Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

An interesting read! It was both suspenseful and scary at times, but I found the writing to be average! Hoping to re-read when I'm out of this slump because maybe I missed something the first time!

When I started reading this, even though I KNEW it was a Red Eye book, even though I had HEARD from Bryony herself that this was a horror… I kind of forgot. I half expected that they would be faced by difficulties and then they’d overcome them, you know, like YA characters usually do. HAH. Oh sweet summer child.

Something quite shocking happens quite early on and I was just… gob smacked. It just horrified me. Like I said I had conveniently forgotten it was a horror. It felt real. The characters as a whole were relatable – in the face of such awful circumstances, they try and keep their integrity.

It’s a whirlwind adventure where teens are faced with desperately trying to survive in an awful situation that they got themselves into. The whole concept is so fascinating – what would you be willing to do to survive?

Geocaching just became life and death.

Okay so I can’t say what I really want to about the characters because I really don’t want to give any spoilers. The characters are all very different and very well developed. They each have their own demons and their journeys are very believable.

How far would you go in the name of family, friendship, your own survival?

It really makes you question, what would you do? How would you react?

What a brilliant concept!!... 5 teenagers on a privately owned island taking part in a competitive adventure weekend. The teams assume it will all be relatively innocent... some hiking, some mapreading, some camping.
It is only when they arrive on the island that they realise all is not what it seems and this weekend might be a lot more dangerous than they originally thought.

This was a great horror book for teens and definitely took me back to my youth (Point Horror). Although he is still a tad young this would be right up my son's ally in a couple of years. With great suspense and not 100% predictable storylines, I thought it was a really strong read,

Review: Savage Island

I received a copy from Netgalley.

This started out pretty good. A fairly interesting premise, it's a UK based horror novel - a group of teens enter a contest where the prize is one million pounds - each. The group will be whisked off to a reclusive billionaire's private island for some sort of survival contest where there will be a number of tasks to complete and other teams to compete against. Last team standing who complete all the tasks win the prize. Sounds pretty good, right?

If however, you're a horror movie fan like me and have seen more horror films than you can count or remember red flags should be going off immediately and the obvious question that should be on anyone's brain - what's the catch here? There has to be something that's going to go hideously wrong very quickly.

The characters are pretty ordinary teens, told from the point of view of Ben who lives with his younger brother Will and their divorced mum, pretty girl Lizzie, Ben's long time crush, and friends, Lizzie's BFF mouthy Carmen and smart guy Grady. There's something uncomfortable right off with Will, told in flashbacks - he's got some personality problems and is very manipulative, and cruel especially when he doesn't get his way. Ben's a people pleaser. The peace maker. Will manages to convince them to bring him along. He's very smart and resourceful and could be useful. Despite his sociopathic behaviour issues. Or I'm guessing all part of said personality disorder.

For a horror novel it's not scary in the slightest, (but that could be a personal feeling really as I may be rather jaded from having seen so many movies and read a fair amount of Stephen King which seems to be the yard stick I measure horror against). And while the novel was pretty silly there was something in the narrative that was enough to make me as a reader keep going to want to know what the point of it all was. To be fair it did manage to be pretty tense.

When the kids get to the island there's a list of tasks to complete, a riddle to be solved and a tithe to be paid before getting the instructions to the next point. The first team to clear the checkpoints, pay all the tithes and get to the final checkpoint by a certain time is the winter. The first tithe is a little gross, and if that's the first...how bad are the rest going to be? And what about the other teams competing? How far are they willing to go to win?

It all starts getting pretty despairing as things get more violent and go from bad to worse. It has some pretty eye rolling for fuck's sake moments, the plot manages like I said earlier to at least keep the interest alive. It is quite visually striking - it's very easy to picture what's going on as if it were a movie on the screen. Despite some eye rolling moments, the kids aren't stupid, they're fairly logical regardless of the growing panic and fear the worse the situation gets and the more threats that approach.

Problem was the kids had in my opinion zero personality to make them remotely memorable or likeable, with the exception of Ben and Will. We get flashbacks of their complicated relationship and unpleasant family history. They are the only ones who seem to get some sort of fleshing out.

What really let this novel down for me was the end. It was...stupid. The whole reveal of what was going on and the final body count....was like what the fuck did I waste my time on this for and was really disappointing.

While this is a standalone novel it's part of a group of UK YA horror called Red Eye, and despite the crappy ending, I sort of would recommend it if you like cheesy horror, which is pretty much what I gather the Red Eye series is. Or at least what I'm guessing I will find this series. I have a number of other titles to try in the series. While this title was by no means somethingI I will read again I do look forward to trying the Red Eye series.

The writing did show promise, so I would probably try something else by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Stripes Publishing for approving my request to view the title.

My thanks to Little Tiger UK and NetGalley for the ebook copy of this novel.
This is a Young Adult horror novel (that's been a bit of a theme in my reading the past few weeks!) and it is definitely one of my favourite books of the year.
The novel is about a group of 5 friends who decide to enter a competition to win one million pounds each by successfully completing an adventure weekend. The group of friends naively compare the weekend to a Duke of Edinburgh weekend, and they have no idea what's in store for them!!
I really loved this novel a lot, and one of the biggest reasons for my love is definitely the characters. They are an eclectic and entertaining mix of different characters and they certainly added to my enjoyment of the novel. Ben is the narrator of the novel, and I liked his narration a lot. He was a sensitive and caring teenage boy, with a level head, and I appreciated his narrative voice in describing some of the events of the novel which could’ve been a touch ridiculous had they not narrated by such a voice. The female characters in the friendship were group were also well developed. They were separate characters who had distinct voices and personalities.

This novel is a high paced YA read. It’s action packed, every time you think there is going to be a pause in the action, more twists and turns appear. The tension is palpable throughout the novel, the author does a great job of creating this tension and keeping the reader in suspense for the whole novel. I particularly enjoyed all the twists and turns that Pearce threw into the plot, some of which I definitely didn’t see coming!! The fast-paced nature, and unexpected turns of this novel make it a very quick novel to get through, a few hours was plenty time for me to race through it!!
Also the ending of this book deserves some serious praise! This ending is one of the best endings to a YA novel I have read in a really long time. It was so unexpected and completely shocking, and I was heartbroken!
Some have queried the goriness of this novel. Personally I wouldn’t say it was all that gory, it definitely isn’t particularly graphic. There are some ideas which are invoked by the author which could be described as gory, but the author’s actual imagery isn’t very graphic, and there isn’t much in depth descriptions of bloody violence.
Overall I absolutely loved this novel! As a YA horror it is one of the best to be released in a while, but it would also appeal to adults too. If you enjoy Stephen King’s novels, check this one out!

The latest in the Red Eye Y.A horror series from Stripes Book is possibly the best yet! A convincing mashup of 'And then there were none' with the 'Hunger Games' this is spooky, scary, on edge writing that is enjoyable for older teens/adults alike.Looking forward to seeing what is next from Bryony Pearce and Red Eye!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this proof in return for an honest review.

I much as I hate to do so, I can only give this book 2 stars. The writing style was fine, I just couldn't get into the story line...found myself skipping ahead hoping to be suddenly "sucked in' to the plot. Sadly this did not happen and in fact it's a DNF for me. Hopefully it will have a different effect on other readers.

One of the more boring Red Eyes, as it literally wandering an island for three days. Other stuff happens conspiracy and the risk of maiming. It takes from other Red Eye books (intentionally or not). It's similar to 'Flesh and Blood' and reminds me of Frozen Charlotte because it's on an Scottish Island (one of the Shetland islands, meant to be private island). So Rich, gore and isolation. A bit of 'Sleepless' as well.

I really lacked the motivation to finish this and it's not like it long. There were few hiccups. Ben doesn't have a great relationships with his brother, Will but it pressured into looking after him. Will is some sort of Genius and clearly disturbed. There was an awkward moment for me where I was like "is he meant Autistic?" No, he's a sociopath. I wouldn't say that a spoiler, it clearly what going on and I want talk about it. People often confuse Autism and Sociopathy, despite being different and think having that "oh no" feeling probably didn't help my enjoyment of the book. My own research (after reading this book) said that what Pearce wrote can be accurate, it just awkward for me.

We have the island stuff and tons of childhood flashbacks of Ben being sad. Lots of fun wildlife while you know horror. This format worked well for what Pearce was trying to do. The book stays in Ben's POV so we only know what he knows. It also get repetitive after awhile. A lot of going in circles.

There's also a dumb romance because people can't just be friends (Okay, that's really just my pet Peeve). The characters are done well and Pearce does an good job of balancing everyone. I think the relationships are part that's done the best, which is good to see in horror when so much is just bodies to get rid of. Though, I did think Carmen being Spanish was pushed a lot at first.

This is sociopaths and conspiracy theorist stuff. If you find most of that stuff boring and overplayed, this probably not the book for you. Obviously, conspiracy theories are hot right now with the youths so makes sense and there's always an online quiz asking if you are Sociopath. Maybe I know too much about Sociopaths and the ones that become killers for this book. I guess most of the target market won't be like that. That being said I've read true crime novels since I could read, but still I probably would have enjoyed this more when I was younger.

I found the ending to be dumb. The END bit I mean. I get the ending for the story Pearce was trying to tell, I saw it coming so stop being invested. There's a twist, I guess it works and Pearce lays down the ground work for it. It's just didn't have much of impact. The Reveal just seemed like a bad business plan and like why?

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for Geocache Boxes. This was an okay addition to Red Eye series. It makes sense to tackle conspiracies in this series (again), and I do think it might be part of personal taste in what you want your horror to be, if you're like this book. Not so much for me, it might work for you. Having read the all the Red Eye books, I do compare them to one another. This one is kinda in the middle for me. The cover is cooler than the actual book as well, because it's really cool. I just wish I had liked the book as much.

When a group of teenagers come across a competition being held by millionaire Marcus Gold where they they'll be in for the chance to win big cash, they jump at the opportunity. Soon enough they realise something sinister is going on but how far are they willing to go? And who can they really trust?

Savage Island caught my attention immediately due to its title, it forced me to check out the synopsis and from that point onwards I was desperate to read it. I grew up watching horror films - I recall my parents buying me a bunch of the Saw films (amongst many others) for one of my birthdays and I sat and watched them all, one after the other. What I think is really lacking in Young Adult books is horror. I do sometimes dive into Adult books for it but my preference is YA so when the two combine you know I will be reading it.

While I thought the kids weren't very clued up (come on, I could've guessed that the competition wouldn't be a walk in the park, though the title might've gave that one away), it made for some seriously good reading. Without going into detail, the gore was amazing. I loved the way it started off rather tame and then things quickly hit the fan. I've seen a few people saying the amount of it/how intense it was put them off but I really couldn't get enough. I'm wanting to re-read this book just to immerse myself in all of it again.

Saying that, I wasn't overly keen on any of the characters. This might mostly be because of how much my love for the horror element overruled any care I could have for the characters. However they were very naive - which I put down to being truly desperate for the money, but I think it took them a bit too long to realise what was going on. There were flashbacks meshed into this story which I didn't feel were necessary, or added anything extra to Savage Island.

The ending didn't surprise me, and it felt a bit messy/rushed. I was completely ok with the mysteriousness of evil villian Mr. Gold, I quite liked not actually knowing much about him and I think that worked well. I also quite liked the setting, as that itself provided some spookiness. I came for gore and gore is what I got, so I'm giving 3 stars. This was a quick and entertaining read that I would recommend, if you have the guts!

How far would you go for 1 million pounds?

The novel was interesting and i really liked the plot and characters although i did feel most of the reveals were obvious

A gory, action-packed and violent "dog-eat-dog" trial of survival on a remote island. Fast-paced and edgy with some unexpected twists, a chilling read for fans of horror.

Whilst I'm not normally a fan of horror, the blurb of 'Savage Island' massively intrigued me and I felt compelled to read it.

The premise of winning £1 million each gives each character a motivation for competing but also enables the reader to learn more about them as we understand what that money could do for them. And they are a diverse bunch. Some I instantly liked and others I was wary of, but I enjoyed the journey they went on and how the island and the competition forced them to do things and forced them to questions themselves and their morals.

Morality is a huge theme in the book.  What would you do for £1 million? Whilst the characters are constantly plagued by this question, the fear and the thrills are driven by, what would the competition do for £1 million? Our team don't know the others on the island, so they don't know how far they'd be willing to go, and that makes one very scary story.

This book kept me guessing until the end, and although quite a hefty read (416 pages) I flew through it.  I was so intent on finding out how it all would end the pages almost turned themselves. I can't wait to try my next Red Eye!

W.O.W! Whilst it was the initial premise of this book that originally caught my eye, even I couldn’t have anticipated just how thrilling this ride would be! I was definitely expecting big The Hunger Games vibes from this story from the way it is pitched in the blurb but I absolutely was bowled over by the Saw-esque horror elements in this! Savage Island is not for the faint hearted, that’s for sure!

I loved the concept of this book: a group of five friends heading off to compete in a competition where they would win £1million each – what group of young people wouldn’t want to take part? Some readers may question the fact that it is a long while before the group are wary of what they have walked into, but it’s important to remember that these are teenagers we are talking about. Young people whose dreams could easily come true with a million pounds in the bank, let alone the risk and adventure! You definitely need to open your mind to really enjoy this book: the characters are much more adept at managing these tasks than you would expect teenagers to be, they also just happen to own a lot of what they will need – but that doesn’t take away from any enjoyment whatsoever.

I really enjoyed this book – even more so than I expected to! I had a feeling in my gut that I would like it but I flipped through this book SO quickly because I just couldn’t bear to put it down (except for the odd queasy moment, that is!). This book definitely took a much darker twist than I ever expected but it was so adrenaline inducing and I loved it! As I said on Twitter, ‘many audible gasps were released during the reading of this book!’. I really liked that the book didn’t take too long to get to the island because that would have been a real bore. Instead we get there relatively quickly and the gruesome action doesn’t take long to kick in either. Every time I thought we had reached the big crescendo in this book it sent me reeling in another direction (usually feeling a bit nauseous) and I really loved it! The ending of this book was GREAT. That last line was really chilling and I just loved how it turned out, even though I am sure there will be readers who hope for a different ending. For me personally, it just worked.

I really enjoyed the dynamics between the different characters in this story. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to accidentally give any clues or minor spoilers but there are some really fantastic relationships shown. My favourite character was probably Carmen. There was just something about her that I really loved reading.

I’m leaving this review pretty vague as I think this book is certainly better read when you know less going in. There are lots of big and small surprises along the way but the gore aspect won’t be for everyone so do bear that in mind if you’re thinking of picking this up. If that doesn’t bother you and you fancy a heart pumping, action packed race then this is definitely worth picking up! One final thing from me: take a close look at that cover. Is the island more than you first thought?

OUTSMART * OUTRUN * OUTLIVE

Wait! What? Outlive?! You won’t see Jeff Probst’s cheeky smile or hear his cheerful jibes at contestants in this game of Survivor! In this game the stakes are high and so are the potential rewards.

10 teams!
5 people per team!
3 days!
£1 million each to the winning team!

When Lizzie finds details online about Iron Teen, hosted by multibillionaire Marcus Gold, founder of Gold Foundation, she eagerly tells her friends Ben, Grady, Carmen and Will about this exciting opportunity. The five have previously completed the Duke of Edinburgh together so they’re confident they have a good chance of winning Iron Teen and taking home the cash.

On the verge of adulthood and with dreams of university, starting a business or helping out their struggling family at the forefront of their minds, the five friends decide that this opportunity is too good to miss.

Furnished with their initial instructions and backpacks filled to the brim with supplies (I’m looking at you here, Grady), they think they have ever they need to complete the unknown challenges awaiting them on Aikenhead, Gold’s private island. They’re confident that between them they have the brains, brawn and endurance required to succeed.

In this game teams need to race around the island to find locked boxes that contain the coordinates to the next location, clues to solve the puzzle that will grant them access to the next locked box and a geocache box. They will need to take whatever is in each geocache box and replace it with something “of equal or greater value at each checkpoint.”

The winning team will be the ones with the quickest time who bring all of their collected items with them to the final checkpoint. Lizzie’s team are excited for a challenging but fun adventure that has the potential to set them up financially so they can live their dreams.

Once on the island our five adventurers learn that the game is not what they expected. The terrain can be treacherous and there’s no one to help them other than their teammates. Oh, and the other teams are hunting their fellow competitors for body parts. There will be no escape until the game is over because the crossing between the island and the safety of the real world is only raised every three days.

The characters, action, pacing, gore and backstories combined made for a book I didn’t want to put down. While there was plenty of action and at times I felt breathless when I realised I’d held my breath during a scene, there were also times of connection between the teammates as well as suspense as the characters and myself waited for the next horror to unfold. I’ve read plenty of books with gore in them so the descriptions here were certainly not the most graphic or gross that I’ve come across, but in terms of a young adult book it would rate quite high on the ‘Eww!’ meter.

The characters’ personalities and voices were distinct and memorable. I loved Grady’s wacky conspiracy theories. I enjoyed Car’s sassy remarks and Lizzie’s enthusiasm. Ben’s sensitivity was so sweet, as was his not so secret love for Lizzie. Will’s character was particularly interesting and while Grady was my favourite character, Will came a close second.

I particularly loved the exploration of the relationship between the two brothers, Ben and Will. The flashback scenes of their childhood experiences added a depth to a story that could easily have simply become a gore-fest. I didn’t expect the sensitivity of the portrayal of the mental illness within their family.

Through flashbacks and their current circumstances the dynamics of this family is examined. We not only get to witness the effects that mental illness has on each individual; we also see its impact on the relationships between family members. I definitely understood and empathised with the protector role.

What delighted me above all was that I was surprised by both characters and events at the end. I was surprised by certain actions of two characters and the actions of a third, while I saw it coming, had me rethinking whether I still liked them or not. Usually young adult books, while entertaining, are generally fairly predictable. I had some ideas of where the plot was heading but I not only didn’t guess the end, it was also better than anything I’d come up with myself.

Another unexpected bonus was that this story got me to thinking about what I’d do if I was in any one of the character’s places. Black and white moral questions greyed for some characters and in most situations I could understand where they were coming from. I loved the questions this book made me consider for myself:

* What would I be willing to do to win £1 million?
* What sacrifices would I be willing to make?
* How much is my integrity worth to me?
* Would £1 million cover the therapy bills I’d need to pay if I compromised my morals enough that I did what I had to in order to win?
* Is there a point of no return where the end justifies the means and what type of person is willing to cross this line?
* If you hurt me, does that then entitle me to take revenge on you?

I had just one unanswered question at the end of this book and while it’s possible I missed the explanation, it is bugging me. Why was team 10 disqualified?

I need to go find some more of Bryony Pearce’s novels. If this novel is any indication of her talent her back catalogue is going to be making its way to my Kindle fairly soon.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Little Tiger Group, for the opportunity to read this book. I knew from having already read Charlotte Says that I was interested in reading more Red Eye books. Now I’m convinced I need to read them all!

I love the Red Eye series so when I saw that this was available on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance.

The story focuses on 5 teenagers who sign on to compete in an outdoor challenge to win £1 million pounds each.. The story mainly focuses on Ben and Will, 2 brothers. Ben is the one that looks out for Will due to his mother's insistence.

The beginning of the book is slow as you are bringing in all 5 characters and explaining their backstory, and their journey onto the island over a pass, but once you start getting into the story and they start finding their checkpoints it does become thrilling.

I loved Ben as a character, you do feel for him as he is being forced to move to Oxford to keep an eye on his brother (who it seems through little backstories is a bit of a sociopath). All his dreams are put onto the back burner as he has to go to work and keep an eye on Will.

I found the book flowed well (even though the beginning was slow), once the pace picked up I was on the edge of my seat.

The books was really unpredictable, at the climax, I thought it was going to go one way, but then it just went completely 180 and I never expected that coming.

I found the ending to be a bit ugh, I wanted to throw my Kindle, as I really wanted it to go another way then it did (believe me you will agree when you read this), but it still did end the book and wrapped everything up really well.

Overall a really good edition to the Red Eye series, and I will be picking this up when it comes out in paperback.

If you’re looking for a dark, gripping thriller which will leave you hang on the end of your seat because you are unable to put the book down, dying to know what happens – this book is for you. I chose this book because the front cover is so creepy and haunting that I had to make a request to find out what happens – it didn’t disappoint.

Following five very different personalities and backgrounds, Ben, Will, Carmen, Lizzie and Grady embark on a terrifying adventure in order to win a million pounds each. Initially I was put off by there being five characters as it would perhaps turn the narrative into one big mess, but the story is told from Ben’s point of view with some occasional flashbacks about his parents and brother, Will. I really enjoyed the flashbacks as they added a back story to the main character while creating depth. I wished there had been some more to lengthen the story.

Savage Island was a very fast paced book. The prologue introduces us to the characters and the idea of taking part in the ‘Iron Teen’ competition. It wasn’t overly long which I was glad about as sometimes these things can drag and become extremely dull rather quickly. The first chapter then brings us to the main island where our five young adults are ready for what they think is a fun summer adventure. Though I love a fast paced story that throws me straight into the narrative, I wanted just a tad more world building so I that could envision the story clearer. Otherwise this book was in no way boring.

The main characters were all interesting in their own different way. I enjoyed that every one entered into the competition for different personal reasons. Bryony did an amazing job writing these characters as none felt wooden or boring; their differences made them interesting. If I had to chose a favourite I would pick Carmen. She has a very fun, carefree personality and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks or do what is needed to be done. I think she’s also one of the bravest of the five.

This story is gory and I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint hearted. Personally I enjoyed it and it wasn’t over exaggerated and didn’t feel stupid. If anything I kept thinking how terrified and helpless the five of them must have felt being trapped on the island.

Something that let me down about the book was how it was such a quick read! I felt that it could have been slightly longer, expanding on certain aspects of the story maybe before they came to the island. As mentioned previously the story is very fast paced and so the “drama” starts from the beginning. I would have preferred some more build up leading up to the event, perhaps more interaction with one another so as to learn a bit more about the characters.

Apart from the lack of world building, Savage Island was a fun, gory read that I would highly recommend!

I would like to thank Little Tiger Group/Stripes Publishing and Bryony Pearce for sending me this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

At first this started pretty slow which made it hard for me to get into this. But once the action started I was captivated. I wanted to know why this was happening. Who Mr Gold was.
I did wonder through out why Ben was remembering things from his past regarding Will but by the end I understood.
I'm a little confused at the ending as it's left open with so many questions, so I'm hoping we get more from this. Otherwise the ending being such a cliffhanger would be a little disappointing.

I had heard about this book from a friend who told me it had a real hunger games vibe to it. At first, I felt it was nothing like the hunger games, much too wholesome; then it took a massive turn. I loved the suspense and the drama throughout this, it kept me guessing until the end. There was a great variety of characters and I am really hoping this becomes a film one day! I would 100% recommend this book.

'Savage Island' has to be my favourite of all the Red Eye books. It's so atypical in terms of setting and tropes but I LOVED that Bryony thought outside of the box and made geocaching something to fear! The whole book played on expectations and cliches, and even though I was biting my nails the whole way through, I loved every second of it!