A group of friends are flown to the island in the PNW for a reunion weekend by their eccentric billionaire friend. They must remain device-free for the weekend. Sounds easy enough, right? Especially if you're surrounded by your college besties. But things turn grim when the group realizes they are trapped and are the pawns in their host's evil game.

I picked up this book because the plot sounded quite intriguing. The novel started a bit slow for me, but I pushed through and it did pick up pace about half-way through the book. It's a smart and twisted tech thriller. But I guess I was expecting more from it than got delivered. I did enjoy the whole secret tunnel thing, and the bizarre scenes with the hostages on the boat. Stephen making a break for the building about to explode was a brave and dramatic move and turned this novel into quite a page-turner toward the end.

I would recommend this book if you love the tech thriller subgenre and for its nail-biting action toward the end. Hope you like it more than I did. 3.5/5 stars from me.

I only made it halfway through this book, I wasn't engaged or interested enough to keep going. I wanted to like it but I wanted it to be sharper and more pointed.

Published by ‎ Grand Central Publishing on February 28, 2023

We spend too much time looking down at our phones. That, at least, is the argument made by a central character in Device Free Weekend, as well as an army of sociologists, psychologists, and talking heads. The character who makes that argument, Ryan, occupies a position similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s. The Zuckerberg clone is filled with regret that his social media site has contributed to various social problems, including divisiveness and alienation. The site connects people, but too many people connect to fuel their rage, fill their addled minds with lies, and organize or join hate groups. The site also makes it possible for Russia to influence elections and reduces the amount of time children spend with their parents. These are not original observations about the downside of social media, but they drive the plot in this not-quite-credible thriller.

Seven young people were friends in college. Ryan went on to develop a social media empire in Seattle called Link. Lanie and Beau got married and had kids. They used Link to become real estate influencers. Will and Perry also ended up as a couple. Emma was Ryan’s friend when they were children living in the same Minneapolis neighborhood. Stephen was Ryan’s best college friend until they had a falling out over Emma. But that was long ago, Emma and Stephen are divorced, and the hatchets were eventually buried. Or not.

Ryan invites his six college friends to join him for a device-free weekend on his private island off the coast of Washington. With all the elements of a college reunion relationship drama in place, Device Free Weekend adds a twist. Ryan is dying and he plans to take Link with him. Since he is not quite mentally stable, he wants to burden his friends by making them part of his personal drama. Mental illness is, I think, the only plausible explanation for the plot device that sets the story in motion.

We learned from The Big Chill that a reunion of friends can be a dramatic event, but Ryan isn’t satisfied with bringing friends together to rehash their emotional baggage. Ryan intends to lock them inside his island home and confront them with a version of the Trolley Problem. He has kidnapped the Link board members and tied them up on his yacht. He gives his friends a choice that they must make unanimously. They can push a red icon on a tablet and blow up the yacht, killing Ryan and the Board. Or they can push a green icon and approve Ryan’s plan to blow up the buildings that house Link and the company’s servers, causing massive economic damage but (since this will happen on a holiday) perhaps without inflicting death. If they do nothing, Ryan will blow up Link anyway, so he promises to make them multimillionaires if they press the green icon.

Ryan knows his friends won’t kill a boatload of strangers, even if they might want to kill him for trapping them all in his house. The real question is whether they will make themselves complicit in destroying Link, an event that will happen anyway. Ryan’s desperate need for his friends’ approval seems at odds with the certainty that, even if they press the green icon, they will never again approve of Ryan. Maybe he doesn’t care because he’s dying anyway. Maybe he’s such a narcissist that sucking his friends into his scheme is all that matters. Regardless of the exact nature of Ryan’s mental status, it is difficult to understand his motivation for testing the ethics of his innocent friends.

Naturally, the plan does not unfold as Ryan envisioned it. Events appropriate to a thriller ensue as his friends try to thwart his scheme. Will and Perry are inadvertently locked out of Ryan’s home when they should be locked in, setting up a chase across the island by Jud and Kai, two of Ryan’s underlings who are helping him with his insane scheme. The plan is further disrupted when Jud and Kai depart from the script. Meanwhile, the imprisoned friends quarrel about ethics while they try to escape from the house. Moderately entertaining action scenes involve explosions, chases (including a chase up a ladder affixed to a tower), and crashing a stolen TV news truck into a building. Sadly, none of this seems sufficiently real to be gripping.

As I’ve noted, the premise is hard to swallow, even if one accepts that a wealthy CEO might be so caught up in his own ego that he engages in unhinged behavior. Perhaps successful CEOs can become wildly irrational while maintaining control of their business empires; Musk’s erratic takeover of Twitter might be a less violent example. Perhaps people behave differently when they are on the verge of death and freed from considertation of consequences. Still, a deeper exploration of Ryan’s psyche might have resulted in a more convincing story.

Characters in general are a bit shallow. The Ryan-Stephen-Emma triangle takes a silly turn at the end, powered by Ryan’s megalomaniacal quest to control reality. The moment seems forced.

For a book that says “thriller” on the cover, Device Free Weekend is light on thrills. Still, the ending is not easy to predict and the story generates some fun moments. Ten years ago, I might have regarded Ryan’s lectures about social media as prescient and given the novel high marks for that reason. At this point, I have reservations about encouraging readers to spend time with a book that takes on obvious targets and doesn’t deliver the kind of engaging story that I want from a thriller.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I loved the idea of Device Free Weekend: seven college friends are reunited 30 years later when the billionaire member of the friend group invites everyone to his private island. I especially enjoyed the college memories and early 90s nostalgia, and what a cute title.

Unfortunately, this story wasn't what I wanted right now. I felt somewhat dissatisfied through the majority of the story; I didn't enjoy what was happening to the characters. I did, however, appreciate the mystery and intrigue surrounding the guests' arrival, and the descriptions of the compound and atmosphere of the setting were good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really wasn’t a fan of this book because it lacked so much depth. The premise seemed interesting kind of reminded me of a movie with the whole scenario and being trapped in a house ordeal. There was a lot of action and the beginning really pulled me in. But after awhile the book started to lose the suspense and thrill it gave in the beginning. I started asking what’s the point and questioning why certain things were happening cause it didn’t make sense.

The multiple POVs probably weren’t needed and I didn’t like how overly fabricated certain parts started to become. I get that it’s fiction but I still want to believe what I’m reading and I felt this book did too much and didn’t give enough. The character development was very mid and honestly I don’t remember any of them but Perry and Emma.

Thrillers are one of my favorite genres and I don’t feel like the author truly delivered with this one. Heard his other works are great but I can definitely say this book wasn’t for me but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. Special thanks to the author, grandcentralpub, & netgalley for my advanced copy.

Rating: 2.5

Seven friends from all works of life meet for an all expenses paid reunion by one eccentric billionaire friend. They must turn in all devices and we will have to see who survives the weekend. An action packed thriller. A definite must read and be ready to spent the weekend or all night reading.

Ryan Cloverhill, successful billionaire and creator of a very successful social media company, invites his six closest college friends to a weekend on his private island in Washington. When she asks them to turn in all of their electronics for the weekend, hence what should be a “device free weekend,” there is no way for them to have known in their wildest dreams what the weekend, and Ryan, had in store for them. They are posed with a real life “trolley problem.”

I was so excited for this one, especially with the PNW/Seattle adjacent backdrop (where I currently live), and unfortunately it fell very short for me. I’d rate it 2-2.5 out of 5 stars. It started well and had promise, but I abandoned my e-arc around 30% for the audiobook version because I couldn’t hold interest.

First, the title isn’t very accurate since the entire plot relies on the use of technology.

Second, oh my goddddd shorter chapters pls!!!! This KILLS my desire to physically read.

Finally, this is more of a slow burn action than a thriller. It wasn’t very twisty as you know almost from jump who is behind what could loosely be described as the locked room mystery and why. The rest is just lots of backstory and fillers and made the story way longer than it needed to be and less exciting. There was a gazillion characters in this one which confused me at times. It would have been more interesting with this many characters if this was written in different POVs.

Thank you to GCP, Sean, and NetGalley for the advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

An utterly absorbing, totally unique locked-room thriller in which seven college friends reunite for a weekend on a secluded island, with no technology allowed. But when the organizer of their weekend, tech billionaire Ryan Cloverhill, presents them with an ethics, trolley-type problem to solve, the weekend descends into one of survival. And not all of them will make it out alive. An action-packed thriller that I absolutely couldn't put down. Breathtaking!

Six college friends hear from their old friend Ryan, who now is a multibillionaire via a social media platform he started. They haven't heard from him in years, and he has provided an all expense paid weekend to an island he bought. Let the fun begin, or so they think.

I like the premise of this book. On the positive side, the story was interesting. I love "locked room mystery" scenarios, although as it turned out, that really wasn't what this was. The writing was good, I thought. Crisp dialogue and lots of action, at least eventually.

Where the story lost me was just the great implausibility of it all, and not understanding in any way Ryan's motivations for the actions he took. I wasn't invested in the characters and thus didn't have a lot of interest in the outcome. I always feel bad saying that. Maybe it is because I'm not into technology, which was a main theme running through this book.

DNF at 35%. This one started off really strong for me and I was definitely drawn in by the premise. However once we learn the true reason they are all there, it crossed into too unbelievable for me and not something that was fun or interesting. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters or find them very interesting. The book started off very similar to Knives Out Glass Onion, and I found it difficult not to compare them. The premise sounded very promising, but it didn't live up to the expectations I had about a stranded island mystery.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchage for an honest review.

This is my first book by the author and I enjoyed it. The setting was very detailed and I could picture the scenes happening. At first I thought this was going to be like other remote island stories but it’s not. A very good read that i devoured in one day.

This gave me Knives Out, Glass Onion vibes. A vacation gone wrong, suspenseful thriller, where it seems everyone has a secret.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC!

In Device Free Weekend, seven friends reunite on an isolated island for a "device free" weekend. Kinda lame summary on my part but it works and you don't really need to know more than that.

I feel like the above was all I needed to know that had me excited to read this book. Old college friends reuniting? Check. An isolated island with no way to contact the outside world? Sign me up! I jumped at the opportunity to read this one. And while it wasn't quite what I expected - it was still a really solid page turner that I enjoyed. When I say that it wasn't what I expected - I should clarify (trying to be as spoiler free as I can put it) that at first I thought this book was going to be one thing, but it turned out to be something different - but still very good. Is that vague enough for you? The mystery of what was going on and the why behind it all really had me hooked. I found myself turning the pages as fast as I could - unable to set it down. It wasn't perfect - I felt like I still didn't fully understand the why's in the end - but that didn't matter because my reading experience was just so fun. I enjoyed being so sucked into this story, just trying to figure it all out. So a four star read overall with me definitely open to reading more by this author in the future.

Pick this book up if you are looking for a suspenseful, page turning read.

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and Novel Suspect Insiders.

There is a lot to sift through here!! The premise - amazing. A bit intrigue and a bit locked room with "fun" things to solve. Behind it all, however, is a pretty powerful message related to the evils of social media, group think, and the manipulation perpetuated by and inherent to both. The message, although I agree with 90% of it, is heavy-handed, and most of the technology stuff soared right over my head (truth moment - I work for a communications technology company and deliver designs for our programmers to code from, and I still don't understand what makes even the basic telephone work (I'm convinced it's some sort of evil magic), but please don't tell THEM that). The characters are a bit two dimensional as this is more plot driven than character driven, but it was still easy for me to get lost in the pages and in the story. Things go off the rail badly and quickly and you just have to hold on for the ride to the very end.

Pub: February 28

Thank you @grandcentralpub @hbgcanada & @netgalley for the gifted copy of this eARC !

When I picked up Device Free Weekend, the overarching plot immediately reminded me of Knives Out: Glass Onion. You have an eccentric billionaire who decides to host a reunion on his private island. Only catch is you need to solve a mystery to make it out alive. The two take very different approaches to tell their stories and it makes for an interesting juxtaposition.

For me, the book had too many characters, too many subplots and relied too heavily on technology to let me get fully immersed in the mystery. I wanted more showing instead of telling as the characters tried to piece together the clues. I also craved more backstory!

Perry was a standout character for me and felt the most developed. Dolittle’s writing is smooth and has an easy flow to it so I will definitely keep my eyes open for his next book.

When 7 college friends are reunited for a weekend on a remote island owned by one of their friends, it seems like it would be the perfect vacation. But when all of their phones and devices are collected for a "device free weekend", they begin to wonder what is really happening. Insert a locked room scenario, questions to be answered, riddles and puzzles to be figured out. But when one thing goes wrong, it seemed to send the rest of the weekend into a tailspin.

Unfortunately, I felt like this book had a lot happening, but nothing was happening. Even by the end of the book, I was still waiting for the excitement. It had great potential but sadly fell flat for me.

I'm not really sure what to say about this book. The premise drew me in right away and the beginning had me totally captivated. Then it just went off the rails and got worse from there.

Six friends are summoned to a "Device Free Weekend" on the private island of social media tech giant Ryan Cloverhill (think Zuckerberg/Meta). The group became friends in college but have all gone their separate ways, and yet they all have their reasons for wanting to reconnect over the weekend. When they arrive they have a fun evening drinking and reminiscing, and when the six wake up the next morning, Ryan is nowhere to be found and they are locked inside the house (well, most of them are) and it appears they are in some sort of Escape Room. As time progresses, Ryan gets in contact with a chilling proposition...

Now, doesn't that sound intriguing? Well, to that point, I was invested in how everything was going to play out and what choices they were going to make.

The major shortcomings:

We never get to know any of the characters beyond the basic surface. And that would be okay if it were just an adventure novel, but the connection was the reason they were all brought together and their motivations for attending weren't really explored either. If you want me to care about anyone's survival, make me care about them. This book gave me no one to root for because they were all strangers.

There is a lot of manufactured drama about social media, politics, blah blah blah blah sick of hearing about it, don't need a lecture about it during a thriller/mystery novel.

I struggled to stay interested, and then when I finally got to the end I was left wondering what on earth the point was. It was anti-climactic and not thrilling at all.

Unfortunately this stranded on an island/locked room thriller was very disappointing. Lots of promise, no delivery.

Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle is a thriller set around a group of old friends invited to the home of their billionaire tech friend and things go off the rails. This one was a miss for me, flat writing and characters with an unsatisfying ending, unfortunately.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC - Device Free Weekend is out now!

3-3.5 stars. A quick story that gets a little bogged down with quantity of characters and a large amount of technology for a device-free weekend. I did really appreciate the deep connection of the friends and the fast pace of the story. (I also personally was very tickled by the idea of a tiny private college in Stillwater, MN, a town close to my heart.)