I am just barely old enough to remember the movie Deliverance, but that was all I could think of while reading this book. It was very fast paced and I read it in one day. Although my interest never waned, I found myself speed reading sometimes because the tension was almost too much.

It all starts when Heather and Tom take their two kids to Australia for a family trip. Owen, their son, has not seen any Australian wildlife. When an opportunity to visit Dutch island comes up, they cannot resist.

As the reader knows, this will not end well. I do not want to give any spoilers here, but suffice it to say that you, too, will want to know what happens to all of these people?!

Thank you to Adrian McGinty (I am already a fan of previous works), Netgalley, and Little, Brown and Company for an ARC of this great read. It did not disappoint.

The Island by Adrian McKinty

Courtesy of NetGalley (e-ARC and audiobook) and the publisher

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Pub Date: 5/17/22

Book Review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

WHOA. I don’t usually read action-packed or adventure-type novels, but I really enjoyed the only other book I’ve read from this author, The Chain, so I requested this from NetGalley and lo and behold, I was granted access!!

Heather Baxter’s husband Tom agrees to fly the family out to a conference in Australia for big time surgeons. A getaway for the whole family! How nice!! Once there, Heather and the kids are all but bored to tears, with nothing to do but wait for Tom’s conference to end. Heather’s step kiddos, Olivia and Owen, just wanted to see a couple of koalas and maybe a kangaroo on their trip to the other side of the world. So, when their dad made it possible to do that, they all hopped a ferry to Dutch Island, leaving the safety and security of Melbourne behind.

This is where the story takes off and gets super intense!! NO SPOILERS.

First off, mad props for character development with this one!! Heather’s character blew me away by the end of the story!! Loved all the details given about the scenery in Australia as well! Made me feel like I was on the run with the Baxter family myself! The audio narration was excellent, except for some parts that sounded a *little* tinny. The additional sound effects of gun shots, explosions, etc. added to the atmospheric feel of the book and made me really glad I requested the audio on this one!!

I definitely recommend The Island if you’re into:



*Badass female MCs
*Chase scenes with narrow escapes
*Twists and turns that shock you until the end

Many thanks to @netgalley and the publisher, @littlebrown, for access to this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun and chilling read of a trip gone wrong. What seemed like a planned bonding trip turns out to be a nightmare when traveling to Australia. Tom decides to take his kids and new young wife along with him on a business trip and in search of animals for the kids to see, he decides to make a deal with some local islanders. Bad idea right? no kidding! As expected they are stranded on this island and much make a run for their lives, all the while surviving the extreme weather and conditions.

This was an exciting and fun read, though sometimes a little unbelievable. I did enjoy watching the relationships evolve as trust was built and everyone had to learn to get along.
If you enjoy survival stories with suspense and a mystery this quick read is for you!
4/5 stars as it was mostly possible.

A family vacation in Australia turns them to hostages and then stranded without any help on an island. Then it becomes a pure survival mission for Heather who shows some remarkable presence of mind and grit in the face of her barbaric opponents. It is one hell of a rollercoaster ride that you would not want to miss.

Heather is left with her step kids when they make some stupid mistakes and end up in a scary island with hardly any people. In all these thrillers, I have always felt like screaming at MCs - why would they do something so stupid???? This one is no exception in that case as expected. But once they have to survive in hot island with no water or food, how each of them contribute and help out was very resourceful. It gets dramatic at the end and was a gripping read!!

Trigger warning: Some animals are killed but it was quick and was more for survival so I was fine reading it.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to preview The Island. If you liked The Chain, you will enjoy this novel.
Fast paced, scary, and unpredictable!
Set in Australia, a family sets off to see wildlife and the scenery. A surgeon, his new wife, and children are ready for an adventure. An unexpected event sets off a chain reaction and soon they find themselves in a fight for their lives. Hold on tight - this is a scary good!
This is one of the best books of the year. Recommend- 5 stars!!

Nice adventure story where people make some stupid mistakes. A lot of this required some suspension of disbelief but I did enjoy it.

4.5 stars.

Wooooooow… what a thrill ride. I read this entire book in less than 24 hours because I quite literally couldn’t put it down! This would be great as a film, honestly. I also must give major props to whoever had the final call for the promotional blurb, because it is very vague yet perfectly intriguing, and way too many thrillers give away way too much information in the blurb!

I really don’t want to elaborate much on what The Island is about, because I think it is most impactful if you go in completely blind. But, if you’re looking for a high-action, non-stop thrill ride that is chock full of unlikeable, horrendous characters, look no further! The remote Australian island setting was magnificently written – it complemented the plot well and truly felt like a character of its own.

My only critique would be that the ending felt a bit rushed, and it wasn’t quite as satisfying as I was hoping it would be. But I still think it’s a suitable ending for the book. And be warned if you are sensitive to violence toward animals – I am, personally, but I was able to make it through okay because when it occurs, it’s quick and infrequent.

Seriously, The Island is insane and original in the best way possible, and I’d highly recommend picking it up for a fun time! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC of this book.

It’s a good thing U.S. streaming service Hulu is already adapting Adrian McKinty’s latest adrenaline thriller, The Island, because this bananas book just bursts off the page. If it’s a faithful adaptation, here’s what viewers have in store:

- Super sweaty people running amok, chasing and being chased, across a private Australian island.

- Deliverance-in-the-outback meets (female) Rambo vibes.

- A 24yo woman, married to a 44yo widow, parenting his sassy tween kids.

- Perils such as red ants, snakes, machetes, and nooses.

- Dogs getting shot. (Boooo!!!)

This is a real nail biter that’ll have you sailing through its pages. It’s the yin to any “slow burn” thriller’s yang. I don’t need to read a ton of books like this, but once in awhile it’s refreshing to just go along for the crazy ride.

This was such an intense read. Kept me on the edge of my seat.

This is a story of a family having gone to Australia for a a vacation/ conference. They go over on a little island to take pictures of koalas and have an accident and the fun begins

Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown and Company for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a fantastic book! I was thrilling and suspenseful. It had me on the edge of my seat quite a few times and I managed to finish it within a day. I couldn't stop listening. It reminded me of the movies, Deliverance, Don't Breathe, I Spit on your Grave and No Escape. I've never read a book quite like this. It was fascinating. Definitely a page turner and highly recommended.

The plot was good, but sometimes I think it moved a little fast and I had a hard time understanding what was happening. There were some things at the end that got a little muddled and I'm going to have to have a second go-around with this one. Some of the characters actions didn't make sense and I think it's because I missed something with all the action. However, those complaints are minor and this was still an amazing book.

This book made me think. It actually made me second guess myself and who was a reliable character and that was great. I loved the unreliable narrator aspect. 4.25 stars!

I could not put this book down. There was so much suspense, my heart was pounding the second half of the book. The book was well written and very interesting to read though I did find the plot to be fairly predictable. Overall I really enjoyed The Island and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller.

This just wasn't for me. I didn't care about any of the characters and I didn't like the writing. It felt overly detailed at times and then too tell no show at other times. And a lot of the time, it just didn't make any sense.

This book is not one of my normal thrillers that I read.
It was ok. Just sort of weird to me.
It’s really about revenge and the fight for survival with a lot of action and violence.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Heart-pounding, gripping your seat, over-the-top wild and so very entertaining- this sums up Adrian McKinty's latest thriller, The Island. I haven't read the Chain, although it's on my TBR and has since moved up the list now that I've sampled McKinty's writing style. This was a tense and wild ride that I loved every second of!

Heather Baxter has married a much older man, a doctor with two kids, Olivia and Oliver. They don't totally accept her as their father's new bride. She's 24 and their mother only passed away one year ago. Tom, Heather's new husband, take the family on a work trip to Australia. He has a conference and Heather hopes to bond with his teens. In an attempt to please the kids, Tom and Heather travel to a (not so) deserted island to see koalas and other Australian animals.

Chaos ensues when the family finds themselves the center of a tragic accident. They learn that the Island is inhabited by a family- a family that doesn't take kindly to strangers OR forgive and forget. Heather finds herself on a heart-pumping mission to save herself and her new family in this over- the- top wild ride! You have to suspend reality a bit but you will enjoy this totally mind blowing thriller!
4 stars.

This was a fast-paced thriller filled with a lot of action. However, the whole story felt over the top and unbelievable. None of the characters were particularly likeable which made it hard for me to connect with or root for them. The middle section of the story seemed drawn out and repetitive and the few twists felt pretty obvious. Overall, just wasn’t for me.

This author’s previous book, The Chain, was thrilling and I couldn’t put it down. This one, The Island, did not keep me riveted. I found myself skimming paragraphs as I got bored with all the running and hiding.

WTF is this book?

"You are living on borrowed time. They’ll find you. This is their backyard."

The Island is a psychological thriller about consequences, revenge, and the fight for survival.


I don't want to give anything away, so I am keeping this review vague. It's best to jump into this book blind.

This book is just plain weird. It starts off weird, gets weirder, and then even weirder.

The characters were strange (and I am not referring to the O'Neils). Scenes with dialogue read bizarrely. At times, I wondered if what I was reading was really happening or if I was inside a character's dream.

As weird as I felt this book was, it was a page-turner filled with action, tension, and suspense. The tone is dark and disturbing, and there is a lot of violence. I loved the premise, but the way things played out was just a little too crazy for me. On the plus side, I was never bored. I would advise one not to think while reading this, as I noticed some inaccuracies, and I had to suspend my disbelief.

Overall, this was a gripping read, but I have no desire to experience this island again!

Trigger warning: some animals don't make it out alive.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest revew.

Just assume that you will not sleep the day that you begin reading this book. One of the best page turners I have ever read. This is going to make a hell of a movie

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

Wow! I started this book last night, stayed up way too late, only to finish it this morning while eating breakfast. The pace is blazing fast and the chapters just flew by! The story flows, there is nothing disjointed. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for something tense and terrifying (in a realistic way, not a supernatural way). My heart rate is still up as I'm writing this review.

Please note that for some reason chapter 49 is duplicated.

Having read the authors’ previous book, The Chain, I was looking forward to this book. Thankfully, The Island does not disappoint!

This book is incredibly fun and fast-paced. I was hooked from the first chapter. I loved the atmosphere the author created. It was easy to picture the island’s geography and feel the extreme terror of being hunted down.

My favorite character was Heather. I enjoyed her character development and determination to live. If I was ever stranded on a remote island, being hunted by maniacs, I hope to channel some of her willpower and survival instincts!

I appreciated the author’s acknowledgment of the Bunurong people and their land. (The characters in this book visit the lands of the Bunurong people, referred to as ‘Dutch Island’ in the book.) It was great to see the author mention the actual inhabitants of this land are unlike the inhabitants of The Island. I also liked the tone of which First Nations people were referred to in this story. It did not shy away from acknowledging their land had been stolen.

I took off one star for the ending. It felt like the story ended a bit abruptly. Also, at one point in the middle of the story, the pacing seemed to drop. However, I still really enjoyed it.

This book has already been optioned as a Hulu limited series. I can totally see why and I will definitely be tuning in to watch.

Add this to your TBR if you enjoy action-packed thrillers that will leave your heart racing!