Intense! This book was action packed and fast-paced from the onset. I don’t think I will be visiting Australia anytime or any islands in my lifetime. This book had my heart hammering so fast that I had to take an extra beta blocker to avoid having to call an ambulance. Read it at your own discretion if you have cardiac issues. All joking aside, I loved it. Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was extremely fast-paced and gory - my kind of thriller! I felt like at the end, I was reading as fast as my brain would allow to figure out how it ended!! I really enjoyed it!

What a wild ride of a novel! My brain had a roller coaster running through it while I read this novel in one sitting. At first I thought it was going to be too gory. The beginning was quite disturbing but I didn’t want to stop reading. A perfect thriller with a super cool protagonist and surprising twists and turns. If you want to be distracted from the current stress of today’s world, this book will do the the job. A truly entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for the ARC of this book!

Tom is a widowed doctor with two young teenage children, Owen and Oliva. He has remarried a young woman named Heather, whom the children do not particularly care for. When Tom has a conference to attend in Melbourne, Australia, he takes the whole family. Once they are there, the kids are bored. They want to see kangaroos and koalas! They were told they could see them on a remote island, Dutch Island. However, that island isn’t for tourists. It’s off limits and the family that lives there doesn’t like outsiders. But Tom is able to convince some members of the family to take them over to the island just for a little and then bring them back. Then there’s an accident on the island, and someone has to pay. The local family doesn’t want anyone off the island alive and after being separated from Tom, it’s up to Heather to keep herself and the kids alive. Will they make it off the island?

This book for me is 3.5 stars – so I’ve rounded up to 4 on the review sites. There were aspects of the book that I really liked and then there were aspects of the book that I didn’t like. I really liked that there was a lot of action – it never got boring or mundane. I like that the author painted the scenes so vividly that I could picture everything, but did so without there being so much description that it was boring. There were definitely parts of the book that kept me on the edge of my seat.

That being said, I felt like the book was SO farfetched and unbelievable. There weren’t any super shocking twists. The author wrote the characters so well, that you knew what they were going to do before they even did it. Which on one hand, I like that I really felt like I knew the characters. But on the other, if I can guess what they are going to do, it takes the fun out of reading a thriller.

All killer no filler! I am excited to review "The Island" by Adrian McKinty. He is the author of the popular book "The Chain"

Remember all those books that you read and go, "So slow! Is this going anywhere?" This is not that book. I think it amps up to ten around the 30 page mark. We have the Baxters: Tom, a well renowned surgeon and his new wife Heather. She is young and a former massage therapist. They have two special need kids on antidepressants and Ritalin. They are on a work trip for Tom in Australia and on a whim take a ferry on a island to see some wildlife and sight seeing. However, dum dum dummmm, they have a accident and nothing is at seems when we are introduced to the most terrifying backwoods family since "Deliverance" Don't look any deeper..... Just dive into this one.

The good. Character development and pace. Adrian McKinty's biggest strength is character development. Heather is not the most outspoken or any kind of leader but soon takes that role when trying to keep her and the two kids alive. The decisions she makes and growth is outstanding to read. And I loved the characters of the bad guys/gals. They are not carbon copies of each other or just badguy A or badgirl B. Everyone has a distinct personality. To the point where to the middle if you take out everyone's name you still know who is being referenced. And also good pacing. Somewhere between warp and Ludacris speed.

Plus just when you think it's all action it turns into a survival book as they are trapped in the outback with no food or water. Good stuff!

Not a perfect book. The prose is choppy. I was surprised to see it was almost 400 pages... I would have swore it was under 300. Not so much it read so fast but McKinty really lies his sentence long paragraphs. They do get tedious sometimes. And there is a twist in the end where I really rolled my eyes. Thumbs up to how it's handled by the way. This does not take away from the book and it's still recommended. Just not perfect.

It does read like a screenplay. This is because McKinty has a pretty huge deal with Hulu for his previous book, "The Chain" for a limited series. I can't really blame him for setting himself up for another one because this one is a fun read.

Go read it!

Book given free for honest review.

Adrian McKinty strikes again with another creepy thriller, chock full of suspense! In “The Island”, Heather, Tom, and his two children are in Australia for a medical conference. They take a day trip to a remote island but tragedy strikes while there. Cue terror and chaos for the rest of the book! 😱 I started out reading it before bed at night but had to switch to daytime hours as it was too intense for bedtime reading!! 🫣 I am more of a scaredy cat than most though so don’t let that detract. This was a great suspense read from start to finish!
*Thanks to the author, Little, Brown & Co, and NetGalley for this advance reader copy.

I was a huge fan of The Chain, so when I saw that Adrian McKinty was releasing a new standalone novel, I was super excited. The Island did not disappoint. If anything, I liked it even better than The Chain. A compelling, edge-of-your-seat thriller, it had me hooked from the first page. The writing was so visually descriptive, I could easily see myself watching this as a movie, maybe with my hands part-way over my eyes some of the time.

In short, this was simply fantastic. It was twisted and crazy in the best possible way and I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the Chain and so i was really looking forward to this book. Overall, it was unputdownable. The premise wasn't entirely unique (The Chain was) but i liked it. I liked how Heather grew a lot and her relationship with the kids grew. It was very tense and action packed and I read this in one day.

This was a very fast-paced thriller that had me holding my breath, frantically turning pages while sitting on the edge of my seat. There were so many twists and turns that I did not see coming which made the plot very unpredictible and intense. The characters were all very well-developed and I really enjoyed the character development of the main heroine, Heather.

I read the entire book in one sitting because I was dying to find out what happened next in the adrenaline-fueled plot. The storyline was very original which was refreshing - this could easily be made into an excellent movie. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone looking for a wild thriller.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sheer Insanity and Non-Stop Action.

Heather, her husband Tom, and his two kids, vacation in Australia. While out on a day trip driving around, an accident occurs and Heather and Tom make a split decision that changes everything. It’s a mistake, of course, a bad one at that!

From that point forward, the family is running for their lives and I mean running! A thrill ride a minute, this novel will keep you flipping pages as fast and furiously as possible.

This book kind of gave me agita for the simple fact that my pulse was pounding throughout and the pace was lightning fast.
3.5 Stars

A buddy read with Kaceey that kept us gripped to our kindles.

Thank you to Little Brown and Company for the arc via NetGalley.

Published on Goodreads.

Adrian McKinty's "The Island" reads like a horror / thriller where outsiders find themselves in a backwoods where community that has its own laws (think Deliverance & Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but without so much gore). I finished this read in less than 2 days (and they were work days!) because it was an adventure packed with action from start to finish. You'll root for the main character Heather, but also think, "How the hell is she going to get out of this?" the whole time. Like Jane Harper's "The Dry", the extreme Australian weather becomes a character unto itself (and made me think I should probably sign up for some survival skill training...). Enjoyed this one A LOT - perfect beach read thriller for summer! 4.5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early read of The Island. In this one, Tom, his new wife Heather, and his two kids Olivia and Owen, are on vacation in Australia. They stop at a roadside restaurant and start talking to these two men, who say they live on an island just off the coast where they can see a lot of native wildlife. Trying to please his kids, Tom and Heather decide to take the ferry over. They don’t see anything fun, but when they are heading back to the ferry, a woman on a bicycle pulls out directly in front of them. With no time to stop, they hit her and she dies. In a panic, they make the bad decision to try to get off the island before anyone finds out. But they do find out and force the family off the ferry and to the main house. Where they learn that this family thinks they answer to no one but themselves and they are going to mete out their own brand of punishment. Before long, Tom is shot and the rest of the family are prisoners. But while Heather may not have a fancy degree like her doctor husband, she did grow up on an island with two former military parents – she knows how to survive and she is determined to save herself and Tom’s kids. Now, I like thrillers and this was a good one, but I will say the whole concept of these three being hunted on this island really made me anxious. If you like strong women characters, though, Heather is a great one – she reminded me of some of Lisa Gardner’s female leads – strong and fierce and unwilling to back down.

Super entertaining! It’s not easy for these books to make readers care about the characters’ plight unless they really make them care about them. McKinty did a great job with it. At first I wasn’t sold. Heather has no backbone and her husband’s kids are obnoxious. They use their American wealth to go to a private island, do something unforgivable and then try to cover it up. But when everything goes sideways, Heather transforms into a resourceful, smart, strong badass who singlehandedly takes on a whole “Deliverance” family. I liked her more and more, as I cheered every time she had a win, and cringed when she didn’t. I also liked the kids’ transformation from spoiled brats to budding survivors. The plot is tight and a really fast read. When male authors write women, they don’t always get the psychology right, but McKinty really aces Heather. It’s well written so that the island comes to life so vividly, you can almost feel the heat, the thirst, the bugs… This is a fantastic thriller.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Little, Brown and Company!

This book was so good! I want to see more from this author in the future!! I couldn't put this book down. What a page turner!!!

The Island is utterly captivating and terrifying in equal measure. Combine the terror of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the unknowable elements of survival stories and you have The Island, which follows a group of travelers who, after a terrible accident, become the targets of a disturbed family on an isolated island.

From the very beginning, the reader is placed on a journey with these characters and each loss and victory you feel profoundly. I have a special place in my heart in the story for the character of Petra, though to say why would be massive spoilers and the book is best to go in completely unprepared for. The survival story is set against the backdrop of Heather bonding, fighting, and protecting her two step kids who have not fully warmed to her since their own mother's passing. Heather is an amazing character who you can't help but root for in every single thing, though she has enough shades and complications that victory does not seem at all guaranteed for her.

This book was utterly fantastic and I needed to read it all in one setting out of fear of going to sleep without knowing how it all turned out.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Adrian McKinty is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers for when I'm looking for a bone-chilling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride. This book was exactly that: an American family on vacation in Australia finds themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time after a car accident leaves them stranded on a small private island with a hostile clan of bogans who will not let them leave. Although the plot starts off as a run-of-the-mill family vacation story, it quickly turns into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse on an inhospitable, scorching hot Victoria wasteland. I was completely captivated from the first few chapters right until the end. SO GOOD.

I could rehash the plot here, but I think all you really need to know is that this is an electric, captivating story focusing on Heather, a 24-year-old newlywed who travels to Australia with her husband, an orthopedic surgeon giving the keynote at a medical conference, and his two almost-teenage kids. The family takes a day trip away from Melbourne, hoping to satisfy the kids' desire to see some wildlife. They overhear two brothers talking about how they live on tiny, family-owned island that has koala habitat, and Heather's husband immediately asks them if they can come see the koalas. The brothers are reluctant because the matriarch of their family, Ma, typically doesn't tolerate visitors. But eventually relent after Heather's family and a Dutch couple agree to pay them almost a thousand bucks for 30 mins of island exploration.

The families drive their car onto the ferry, and the brothers take them over to the island. It's a degraded place, and they do not see any koalas, much to the kids' disappointment. As the family is driving around the island, distracted by wildlife spotting, Heather's husband accidentally hits a young girl who suddenly emerges to cross the dirt road. Heather and her husband get out of the car and find that the girl is dead. Panicking, they assess their options: there's no service to call the police, and they know that there will be consequences if they tell the brothers. They decide to move the body into the grass, drive back to the ferry, and get the hell off the island as soon as possible. From the mainland, they'll call the police. This is where everything changes forever.

Of course, the brothers get a call and find out about the dead body. They round up Heather, her husband, and the two kids and take them to the family house. The family operates in a lawless way, and they know they want to mete out vigilante justice on Heather's family.

What ensues is a heart-pounding, thrilling battle of wits, survival instinct, and cunning - Heather vs. this massive, violent, ruthless family. She needs to do everything she can to survive and ensure that her kids survive, while battling the inhospitable natural environment of a scorchingly hot Australian island with no water and virtually no shelter. The book is a total cat-and-mouse game until the very end. I literally could NOT put it down.

If you like thrillers, YOU NEED THIS BOOK IN YOUR LIFE.

This was so good!! I had to put down my kindle to catch my breath multiple times because it was so intense. Adrian McKinty's talent in building tension is unparalleled, and the details are so vivid it's like watching a movie. Read it in one sitting and I cant wait for the next book by this author.

Thanks to NetGallery for the honor of reading this early. This book is an exceptional page-turner. To be honest, it starts out a little clunky, but stick with it, because it is sooo worth it. He's created a protagonist that until the very end you are unsure whether she's a good guy. There are major plot twists that you won't see coming, and the lead character is stretched to the limit of human endurance.

This was my first book by this author & I was so impressed! This was exactly what I would define as a TRUE thriller. It was a heart racing, fast paced story that kept me on the edge of my seat chapter after chapter.

I didn’t find the plot itself to be very original though It gave off strong “The- Deliverance-in-Australia vibes”— but the book was written really well & kept me entertained right until the last page so I didn’t mind the over-used storyline.

This book had the perfect amount of gore & psychological horror to make the situation believable & painstakingly terrifying as the reader. I also really loved the character build up of Heather & how much of a badass she was. I highly recommend my thriller friends to check this book out! 🤩

This was a short, fast-paced thrill ride with nonstop action. I read a ton of thrillers of many different types and I think this is the most consistent action I have ever seen. The whole thing was simply nuts from start to finish, with the tiny exception of the first few pages where we are introduced to the characters. I loved the atmosphere, from the gorgeous nature scenes to the terror of the hunt. I could feel it all. The only aspects of the book that I didn't care for 100% was some of the interpersonal things between the kids and their stepmom, and between said kids and their father. Everyone's feelings seemed to swing back and forth so fast, from absolutely adoring to total hatred and back again in a few pages. I get that in some ways teenagers are indeed like this, but a few times it was just a bit too ridiculous and convenient. Otherwise, I loved everything about this book.

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.