The audio version of The Island drew me in from the first chapter. Both narrators were excellent picks for the characters. The pace of the book is excellent, with no part lagging for me.

The story revolves around a group of teenage friends. Their parents pre-determined their friendship before they were even born. For adventurous Jefferson, a survival trip to an uninhabited Thai island is a dream.

One of our main narrators, Jessie, is not as excited for the trip and her unease within the group is apparent from the opening chapters. The other narrator, Danny seems more concerned about his relationship with Honor.

Tensions are frayed on the mainland before the teens set up with their guide. Twins Meg and Milo make up the final two. Tragedy strikes not long after the group reach the island paradise and the teens have to survive alone.


This is the start of a nightmare sequence, reminiscent of a teen horror movie. The fears of each teen become reality. The drama and terror are non-stop. I listened at every opportunity to discover exactly what or who lay behind the torture of the teens on The Island.

To finish, The Island is clever, exciting and entertaining. Behind this are themes including mental health, guilt and grief. These were handled with a light touch and woven through the story.

This is my first C.L Taylor read and I’m going to enjoy going through her back catalogue.

Great audiobook, felt more like watching a movie. Narration was really good and story exciting and thrilling with a lot of twists. Highly recommended

I've been a big fan of C L Taylor for years, but this was a great opportunity to firstly listen to one of her books which I've never done before and secondly to read YA fiction by her.

The Island is set around a group of friends on holiday in Thailand together. They're in their teens and their parents have been friends since their baby group and whilst many have moved away, they still take an annual holiday together.

As a birthday treat for one of the friends, Jefferson, his Dad hires out one of the private islands for a survival adventure. Think Bear Grylls! But their guide dies shortly after arrival, and that's only the start of the strange goings on...

I really enjoyed this book. Whilst there are quite a few characters, development of them is strong enough for them all to stand out in their own way. It's narrated from the point of view of one of Jessie and Danny, and I didn't feel the need to hear anymore from other perspectives. This was enough. I felt that the depth of this was perfect. Superficial enough to appeal to younger audiences, without compromising on the darkness and how gripping it is for older audiences (like myself at the ripe old age of 34!)

I really enjoyed this and I'll definitely read more YA fiction and audio from C L Taylor in the future.

The premise was definitely compelling and I was totally involved in the early chapters, especially once their guide departed and danger felt close at hand. However I just didn't feel that the setting was sinister enough, or the tension was high enough for the rest of the book to really sustain that level of interest.

In fact I would say that the ending was of little surprise because it had been clearly building towards it throughout the book.

I didn't connect with any of the characters in any major way, especially those who didn't have a narrative. So their peril wasn't ever really a worry to me. They didn't even seem to be too worried about their own safety and spent most of it bickering about who was or was not in a relationship or discussing the relationships.

I felt like the bones of this one were there but they just needed some more meat. If the setting had been darker, creepier or more dangerous then it would have supported the character driven plot a bit more.

I received this audiobook from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I really like C.L. Taylor's thrillers, and her YA ones are no different. She manages to write something tense and twisty in a way that feels fresh.

In this one, we get six friends who are on a Thai island for a week with a guide. But it all goes wrong early on, and the teens start experiencing strange occurrences that align with their greatest fears.

We have two narrators in the book - Jessie and Danny. They're both sort of hard to get to know, with things that aren't outright explained to us. But Jessie did grow on me as we learn more about her brother and see her open up to her friends a little. Danny is much harder for me - I spotted early on that he was clinging to Honour, and that put me off him a little!

We do get a couple of things that didn't work so well - the two scenes with Jack and Josh didn't feel like they added enough. The first one in particular they are just horrible boys being creepy. At least in the second, it really did add an element of terror to the island that was needed. Though I couldn't help but feel the friends should have all gathered at their boat!

The second is that I guessed very early what was going on, and while I doubted myself a few times, I did end up being correct.

However, I really liked how it played out and how the ending was handled - I was quite worried it would show more blame and less acceptance.

This is a decent YA thriller and fun listen or read. 3.5 stars

Yet another incredible book from an incredible author

A stunning mix of scenery, adventure and twisty stories,

I listened to this on audiobook which I received from NetGalley. I found this a really engaging audiobook with different narrators for each of the characters which made it easy to follow. The novel follows a group of teens who go to an island for a survival holiday but when they get there unexpected things happen and they soon wonder if they’re really alone and if they’re safe. Whilst this isn’t my favourite C. L. Taylor novel it was a fun read and one that had me listening every time I had a few minutes to spare.

I’m a massive fan of CL Taylor’s writing and normally find the story’s gripping and impossible to put down, unfortunately this one just fell w but flat for me, although I can appreciate the writing or just didn’t really do much for me.

Six teenagers travel to Thailand with their families for the trip of a lifetime, but when their tour guide dies of a stroke a series of strange events begins to unfold. Each of the group begins to see their worst nightmare unfold.

The story is told from two perspectives, interrogating the dynamics of the group from different angles whilst showcasing some genuinely confronting issues teenagers face. I liked how Taylor captured that not all teenagers actually like social settings, that group holidays may actually be one persons idea of a dreadful time, and that mental health is hugely individual and rife within young people who, on the surface, might appear quite popular - as if popularity is the solution to mental health at all.

What I didn't appreciate so much was that I was entering into quite an immature novel; the concept, despite having teenagers at its core, felt like it needed a more mature approach in order to be truly frightening and hard hitting from a personal perspective. Despite that, the audiobook does a great job with dual narration of capturing the personalities of each character.

An interesting idea, but not necessarily original and certainly not thought-provoking or thrilling enough to capture my attention for very long.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I listened to this book and found it a fascinating, interesting storyline and very moving at times. A group of people who met when the mothers were all at child birth classes, meet up every year and go away on holiday together.
Over the years some of the original group stop going for various reasons. Then the year when one of the boys are 18, his father wants them all to meet up in Thailand and for the remaining children to all spend a week on a small island with just a guide as a present for his son who enjoys learning survival techniques.
Problems occur the next morning, when the guide has a heart attack and then dies. Then the party finds that the starter cable on the boat has been cut off and they can’t start the boat to return to the mainland. A whole series of events occur and life for the teenagers will never be the same again.
An enjoyable read. Recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins UK and CL Taylor for my arc of The Island in exchange for an honest review.

Out Now

Imagine you're stranded on a beautiful desert island with all your friends. Sounds perfect right? But imagine all your worst fears suddenly start coming true. Imagine the sudden fear that you're not all going to make it off the island alive.

I listened to this on audio with thanks to Harper Collins! I think if I had read this as a book I'd have enjoyed it a lot more but it was difficult to enjoy with the narrators as they didn't quite feel like the right fit for the characters so it was hard to gel with them. Overall the story was good and I thought the twist was well handled but the upper class over pronounced voices made it difficult to feel any emotion or excitement in the story. I'd probably read it again as a physical copy.

When i first started this book I felt like it was very much on the YA radar, however as the story progressed I got more and more involved in the story and characters.
The story kept me guessing all along the way through, The 2 main characters whose chapters are from their point of views, although very separate and different from another as part of the same group.
There is so much that happens I dont want to give it away but perfect read for a weekend on a cold wet day, it takes you away to an exotic island that you wish you were on, until it starts to go wrong.......

The characters were likeable kids suddenly thrust into a situation where they had to face their deepest fears it was a pleasant read but not anywhere near as good as this authors previous works. I didn't feel that it was edge of the seat stuff and the story was a bit predictable.
I didn't realise it was set for a young adult audience until I had nearly finished it and probably would have enjoyed it more if I had been the same age as the characters, unfortunately I'm not.
#Netgalley. #Amazon

I listened to this on my way to and from work and it made the drive really enjoyable. The story follows a group of teenagers as they are enjoying a week's break on their own tropical island until their guide dies and they have to fend for themselves. The first night they start talking about their phobias before going to bed and then over the next 4 days all of their phobias start to come true. They don't know whether it is one of them or if there is someone else on the island trying to scare them.

I worked out who was doing it about 75% of the way through but my reasoning was slightly off about why they did it. This didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story as it was still a really good listen. The three narrators did a brilliant job of bringing the book to life and I liked the way they read the chapters about one specific person each.

It was a great book and I'm off to find more by the author.

This is the first C L Taylor book I have read. One word, WOW! This is everything I wanted and more. The definition of thrilling. All of my questions were answered with nothing left outstanding. The book has you gripped from the first page. I can’t recommend enough! I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, C L Taylor and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is described as Lost meets the Hunger Games. I don't know who wrote that but it doesn't go as far as that. I little bit of an exaggeration.

This is about a group of 6 teenagers, who have been going on holiday every year together, with their mums and dads, since they all first met at a baby group.

This year they have gone to Thailand. And as a special 17h birthday treat for one of them, his dad as arranged for the teenagers to spend a week on a deserted island. Kind of like a Bear Grylls survival camp thing. But when their guide dies and they find a part of their boat is broken, they cant get back to the mainland.

Then each one of the teenagers worst phobias starts coming true. And then they start to think that they are not alone on the island.

I enjoyed listening to this on audio. I really good YA thriller. As it was a YA, I found it not that scary as such.

Not something really rememberable, but a good read. 3.5/stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HQ for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been really enjoying YA fiction lately, and this one was an enjoyable introduction into the YA Thriller genre. I have read other books by CL Taylor and I have always enjoyed just how 'readable' her novels are. They clip along as a quick pace, the plots always hold together well, and I never quite work out the reveal before we get there. With this one I took a guess early on, which happened to be right - at least in part - but it took a good way into the novel before I worked out what was going on.

I enjoyed the premise here, and the setting worked perfectly. I also particularly liked how this addressed some weighty issues but without ever making it feel like that was the point of the novel. This is a good old-fashioned thriller, and it plays out as such.

Highly recommend for YA readers, but also for adults looking for a nice light thriller to while away a fun few hours. Topics addressed here include mental health, death, fear and grief.

4 solid stars and I'll keep my eyes peeled for Taylor's next YA offering!

A strong female lead and she is very well placed within the novel which is told from multiple character viewpoints. There are undertones of Lord of The Flies as well as the the Survivor series, and I can see it being added to readings list in colleges. I would have said secondary schools but this book has normal teens doing normal things, but that is explained well in the book) which includes underage drinking and I can't imagine any secondary school would include that on their reading lists. This book hit all the right notes for me and I am trying to encourage my teen to read it without seeming overly eager as that will of course put him right off it! The teens in this novel are all struggling to come to terms with troubling feelings, some of which are ones which any teen could experience, and others which are much more extreme. The novel is beautifully and convincingly narrated by three young people, the plot races along and the word craft gives rise to scenes which are almost cinematic. I think this novel is an absolute triumph and I expect to see it in a movie at some point.

The Island by C.L. Taylor is the story of six teenagers stranded on an island after a birthday trip goes awry.

Although likened to the Hunger Games, I think the comparison does this book a disservice because readers will be expecting Capitols and Everdeens and may not appreciate the actual storyline, its themes, and the delicate and nuanced nature of The Island as a result.

I can’t really think of a book to compare this to, slight shades of Lord of the Flies, perhaps.

It is a very well written book and I hope readers pick this up with an open mind because if they do, they will enjoy it on its own merits as I did.

Holy tension! This book has been dubbed as Lord of the Flies meets The Hunger Games and whoever came up with that description nailed this. A group of teenagers go on a survivalist trip to a deserted Island as birthday "treat" for one them. And what starts off a a bit of fun rapidly deteriorates into chaotic nightmare.

I loved guessing what was really going on and really enjoyed how the tension tightened up chapter by chapter. Entertaining, nerve wracking and not for the faint hearted as it hits on lots of phobias. Imagine being faced with your worst fear while being stuck on an island with no escape, it made me shiver. Recommended for sure!

I listened to the audiobook version of the Island and thought the narrators sdid a lovely job. Pleasant voice, easy to listen to and they captured the essence of the characters really well.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK Audio for giving me for giving me a copy of this book for review consideration. As always, no matter what the source of the book, you get my honest, unbiased opinion.