It seems that Lucy Clarke is incapable of writing a bad book. I loved this audio book and was on tenterhooks throughout, trying to work out what happened to those left on the island. The different perspectives were brilliant, and the scene when we listen to the recordings is all the more poignant in audio as we are drawn into the raw emotion of the scene. Definitely recommending!

Lori and Erin, sisters from the UK, plan for an exotic holiday in Fiji to recuperate. But then the night before ther final flight they quarrel and only one enters the plane next morning. The plane is never found.
For 2 years there are no news.

This is a dual timeline novel where the younger sister Erin fights her desperation and tries hard to find some - any, really - answers; and the older Lori speaks about what happened two years ago.
I find Erin being much more believable and authentic, as I can connect with her on her guilt and later in the quest. Lori is less sympathetic, but this might be also because of the island storyline, which I find quite unbelievable and with weak internal logic. Male characters there are quite black-and-white and the misogyny is strong, if I can call it that.

I liked the sisterhood aspect of the story, I find it being well-observed, the bickering, the love and the need to tell it like one sees it is real.

Without giving anything away - I commend the decision Erin did in the last chapter. There is much needed honesty in that.

As for the audio aspect - the narration was pleasant. I would not say extraordinary, but the two female narrators were fine and my listening was not disturbed by anything going wrong.

Absolutely wonderful audiobook. I got sucked in from the first chapter. I'm a big fan of Lucy Clark's writing and so far this is probably my most favourite book by her. Great narration made it even better.

I enjoyed this adventurous mystery story about two sisters called Erin and Lori who had planned a holiday together, but Lori goes missing while she is on a flight. Erin doesn't feel that her sister has died, so she investigates for a few years to try and find her. I loved the mysterious element of the story and I loved hearing what happened from both sisters points of view. I found the beginning of the book a bit slow, but then it got more exciting. The narrators of the book did a fantastic job.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review

The Castaways by Lucy Clarke Narrated by: Jess Nesling, Helen Phillips I loved it and was hooked within the first chapters on the audiobook and I could not stop listening to the book. I loved all the characters and they were interesting and engaging characters. This book is also fast-paced with lots of twists and turns which made it Brilliant!

I highly recommend this audiobook the narrators were excellent.

Big thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK and HarperCollins UK Audio for my copy and the opportunity to read and audiobook and review this brilliant book.

I loved this audio book. I couldn't wait for my journeys to and from work so I could find out what was going to happen. I thought it was really well written and kept me wanting more throughout the whole book. Definitely recommend this and give it a full 5 stars!!!

I enjoyed this audiobook and I liked the two different perspectives.
There were twists and turns throughout the book which kept me listening.
I liked the main characters and wanted to keep listening to find out what happened to them.
I would recommend this book.

I had read the hype around this book so was looking forward to listening to it.
It had me gripped from the start, Erin and Lori are two sisters who book a holiday together but only Lori makes it on the plane.
Lori’s plane disappears without a trace and Erin is left wondering what has happened to her sister.
Without giving away spoilers, the book switches between Erin now and Lori then, it is very easy to follow.
A great story which has me hooked, I felt a little letdown at the ending, I wasn’t sure what to expect but it did leave me feeling deflated.

I could not stop listening to this! Like a better version of Lord of the flys meets Lost. A plane crash, a group of survivors and an uninhabited island. Some would say paradise.... but is it really?

The Castaways is a well-plotted read that dumps us in a difficult situation, confidently switching to tell the story of what happened after a dramatic plane crash.
We focus on two sisters, Lori and Erin, who have depended on one another since their parents died. When Lori discovers her husband has cheated on her and got his mistress pregnant (while they are unsuccessfully undergoing IVF) she decides it’s time to do something different. She wants to experience something new, so she books a holiday to a luxury resort in Fiji for herself and her sister.
Very early on we learn the sisters argued and Lori went on the trip alone. The trip that was so full of promise but it ended in questions when the plane never arrived at its destination. Nobody knows what happened to the seven passengers on board, and Erin is forced to live with the guilt that she should have been there.
The story is split into then (told from Lori’s viewpoint) and now (Erin’s view). This means that we see the impact of the disappearance at the same time as slowly unravelling the mystery.
A strange set of characters and yet there wasn’t a moment that I found myself desperate for something to happen. Erin’s behaviour is highly believable, and while I enjoyed the details of the post-crash experience it was her story that really engaged me. I was rather surprised by the ending and there were a lot of unanswered questions.

The Castaways by Lucy Clarke, is a mystery set in Fiji. Told from the perspectives of two sisters, Lori, as she flies out from Fiji on her own and Erin two years after Lori having never hearing from her after the plane she was in, went missing.
A tale of loss and guilt as both women tell their stories of the past and how they got to be in the current situation. Then new information comes to light and Erin is urged to go back to Fiji to find out the truth and what really happened to her sister.
This is an easy listen, narrators Jess Nesling and Helen Phillips are pleasent to listen to and the setting is beautiful. Erin is an excellent detective and slowly the truth begins to unravel. It's difficult to say more without spoilers.
I fully recommend a listen 4*
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Audio for the ARC.

Told over dual timelines with dual points of view The Castaway tells the story of one sister stranded on a desert island and another sister years in the future investigating the incident that caused her sisters death.
Overall I really enjoyed the premise of the book. Both settings and both voices were brilliantly fleshed out and the story kept me engaged from page one.
However I did find it very predictable and samey. I would have really liked the story to do something different than the usual missing on a desert island tropes.

This was really very good indeed. It surprised me. Great tension throughout. Would recommend this as a holiday read or for those dreaming of holidays.

I listen to this book over three days in my garden. Absolutely loved it right to the end. Many surprises! You could be forgiven for expecting a run of the mill tale of being castaway on an island. Not so, it's full of personal relationships, selfishness, love, betrayal, lust and heartbreak.
Two sister's who have lost both parents and mean the world to each other, but is that enough?
It's one of those stories that you want to keep reading thinking you can guess the outcome then it blows your mind.
Read it.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review it.

It is quite hard to formulate a review for this book without giving too much away. Essentially Lori and Erin, two sisters are are going on holiday to Fiji together. Lori has just split up from her husband, leaving her childless – her biggest desire in life is to be a mother. Her ex has sired a child with the new woman in his life to add insult to injury. The two sisters support each other through thick and thin, particularly after the death of their father in their later teen years.

At heart they have a good relationship but when they arrive in Nadi airport in Fiji, the evening before their transfer flight to LImaji, they have quite an argument. Erin storms off and the next day Lori boards the tiny plane to their final destination alone. The plane crashes.

Two years later and Erin is of course still in shock that she survived and she is still as desperate as ever to find out what happened to the plane and the passengers. No wreckage was found, no trace at all. In the intervening couple of years, Erin has been busy collecting all the pieces of information she can, from all possible sources, and Lori’s room is now like a police investigation room, a shrine to her sister and the missing passengers. Erin is a journalist and after a pivotal discovery she is sent back to Fiji to see if she can collect any further information.

Lucy Clarke is great at keeping the tension flowing – with masterful twists and turns she guides her reader through the different threads of the story. I was certainly really keen to find out how the narrative would end. Having said that I felt the storyline had too many incidences, used to drive the story forward, that felt really implausible. As an example, a book and some clothes (spattered with blood, which would have attracted insects to gnaw and nibble at the drop of a hat) are discovered 2 years after the crash, on a tropical island where humidity is high (as a random sample of the humidity levels today, there is 94% humidity in Fiji, compared to, say, London at 66%). Articles containing cellulose do not do well in high humidity, so it is so very unlikely that the book and clothes (which both contain cellulose) would have survived in the extreme temperatures/humidity. The discovery of a mobile, after two years, that just needed a quick recharge to offer up some clues, really stretches credibility. There were other aspects which compounded the distortion of reality which I won’t mention here as they would be spoilers.

Having said that, I worked on suspending my disbelief, and got on and enjoyed listening to this novel as an audiobook, I did find it quite addictive. And whatever your thoughts, the novel will certainly transport you to an exotic location if you are stuck in the Northern hemisphere and yearning to read about a tropical island that is hot and dripping in dark and luscious foliage.

I listened to this as an audiobook, which was excellently narrated by Jess Nesling and Helen Phillips.

Two sisters, Lori and Erin, are on their way to Fiji, but only Lori makes it onto the plane. When the plane never lands and disappears without a trace, journalist Erin is left to investigate. Split between two perspectives and two timelines, we learn what happened to Lori, crashed and surviving on an island, and we follow Erin in the present, as she searches for answers.

It was fun! There was a bit more middle than I like, there’s a lot of hanging about on the island, which I mean... of course there is, she’s marooned. I just personally need more stuff happening because I have the attention span of a toddler BUT I still really enjoyed it. It’s well written, well characterised, and had a great mystery at the centre. Oh and the audiobook was SO GOOD. Definitely recommend it on audio if ur into them.

There’s not much else I can say without spoiling but there’s a great focus on family, on the bond of sisters and on wanting to be a mother. I know I know another thriller with an infertile gal BUT it was handled better and with more empathy than I’ve seen before. I thought it was gonna enter into crazy lady territory but it did not 💃 phew! cw: for infertility obviously, for attempted rape/assault and for u know... islandy murdery things 🌴🪦

- review pasted from Instagram

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Thank you to Netgalley for giving me access to the audiobook version of The Castaways in exchange for an honest review.

LOVED this one. Had me hooked from the very first chapter and it didn’t let me go until the end.

A thriller quite different from others I’ve read, a clever plot full of twists, yet an emotional and heartfelt read. (If you’re a bit boring, you could argue there are elements to the book that are slightly far fetched but what decent thrillers don’t?).

A book well written as well as excellently narrated (audiobook version remember). Definitely recommended to thriller lovers in any form (physical/digital/audio) but if anyone is after a new audiobook or looking to start with them, I’d definitely recommend this version

Absolutely fantastic, this is a gripping story that will keep you up way past your bedtime. Told in a duel timeline format narrated by the two main characters. The Island setting reminded me a little of the tv series Lost, lots of blue sea and sundrenched beaches.
I’ve enjoyed some of Lucy Clarke’s other books and this did not disappoint and made me eager to catch up with her back catalogue.
Highly recommend.

Sisters Lori and Erin are going for a holiday on a remote island in Fiji when disaster strikes. Erin misses the flight and then it crashes, gone without a trace, Lori along with it.

The story is told in two time frames, then and now and from both sister’s perspective as the mystery around the crash’s disappearance is revealed.

For me personally I think the description of the book is too far removed from what the book actually delivers. I was expecting conspiracies and an overarching villain trapping them on the island and this is nothing like that.

It starts well but then flounders for a while whilst not a lot happens before reaching a lacklustre conclusion. I don’t think this is necessarily the fault of the book or the writing style, but more the unfulfilled expectations.

Great premise and I loved the gradual build up of tension on the island, but I felt overall this could have done with a bit more editing as it got quite repetitive at times with the same things being reiterated or emoted. The split narration and time differences worked really well and even though I didn't feel very connected to either of the sisters they were well drawn and the narrators voiced them effectively. There was lots about this that worked well, I think I'd have given it more stars if I hadn't found it overlong and repetitive.