't expecting what McKinty delivered here. This is an anxiety-inducing roller coaster ride of a story, with a touch of horror (not usually my thing, but fully enjoyed it here). A smaller subplot as well as a twist I wasn't expecting jumped out which was a pleasant surprise, all smaller details tied together later and the character development was impressive. The book manages to be both character and plot driven and expertly manages both. I look forward to reading anything and everything that this author comes up with in the future!

What It's About: A family vacation to Australia turns into nightmare when the Baxters decided to take their adventure to the next level by going to the remote Dutch island, which is off limits to outsiders.


My thoughts: If you're looking for an action-packed, suspense-filled and a one sitting kind of book, you may want to check this out! Just imagine you are on a remote island, with limited or no cell service, and soon after you found out the inhabitants on the island is not who they appear to be. Yup. Buckle up my friends! You are about to embark on a wild and bat-crap crazy ride!

The plot was straightforward with some twists here and there, and it did keep me invested in the story. The characters are forced to make tough choices because at the end of the day, it is all about survival. However, I wish there was more depth in the characters. I couldn't connect with any of them. It was just go go go throughout the book, which is good if you want that kind of story.

In a nutshell, read this book if you want an entertaining, thrilling and a very plot driven story!

Pub. Date: May 17th, 2022

***Thank you Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

I read this book as an ARC I received from Netgalley. I loved this thriller. It captivates you right from the start and draws you in instantly. The twist was definitely not predictable at all. Highly recommend.

Tom has a conference in Australia and has decided to bring his family along for a mini vacation. When they meet a local who offers to show them koalas on a private island they jump at the chance. While they're on the island a tragedy occurs and they suddenly find themselves fighting for survival and trying to escape the unimaginable.

What in the holy Deliverance did I just read?! Adrian McKinty has another hit on his hands! What a great thriller! As soon as I saw a book by the author of The Chain I knew I had to read it. This book did not disappoint! I've been in a reading slump lately and this pulled me right out of it.

Trigger Warning - Animal death and violence. Normally I would not recommend a book that has animal death in it, but this particular case fit the story and was necessary.