The Island - C.L. Taylor

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review thanks to Harper Collins Audio and Netgalley.

Welcome to The Island.
Where your worst fears are about to come true…

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday: a week-long trip for six teenage friends on a remote tropical island.

This book addresses quite a few different topics, such as; mental health issues, dealing with grief, loss and phobias in a clever way. The setting of the island adds to the fear and suspense created by the story, and adds to the strains on the friendships that the friends are already feeling at the start of the holiday.

Whilst the storyline was good, I felt the ending was rushed slightly. With the five teens and flashbacks being used to introduce their friendships, I found myself getting a little lost with the characters at the beginning.

Rating: 3/5

CL Taylor, that name is synonymous with a fabulous read with twists and turns. Fans of CL Taylor should not be put off with this foray into the YA genre. The description of Lost mixed with The Hunger Games, is apt. The story follows a group of 17 year olds who have been gifted a survival style trip to an isolated island. Inevitably things start to unravel when their guide dies suddenly. The narration from two perspectives keeps interest.
Many thanks to #netgalley for gifting me a copy of #theisland in exchange for an honest review.

The Island by CL Taylor
I don't often read or listen to YA books, but as a fan of this author I decided to give it a go. I enjoyed the book and found it easy to listen to.
The book is perfect for a YA audience.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The plot was extremely interesting and kept you hooked the whole way through. The narration was brilliant too. Lots of mystery, lots of suspense and some brilliant plot twists and surprises!

I feel I gave this book a generous 4 stars. I enjoyed the storyline of this book and the characters but I did feel the middle was kind of slow and then it picked up again towards the end. An overall good read though and will be picking up more of CL Taylor’s books in the future.

This was really good!
Fast paced and exciting as always from this author, I didn't click what was going on until near the end! I listened in about 4 sessions, I'd totally recommend it for audio.

Well narrated too.

Thanks very much to HarperCollins UK Audio via Netgalley for the copy.

This is a review of the audiobook, not the actual story, I've reviewed the ebook separately.

The narration on this was really good. I think the voices fit the story really well. It sounded young and fresh and really appropriate for the story.

It was clear and correctly paced and I enjoyed listening to it.

I'd listen to another audiobook by CL Taylor and also another narrated by the same narrator.

I’ve read several books by C.L. Taylor but this is the first time that I’ve read one of her youth adult books.
The Island tells the highly charged tale of six teenagers on holidays with their respective families, when they embark a week long ‘survival trek’ to a near by island with an experienced guide. The six friends have known each other all of their lives as their parents met at an NCT baby group and have been holidaying together ever since. We soon learn of the divisions within the group, but these appear to be the natural disharmonies that occur overtime, especially as the group are growing up and developing their own interests.
For any modern teenager, it would quite possibly seem challenging to spend a week without their various forms of technology and access to social media – this is certainly a fear for any of the group except for Jefferson, (the birthday boy) a survivalist guru excited for the experience. And so, the story is set for some trouble ahead.
Taylor does not waste any time in plunging the reader straight into the mindset of her characters and catching our attention immediately with a character discussion their wish to be a psychopath in order to avoid dealing with their own emotions.
We are quickly introduced to the protagonists and the story is told from the point of view of Jessie (first person), Danny (third person) and Honor (first person). This is one of the strengths of the novel as we are given the opportunity to hear the voice of the teenager and their individual response to the challenges that they face. Despite being only 16, they must react as adult and have both their physical and mental health tested. This is a particular challenge for Jessie because we soon health of the death of ‘Tom’ – though it is only though slow revelations that we discover the truth about Tom and Jessie’s role in his death. Several characters have to deal with a great depth of mental anguish and I think that that author has addressed numerous problems facing teenagers today such as depression, grief, gender awareness, self-harm and bullying.
The claustrophobic atmosphere created by the jungle is used to build up the senses of fear and tension – along with providing a place of mystery for the group. They cannot determine if the jungle is a place of safety or should be avoided. Yet, they rely on the jungle for water and food.
I rad this story in one go and I would hugely recommend – yes, there are trigger warnings for difficult topics but this book also opens up the opportunity to discuss these topics aswell. It is fast-paced, exciting and provides and intriguing insight into the thought process of being a teenager in 2020.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Young Adult for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, the cover of this book was a LOT different when I requested an advance reader copy on NetGalley, it looked quite adult and when the final cover was revealed I wasn't a huge fan. But I definitely have to say, from having this on my GoodReads and NetGalley shelves this new cover has definitely grown on me. I think it's a lot more fitting to the story than the previous cover and gives off much stronger young adult vibes.

This is my first C.L. Taylor book, and as someone who doesn't read a lot of thrillers, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn't predict the ending of this book until everything started to unravel which I really liked, I feel like so many thrillers are obvious and generic now and this one was really unique for me.

My favourite character in this book was Jefferson, who is definitely more of a side character but I found it so chaotically random that he's a rich, private school attendee turned survivalist, and his character was the only one for me that I didn't find annoying at any time. Being annoying to me as a character isn't always a bad thing, characters intentionally have their flaws because nobody's perfect, but sometimes they do grate on me a little bit.

In general, the characters were really well fleshed out and each had a depth to them which made them feel like real people. I was apprehensive about this to begin with, as most of the characters come from rich families so I was sort of set up to expect spoiled brats, but luckily that wasn't the case. Each character was dealing with their own problems from back home and traumas, which were brought to light as each characters phobia came true for them on the island.

This book definitely managed to keep me guessing throughout, I really had no idea who to suspect until very near the end, which I think is so, so good for a thriller, especially with a young adult audience it can hard to be fresh and unpredictable but I really enjoyed the ending of this book and how the narrative panned out.

I think that the author did a fantastic job creating this eerie, isolated, atmospheric survivalist landscape on the island. I felt really immersed in the surroundings and setting of this book thanks to the concise but incredibly well-written descriptions. I was also incredibly gripped on this story and I wanted to know what was going to happen to each character, and who was behind it so I read the majority of this book in one sitting. I was just so desperate to find out!

The only flaw that has really stuck with me from my reading experience, is absolutely no fault of the author and didn't affect my overall rating of the book. But was that the narrator of Jessie's point of view mispronounced a couple of the 'nature' elements in the audiobook version of this book, which completely dragged me out of the read and back to reality in those moments.

Overall, I'm so glad I decided to take the leap to request this book on NetGalley and potentially discover a new favourite young adult thriller book, I really do hope to see more young adult works from C.L. Taylor in the future.

I had no idea that C.L. Taylor had written anything outside of thriller books, so I was surprised to see this book, but was happy to give it a go. Thank you to @HarperCollinsUK and @callytaylor for this advanced audio copy of The Island in return for an honest review. The Island is due to be published on 21st January, 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Five families have a tradition of going on holiday together every year and the tradition has ran long enough for the kids to remain friends well into their teens. This year’s holiday is to Thailand; sounds perfect right?

Wrong. The six teenagers spend a week on The Island which is a remote tropical island where they’re supposed to learn how to survive and enjoy the stunning surroundings. However when their guide dies of a stroke very early on in the trip, the group are left to fend for themselves. That becomes difficult to do because somebody on the island knows each of their worst fears and unfortunately, they’re all coming true.

General Thoughts 🤔

I’m not usually a YA reader but I do dip into the odd book every now and again. As this book was from an author that has written non-YA books that I have enjoyed, I thought why on earth not?! I have to say, it was an enjoyable book and I got on with it more than I thought I would. I got quite caught up in the relationships in the group and the teen angst and drama. Took me back! There are some dramatic moments in the book that kept me reading, waiting for the next fear to be realised.

There were a couple of things that I couldn’t get along with in the book. The first was that I didn’t feel like I was there; which sounds odd, I get that. But the setting of the book is this beautiful remote island, but I never really got a feeling for what it looked or felt like so I couldn’t envisage it in my mind. The other was despite the mystery and the dramatic moments, they felt a little fleeting so I failed to get a sense of exactly how it affected the group.

Characters 👭👬👫

I struggled to keep up with who was who, who fancied who, who disliked who to begin with, but it all came together for me pretty quickly. As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the teen drama of the relationships within the group. I think it brought back teen memories for me and made me smile.

Don’t be fooled though, they may be teens, but some of them are struggling with some pretty heavy stuff. I liked reading about the backstory of some of the characters and it helped explain some their behaviours within the group on the island.

Writing Style ✍️

The majority of the book is written from the point of view of two of the six teens on the island. I do love a multiple POV book, however I would have liked to hear more about some of the other characters. One of the characters in particular, I wasn’t sure why their POV was selected over others.

Conclusion & Scoring 🏅

I don’t want this review to come across as really negative. Although there were things about this book that I didn’t get along with too well, I did enjoy listening to it and found it easy going. I’d agree with the official description of Lost meets Hunger Games and I think those that are super into YA books would get on with this book well. When it’s released I’d definitely recommend it to the teens in my life and would be intrigued to hear how they find it.

This is my second C.L. Taylor book and my first of her young adult books. I love Taylor's writing and find it so captivating and addictive.

This book was a solid read and I loved the premise of it. Told mainly in dual perspectives, the audio for this was brilliant with a individual narrators for these perspectives. It was clear and easy to figure out whose chapter we were on by the narration.

However this story did miss the mark for me but I'm glad I powered through with listening to it as it was an interesting book. I do wish the ending was a bit different but that's just me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this cover! Isn’t it awesome? The narrators were spot on and I thought their voices fit well for the story.
This was a YA book so keep that in mind when watching this play out. I always have to consider the genre when I’m going into a story.
Teenagers are stranded on this island and they’re not handling things well and no one is prepared.
I thought it was ok. I wanted a little more development with the characters and the plot. I couldn’t predict the end, so at least there’s that. I recommend it if you love YA drama.

Thank you Harper Collins Uk Audio via Netgalley for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up!

Many thanks to Netgally and Harper Audio for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review. This review was written voluntarily and all opinions herein are my own.

Look, when I saw the blurb of this book, I knew it was something I'd want to read because it was right up my alley! I put in a request immediately and when I got the approval email, I was so excited. I went into this with a lot of expectations, and it mostly lived up to them. This is my first C.L. Taylor book, and I might just check out more in coming months.

This book was well written with an insane amount of adventure and it messes with your mind. I was really invested in the mystery and wanted so desperately to get to the end of things. It started on such a high and there was so much mystery built around the characters which ultimately fell flat for me. I would have enjoyed a different and darker ending, but at the end of the day I also appreciate the issues the author brought to light though the ending. Issues such as PTSD, dealing with the death of a loved one, and feeling left out were highlighted throughout the book.

I had a lot of trouble connecting to the characters and I can't even say for certain if there was any racial diversity among the friends. They all seemed to me like a bunch of spoilt rich kids whining the week away.

The blurb also seemed to oversell the mystery of the book. The mystery and events of the book are strong enough to keep the reader immersed - I could not put it down at all. I expected something very different going in, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the story I got.

If you're looking for a fun and fast paced YA Thriller, I can definitely recommend this one!

Thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio/HQ Young Adult for the opportunity to listen to this book. This is the second book I have read by CL Taylor, having just enjoyed Strangers and I definitely enjoyed The Island as much as the first.

The book was narrated by Olivia Dowd; Sam Newton and Sarah Ovens and they did a really good job

The best way to describe it, is a mix of Lost and Hunger Games and it is. Six teenagers are on holiday in Thailand and the teenagers go to a remote island with a guide who dies of a stroke quite suddenly and they are left to fend for themselves and survive against the odds. is someone watching them? Their paradise turns into their worst nightmares as their worst fears start to come true. What's going on and will they all survive?
It may be listed as a Young adult book and addresses various traumas that the teenagers are going through, but is equally as good a read for an adult. Great characters and personalities.

I felt I was on the Island too as the author described the location really well.

A thoroughly great adventure with plenty of mystery and twists and turns.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins UK Audio and Netgalley for the arc copy of this book that comes out on 21st January 2021. This is my second C.L Taylor book as i also received an arc copy a few months ago of Strangers which i enjoyed.
This book is marketed as Lost meets The Hunger Games, for me it was more like Lost meets Lord of the Flies/And Then They Were None. When six teenagers jet off to a remote island off the coast of Thailand for a week of surviving off the land tragedy strikes when their 60 something year old guide dies and they are stranded on the island for 7 days. The teenagers comprise of three girls and 3 boys, Danny and his girlfriend Honor, Jefferson, Jessie and siblings Milo and Meg. (sorry if ive spelt any of them wrong, i listened to the audio)

During the first night the teens are discussing phobias around the campfire, over the coming days the group are targeted by inflicting their phobia on them. The group are unsure if its one of them or an outsider doing this to them. All they know is that they need to survive the seven days and when they dont return they presume their parents will raise the alarm and they will be rescued.

Ok lets start with the things i liked, i really enjoyed the premise i do like remote island stranded survival stories. I thought there was good back stories for a few of the characters particularly Jessie, Danny and Meg, i would have liked to have seen Jefferson, Milo and Honor having a bit more of a background too. I enjoyed the chapter splits and that it didnt follow all 6 of the teens as that would have been confusing, i also really liked how there were multiple narrators this made it so much easier for me to concentrate on who was who, i really struggle with multiple POV sometimes.

Things i didnt care for as much: it all seems a bit unrealistic to me, whose parents at that age would let teens wild on a remote island with a randon 60 year old man as a guide and not panic when none of the parents heard from them at all as all of their phones died within the first 24 hours. Unexperiened teens would have been given rigorous survival training before attending something like this surely? I thought the ending was a tiny bit predictable towards the end (i wont say much more than that as i want this to be spolier free but the author gives you too many clues in order for you to work it out) for the first half the author did do a good job of leading you to believe that it could be any of them and subtley gives them all a motive which was interesting.

All in all it was fast paced and a quick read, it only took me a few hours of listening on 1.75 speed. I would read more of C.L Taylors work as shes really up and coming in the thriller world.

This ‘Survivor’ style story of a group of teenagers stuck on an island off the coast of Thailand was a very easy and enjoyable listen!
The story is mostly narrated by Jessie, who is just recovering from a tragedy of her own, and Danny, who is worried about losing his girlfriend Honor. The drama begins when their tour guide dies and they find themselves with no way off the island - and then suddenly their phobias are all beginning to come true. Will they make it off the island alive?
This was a great way of looking at the effects of grief, trauma and mental health illnesses, and I loved how current it felt for the friends to be the children of an NCT group! Whilst the story sometimes felt quite melodramatic, I just had to remember that actually, as a teenager everything did feel like the end of the world so the writing is pretty spot on for this age range!
There was plenty of excitement and action, as well as tender moments, and I was certainly left guessing right until the end so that is always a big tick for me!
From an audiobook perspective, I found the narrators very easy to listen to and was able to get really absorbed in the story, so I’d happily recommend it.
Overall, whilst it wasn’t overly heavy or emotional, this was still a great, exciting and fun read!

Such fun book to listen too! Excellent narration keeping you engaged. Great story and writing. Loved the whole experience.
Thanks a lot to NG nad the publisher for this copy.

This was an excellent book to listen to. I loved the narrators and they kept me really interested in this great story. A well deserved 5 star listen.

I loved this book! It is set on a remote jungle island where six seventeen year old friends go on a holiday adventure together, but things keep going wrong. The book is very exciting and I thoroughly enjoyed it, always wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I liked all of the characters and the story. I would like to see this book made into a movie.

The audiobook narrators were great and they projected the suspense of the story fantastically. The netgalley app worked well for me.

Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was initially attracted to the cover of ‘The Island’, being youthful and captivating it is fitting for this YA psychological thriller.

The story often conjured up images of the Bear Grylls series of the same name, as this story also features young Brits struggling with survival in pretty extreme jungle conditions.

6 friends united from birth due to NCT group connections find themselves, aged 17, holidaying in Thailand, where they leave their families for a week alone on an uninhabited Island, with only a local guide to rely on. The group includes Danny and Jessie, who share the narration of this book with alternating chapters.