Creepy and dark!
Descriptive.
Unique twists and turns.
Great moral to the story.

Didn't expect that ending at all. Love these authors.

What begins as a very interesting surreal allegory for the clashing desires inside the human mind ends up unraveling into a too obvious didactic device. Our protagonist is a widowed father whose shameless infidelities pushed his wife to suicide, and now he's stuck without knowing how to process the guilt he still refuses to admit to himself, or how to keep raising his daughter without hurting her any further. But we only learn all this by the book's midpoint; the beginning is a fantasy tale of two equally powerful gods who don't know why they've been confined to an island to do meaningless, repetitive work for eternity. Turns out this fantasy represents the turmoil in the protagonist's head, but by the time we have the full picture, what follows is the kind of trite, saccharine claptrap you find in the self-help aisle of the bookstore.

This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it! I am giving this book three stars, as I don't want to give it a good or bad rating, since I did not get to it. I also adore this cover, as it cool as all hell.

Definitely quite strange and unique. I highly appreciate that in today's world of homogeneous fiction. I highly recommend this book.

This book reminded me, frequently, of the Prometheus myth as well as Good Omens! (if you know, you know!)

Gerd and Atticus are held captive on the titular island doing the same thing every single day.
Literally. Every. Single. Day.
They play tricks on one another one minute and then the next, they’re absolute best friends.

This story embarks on not only friendship, but it’s also a very original and deeply thought out book on grief, guilt, forgiveness and moving on.

“Forgiveness is the only thing that’s really new.”

The Island is a strange story about one mans psychological breakdown dealing with his wife's overdose. At first I was having a hard time understanding what the men on the island had to do with the main character but it eventually became clear. I didn't really connect to any of the characters though it turned out to be an interesting yet quick read.

3.5 stars

The book was somewhat hard to get into in the beginning because barely anything was explained, but around the 30-page mark is where things started to make some sense. The story isn’t what is in the description and has a deeper meaning to it, but this book needed some trigger warnings even if they spoil the whole reveal of the plot and how everything is connected in the end. As for Lucas, he’s the type of person I have zero empathy for, even if it’s intentional, and is the reason why I couldn’t enjoy the book as much (again, I know it’s intentional but that’s just how I felt). Around the 80% mark or so is when Lucas started to explain his actions, although using crude language (in a self-deprecating manner) and it kinda rubbed me the wrong way since it was implied that he was explaining everything to his child. If it was towards the readers, I wouldn’t have minded otherwise.
Overall, the writing style was good most of the time, but it drags on for too long at some parts like the whole battle between Atticus and Gerd. I don’t need 20 pages of them beating each other up to get the message across. Besides for that, the way the authors weaved all three different stories into one was really good.

Tigger warning: cheating, suicide, child neglect (to a certain degree) and mental illness.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

4/5 stars

Honestly? The book was oh so fascinating. It felt very…experimental, and I loved it! At the start, I was pretty confused and reread sections just to see if I missed something. A brief explanation, a tidbit of information, *anything*.

“Am I the only one who’s confused?” ran through my head a lot.

The plot isn’t very clear. The character motivations aren’t very clear. Heck, what was going on at any given moment wasn’t very clear either!

But that’s the beauty of the book.

You may be questioning who when where or what just happened, but somehow the writing pierces you. It feels so…visceral, seeing these people stuck on an island together for who knows how long.

Their character dynamic is so so fun! And I enjoyed it. A lot. (Maybe more than I should’ve). For a book with only two characters, it sure has a lot to say.

Again, it had that experimental vibe going for it. Maybe I’m biased but it was a hell of a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm not sure what I expected when I started reading this book but what I got wasn't it. This was a very complex story that I had no idea where it was going. I can see the underlying aspects in it but it just wasn't my style. I thought this was going to be a awesome fantasy novel but I think we have different ideas about that.



Thanks to #NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It took a minute for me to get into this book as it felt so different from what I am used to reading from Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. I was confused and it took a while for me to figure out what was going on. I wanted to like this more than I did, but the dual stories were confusing, like I was reading two different books and neither were very interesting or keeping my attention.

Enjoyment ★★★☆☆
Concept ★★★★☆
Execution ★★★☆☆

Prose ★★☆☆☆
Structure ★★★☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
Pacing ★★★★★
Characters ★★★☆☆

This book has an amazing starting premise and a packs quite the emotional punch. I wouldn't know how to delve into why without spoilers, so I think it's a good one to go into with little knowledge beforehand. It definitely got under my skin and left me feeling unsettled.
That said, the execution felt too chaotic to me. For the entire first half it was unclear what the plot was and what the characters were doing. Weaving two other stories into the island story didn't help since, for the majority of the book, they were unrelated. The general feeling was that of being thrown in the middle of the action with no explanation and everyone knows the rules except for you. I'm sure that can be enjoyable for some readers, but I am not one of them.
And in the very subjective category: The 'twist' was something that I very much dislike seeing in books. Also, waaay to much body horror for my taste.

Overall, I see what the author was going for, I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

P.S.: I wouldn't put this in the Sci-fi & Fantasy category. Feels more General fiction/Horror.

I truly, deeply did not enjoy this book. I hated the MC, i hated what he thought at the end, i think it had the wrong lesson.
Big nope all around.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"The Island" by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant

Upfront, I wanna say that I get what the author was trying to do with this story and I like the genereal concept but the excecution was not my cup of tea.

In all honesty, this story confused me a lot. It had just enough intrigue to keep me going until the end but I don't know if I would have finished it if it would have been any longer. In the first half I continuously felt like the absurd fantastical elements are supposed to tell me something that I'm too dumb to understand and so I was left grasping at straws. When we finally get some context, I found it hard to care about the characters. Yes, there is the argument that in 100 pages there really isn't enough space for proper character development BUT there were some elements that really aren't contributing to the story at the end.

In my opinion this book has a lot of potential and the fantastical elements could be great, however, it all felt a bit too underdeveloped for me.

This book was a surprise. It was beautifully executed and I did not see the twist coming. The characters were interesting and the storyline was original. It's also a pretty quick read. Overall, I'd recommend!

This book was so delightfully weird. It was funny and dark and just absurd in the best possible way. This book was a great quick read and I highly recommend

Thanks to NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was not was I expected but I enjoyed it anyway, maybe even more than I would have if it have stuck to the synopsis. As other reviews say, it's marketed as sci-fi/fantasy when in reality it's more like a psychological thriller. In any case, it's fast paced and it will keep you interested; the "what is going on???" aspect is common to both genres.

I really liked the way it's written and I feel like the main characters (at least the gods - there are other characters because there two plots narrated in parallel) are well defined; I could visualize their personality and motivations.

The plotwist wasn't really unexpected, which actually speaks in a positive way about the coherence of the story. The build up is clear, and although some details are left unexplained, the reader gets satisfactory answers. However, the ending was a bit too long for me. After the plotwist, there isn't really much left to explain, but the books goes on for another 50 pages or so (which is a lot for a 150-pages book).

I would recommend this book for people who like Lost, The OA or Archive 81. I strongly advise potential readers to check the trigger warnings, though: explicit violence and death, suicide, mental health.

This was an odd and somewhat disquieting book, which, at the beginning, tells three seemingly unrelated stories. By the end, it made me think of the 1977 novel I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier, for the sense of unreality it lent to the intertwined stories.

Gerd is an undefined being on an island, which he shares with Atticus. The two are immortals, pitted in a constant conflict, required to complete tasks which neither enjoys to keep the island running properly - until one day, a new element arrives on the island, its meaning unknown. But shortly after, the island begins to break down - or perhaps it's just showing cracks that were hidden previously. Intertwined with the story of Gerd and Atticus is the story of a prince and a princess, and intertwined with that is the story of a father and child.

This is a novel for those who like psychologically-based stories - not a who-done-in in the traditional sense, but still seeking an answer to an almost-unanswerable question. Recommended for readers in high school and adults.

I received an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my review, which I leave voluntarily.

What a stunning cover!
I had such high hopes, I looked forward to reading something different, and holy hairballs, was it DIFFERENT.

Too different. It was like an acid trip after eating too much ice cream with brain-freeze.

I tried to enjoy it, really. But it was too far removed from the promise of the blurb. I have no idea what I was supposed to connect with, or take away or...anything.

What was the point?

But hey, I loved the cover. For that, one star.

A short sci-if story with an unique plot and a touch of horror. Enemies have to work together to finish tasks that is given to them daily. They have to put aside their differences to survive these tasks. The story have great characters and great world building.

Disclaimer: Thank you NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for this review copy and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I went into this expecting a fantasy story about two enemy immortals trapped on an island, with almost Greek myth vibes. That is not in any way close to what actually got.

This novella starts out as a horror story, and then about half way through makes that into a weird metaphor for a truely dispicable widow.

It's "fantasy" in the same way that a literary psychotic break is fantasy. This was so far removed from what I was expecting to get based on the blurb and categorizing, that I'm struggling to properly review it. Had it been appropriately classed (as horror) I would have known it was not for me and pasted on reading it.

Literally the only objective thing I can say about it, is that the prose itself well done. I didn't like it, but it appears to have done what it set out to do.

CW for blood, gore, murder, suicide, cheating, drug abuse, implied cannibalism, death, vomit, torture,

As I received this eARC from Netgalley for an honest review, but also recognize this book is misclassified and this was not for me, I will not be rating it.
Rating: 🌟

#bookstagram #bookreview #march2023readingchallenge
I went into this expecting a fantasy story about two enemy immortals trapped on an island, with almost Greek myth vibes. That is not in any way close to what actually got.

This novella starts out as a horror story, and then about half way through makes that into a weird metaphor for a truely dispicable widow.

It's "fantasy" in the same way that a literary psychotic break is fantasy. This was so far removed from what I was expecting to get based on the blurb and categorizing, that I'm struggling to properly review it. Had it been appropriately classed (as horror) I would have known it was not for me and pasted on reading it.

Literally the only objective thing I can say about it, is that the prose itself well done. I didn't like it, but it appears to have done what it set out to do.

As I believe this work was misclassified, and this I would not have read it had it been properly marked as horror, I am choosing not to give it a star rating.

CW for blood, gore, murder, suicide, cheating, drug abuse, implied cannibalism, death, vomit, torture,