Absolutely brilliant twisty and atmospheric psychological thriller. Very accomplished and hard to believe this is a debut novel. Great narration, capturing the differing characters and the unnerving brooding menace of the situation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this as my first EVER audiobook.

I finished this audiobook within two days! I felt like this was a modern adaptation of Lord of the Flies meets Big Brother. I was completely grasped by the suspense and the narrator added a good edge to the audiobook.

But overall absolutely loved it!

A HUGE thank you to HarperCollins UK, Sarah Goodwin and NetGalley for gifting my an audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.

Narrator 5 stars
Beautiful soothing voice

Story 4 stars
Parts of this book made me so angry because I felt Maddy was such a push over and the other characters were unreasonably weak and pathetic... But I guess that was probably the authors intent. The concept was fantastic though. Lord of the flies with adults

As soon as I read the synopsis for this I was getting vibes of that old TV show Castaway, but with an added Lord Of The Flies element, so was looking forward to getting stuck in!

As part of a new reality TV show, 8 contestants, 4 men and 4 women, are sent to a remote, uninhabited island for a year. Apart from two camera operators, a bodycam each, and a whole load of remote cameras filming their every move, they will be alone. The programme is hoping to see how they will survive away from modern life in an attempt to replicate conditions and see if life could continue on such an island should the need arise.
All islanders bring their own skills in the hope that it will make for a well-rounded and co-operative population that will work well together and survive for the year.
But as cliques form and groups separate, this is not going to go as smoothly as anyone hoped.

I liked that this book started 18 months later, then gave us a back and forth narrative throughout to unravel the story from both on the island and in the aftermath of the events that took place. It was done very well, built and then kept up the tension, making it a very moreish listen!

All in all, a tense yet enjoyable read that had some great characters, both likeable and not so much!

In a modern day Castaway scenario, a group of people are left in a deserted Scottish island as part of a reality TV show. Of course, any group of people who have been ‘randomly’ selected by a TV company are destined to rub each other up the wrong way, to fall out and to gang up on others.
So The Lord of The Flies scenario unfolds dramatically on Bushart Island, stealing food rations bullying, death threats, and total betrayal become the norm.
A compelling book, well narrated and full of drama, foreshadowing and hooks to keep the listener engaged.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review

This is an absolutely stonker of a debut! The narration I must say is fantastic too. The story is very much Lord of the Flies meets reality TV and at times made me so mad. Scarily accurate, I should imagine, of the 'every man for themselves' attitude. How the main character was outcast and continually dismissed, despite her knowledge, before the rest of them swiftly realised how her skill of foraging would potentially stop them from starving. A year on a remote island sounds like a dream but with strangers whose characters you couldn't predict, put together, like Big Brother, with personalities the producers knew would clash. Because of this I found the ending to be very satisfying. I tore through the book at breakneck speed and it's become one of the favourites I've read this year. Already looking forward to reading the author's next book, she's likely to have a wonderful career!
Thanks to the publishers, Netgalley and the very talented Sarah Goodwin for the opportunity to read.

Lord of the Flies meets Survivor ...

Maddie lost everything when her parents died in a car crash. In her grief, she is unable to see a way forward. When an opportunity to leave civilization and live on a remote island suddenly crops up, she is determined to be chosen to participate.

Now she is one of a group of eight people chosen to live off the land on Buidseach Island as part of a reality show. They will be simulating the rebuilding society after an imaginary apocalypse. Each participant brings along a set of skills and a few tools, with the intent that they will work cooperatively to survive on the island for one year with no help from the outside. Each contestant is equipped with a body camera to record everything that happens and footage collected over the course of the year will be edited to create the show. Two members of the production company will be housed on the far end of the island with the understanding that the contestants will only make contact in the case of a grave emergency.

As the days progress into weeks, one of the other contestants, Duncan, takes on a leadership role in the group. As cliques begin to form, tension builds within the group until tempers flare, accusations are made and one member of the group is cast out.

Beginning eighteen months after the group arrives on the island, a haggard woman appears in an isolated fishing village asking for the police. From here, the book jumps back and forth between the groups experiences on the island and the aftermath.

Stranded had me hooked from the opening line and kept me engrossed until the end. The author did a great job of building tension and suspense. The characters are well-developed and the island is so well described that you can almost see it. Esme Sears was fantastic with the narration.

Too many psychological thrillers have naive female lead characters that behave in an unrealistic manner and move through the story doing one stupid thing after another. I love the fact that Sarah Goodwin gives us such a strong, smart female protagonist in Maddie.

A tv reality show gone awry, this audio book made compulsive listening! Maddie is one of eight strangers who are dropped on a remote Scottish island for one year to see how they can live and work together cooperatively to survive. They begin to work together but Maddie feels alienated, others in the group gradually show their true colours, and their trust in each other becomes compromised. The atmosphere of remoteness and isolation is brilliantly portrayed, as is Maddie's fear. A chilling, tense and compulsive read. I thought the narration was brilliant. Thank you to Sarah Goodwin, Net Galley and Harper Collins Audio for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book leapt right out at me!!
Maddie is heading out to a remote Scottish Island as a contestant in a reality show. Alongside other contestants they will mimic survival after a major catastrophe rebuilding civilisation. Each contestant carries a camera to record their progress for a documentary. The contestants arrive on the island but within weeks the divisions have started to form and then there’s a death ..
This is such a fascinating subject, looking at the day to day practicalities of survival, foraging, fishing, building shelter..and how the personalities come together as a team. The story is narrated by Maddie, interspersed with interviews with the tv company. She is an only child, home -schooled, with poor interpersonal skills and very soon she has alienated the others.. is it her or is it them? She is the filter through which we understand what’s happened, but can we believe her?
I really enjoyed this! The narrator is great and I really felt she conjured up the voice of Maddie, conjuring up the moods and tensions of the story. I felt that the day to day detail of survival was really well balanced to give enough information without being too dry. The balance of personalities and the way the relationships begin to break down is beautifully done and there’s a wonderful gentle building of tension!
With thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins Audio for a copy of this book.

Buidseach Island is remote and uninhabited but for one whole year it is going to become the temporary home of eight new reality TV contestants. Four males and four females, along with two cameraman and an untold number of remote cameras, are going to populate the island. The show will focus on them attempting to feed, clothe, home, fend, and entertain themselves without any modern conveniences.

This sounds like a hard enough of an undertaking but when the group are stripped back to their roots rivalries soon form, which further complicates their attempts to survive. They will soon find that the verbal attacks from each other will not be the only thing they have to fend off, and it becomes increasingly doubtful if all those who stepped onto the island will also return home from it.

I love survival stories and I love fictional reality TV or competition storylines, so this novel seemed like one I was sure to enjoy. I came for the action but stayed for... well, everything! All aspects of this novel were seamlessly delivered to bring to life this unsettling and terrifying read.

One aspect I really appreciated was how Goodwin introduced the reader to all eight contestants. We grew to understand their distinct personalities through the eyes of one of the eight, Maddie. Her isolated childhood made her a bit of a social pariah. She struggled to relate to her peers and only ever had her parents to confide in. This altered when a car crash stole their lives and, left reeling and alone, Maddie sought an escape to the island. Her character was an awkward yet lovable one and I immediately empathised with her struggles. It also helped me to bond with her as both protagonist and reader were aligned in their roles as outsiders to the events that occurred.

The eight arrived at the island very close to the book's opening and so we got to see them attempt to grow connections as they dually struggled to build shelter and fires. The initial focus was evenly split between their physical tasks and the emotional bonds forming. A hierarchy was quickly formed and this early order dictated the quick descent into barbarity and insanity that followed.

I don't think a book has ever made me feel so anxious before! This is a book focusing on adventure and survival but the gaslighting and abuse the protagonist had to endure was what made me so angry at the other characters and so eager to fly through the pages and find some sort of peace or resolution delivered. I genuinely felt shaky at the endless scenes of confrontations and emotional attacks, which is a testament to Goodwin for how believable her fictional story felt to me.

In all, this was just the perfect thriller. It was fast-paced, well-constructed, and with many different elements that ensured the reader was never quite sure where the next attack would stem from.

Oh my God - seriously!! I've just finished a 12 hr audiobook in two days!!
Completely riveting, unputdownable, terrific read!

Can't wait for more by this author!
She chose a perfect narrator and wrote a great story - can't ask for much more than that.

Thanks so much HarperCollins UK Audio, via NetGalley and Sarah Goodwin for gifting me an audiobook copy for review.

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin is a whopper of a book. Suspenseful, enthralling, Big Brother meets Lord of the Flies. This is on hell of a ride. Amazingly narrated by Esme Sears.

Hell is other people. Sartre explored that theme in Huis Clos and there are elements of that concept in Stranded. A group of people sign up for a reality tv experiment. They’re taken to an isolated Scottish island for 12 months and have only limited resources. They have to learn what to do to survive. All starts well as the happy band hunker down and agree what needs to be done and who has the appropriate skills.

As expected, things go pear shaped fairly quickly. Resentment and petty jealousies develop and the dynamics of the group changes with alliances being formed, backbiting tittle tattle and a self appointed leader. Having set that scene, Sarah Goodwin ratchets up the plot and pace with a twist. This is a very cleverly drawn plot and character driven thriller. Who’s to be trusted? Who has dark secrets from the past? Why are they there and how will it all end?

We know from early on that Maddie is a survivor, but what appalling events happened on that island over the many months they were there? This is a book of substance; chilling, creepy and dark and it set my flesh crawling. Strong characters and a plot that’s so intense, you almost feel the cold, the isolation and the fear. Absolutely loved this; a first rate thriller and I finished it in a couple of sittings. Excellent narration throughout.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

In a Nutshell: That lovely cover, the intriguing premise and the strong Goodreads rating promised me a strong, suspenseful thriller. What I got was a mixed bag.

Story:
Eight strangers have been selected for an upcoming reality show whereby they will be spending a whole year together on an isolated Scottish island named Buidseach Island, which means “the witch’s island”. The show is based on the idea that the world has ended and they are the last eight survivors on Earth.
(I’m wondering how to continue without giving spoilers! Ok, I’ll just make it straightforward…)
The group needs to survive in isolation, work in cooperation and somehow make it to the end of their year-long commitment. Will they succeed?
The story is a little bit of Lord of the Flies, Big Brother, Survivor, and Castaway put together in a weird atmospheric kind of setting. The suspense is more about how far human nature can fall than about anything ghoulish.


First things first.
DON’T READ THE GOODREADS BLURB!
It was so irritating to see that it mentions the exact count of the survivors. I found myself doing a mental countdown while going through the audio. At the end, this was the main suspense killer for me and spoiled my whole experience.

Where the book clicked for me:
The author creates the right mood with her descriptions of the island, its remoteness and the slow mental degradation of its inhabitants. In fact, these psychological elements are the highlight of the book and create a fabulous dark and atmospheric setting for the story.
The way drugs and isolation can wreak havoc with the human mind is depicted well. The approach takes ‘survival of the fittest’ to a whole new level.
The eight characters are crafted very well. With four men and four women, there are ample opportunities for the plot to bring in sexual tensions, jealousies, insecurities and leadership struggles.
The first half of the book is more about build-up with not much happening. Interesting, nonetheless, but not ‘unputdownable’. Things turn around at the halfway mark and the writing becomes darker and the characters more complicated and unpredictable. The ending has a little twist which, while not a surprise, will give you satisfaction.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
This book is categorised as a thriller but most of the book is just drama with some atmospheric suspense thrown in. The thrills come only in a few chapters in the second half. So if you are someone like me looking for a nail-biting suspenseful experience, please realign your expectations or you will be sorely disappointed.
The story is dragged in many chapters with too much of internal rationalisation being vocalised. Especially because it is written in first person, some segments sound like someone is whining on and on and on to no end. This further kills the minimal thrill.
I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters. Of course, I didn’t expect to connect with them given how different their circumstances were. But none of them seemed realistic to me. The plot explains why they behave the way they did but it still felt implausible and farfetched. (Could this be my failure to accept the depths of darkness possible in human nature? Could be. Let’s chalk this down to my shortcoming than the book’s.)
I am usually neutral about whether a book is in first person or third person. As long as it is written well, I don’t mind either style. But in this book, I didn’t find the first person narrative working very well. For only one person’s voice to be heard across eight people simply leaves you wondering about what the others were doing, what is she not telling us, is she an unreliable narrator,… Add to this the fact that the character whose perspective we hear in first person is quite irritating and I ended up rolling my eyes more often than sympathising for her.
There is too much of needless foreshadowing in the writing. Rather than serving to increase my suspense, this simply meant that I waited for the upcoming event than wondering when things would change.
The prologue too is a big spoiler because it tells you right at the start that one of the persons survived, and you can even guess who it is because of the writing style. After all, both the prologue and the main story are written in first person. So guess who survived? Yup, the narrator.

The audiobook experience:
The 11 hrs 16 min audiobook is narrated by Esme Sears. I have no complaints about her performance as such. She does her best to bring this book to life and narrates her character well. I had assumed that having so many characters would be a problem in the audiobook as one tends to get muddled up at times. But the writing makes it easy to keep track of who is who, all the more so because we only see things from one character’s perspective. HOWEVER, the story is written mainly in flashbacks with some chapters in the present timeframe. There is no verbal cue to understand when things are moving from past to present and back. With only one narrator, only one character to hear from, and both timelines written in first person, this takes some getting used to and becomes confusing at times. It is quite possible that I might have enjoyed this more had I read it.

I feel that this book ought to work for most traditional thriller lovers. I always find myself setting a higher benchmark for thrillers, no idea why, and hence I end up disappointed more often than not. This is still a good book with some well-written scenes, just not an exceptional one. A one-time read for me, but a must-check-out novel for thriller aficionados. Just remember that the book functions more on “What happened there?” approach rather than a “Who survived?’ approach and you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

3.5 stars from me.

Thank you, NetGalley, Avon Publishers, and HarperCollins UK Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This story is like a modern adaption on lord of the flies, the story is wild yet is definitely believable with you feeling like you are there with them on the island, the audio narrator was amazing really bought the story to life, absolutely loved it

Oh my goodness, that was a tale and a half! Big Brother meets Lord of the Flies. What is likely to go wrong? These people are truly horrible and you’d really like to believe there was someone back home keeping an eye on things, but obviously not. I was horrified and enthralled. Loved it!

Compelling Suspense, Narrated With Edge..…
What happened on the beautiful, remotely situated Buidseach Island? From the very start the reader is drawn into this chilling, atmospheric and completely compelling suspense and will absolutely need to know. Well constructed tale which is narrated with edge, well nuanced, intense and solidifying the sense of place and well drawn characters. A tense and intriguing listen

What a wild ride! I listened to this book on audio and really enjoyed it. I found myself wanting to get back to it when I wasn't listening.
I really empathised with the MC and honestly, I was so disgusted at how she was being treated, I just wanted to rescue her myself.
The book examined how people changed under extreme circumstances with nods towards books such as Lord of the Flies.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a tv reality show - One island, eight strangers, one year - who will survive? The contestants have to forage their own food and make their own shelter. One year on, the boat that is meant to pick them up doesn’t arrive. Eighteen months later a woman is found in a remote village desperate to explain what happened to her and the group. This is a truly gripping story - unputdownable , tense and all consuming. It exposes the uglier side of human nature when people need to survive. The main character Maddy is so well drawn - I could feel her isolation and loneliness as if I were there. And all of this is being captured on camera for the world to see. I listened to the audiobook performed chillingly by Esme Sears. Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for my gifted copy!

I went into this hoping for a book similar to And Then There Were None or The Guest List. I was wrong and it's much more about the failure of human nature than dark pasts and dirty secrets.

Eight contestants are taken to a remote Scottish Island for a survival style reality TV show. They say it will be a revolutionary social experiment with each contestant having a special skill to aid the community. The set up quickly disintegrates with our main narrator being outcast to survive on her own. When the boat to collect the contestants doesn't arrive events go from bad to worse.

The atmosphere for the book is spot on. It makes you feel like you are stranded and confined. I felt very uncomfortable and anxious while reading this.

I enjoyed the duel time lines though found the foreboding to be overdone. It felt very spoon-fed as the reader was well aware from the first chapter things were going to go down hill. It also made it feel like the book was too long due to the constant repetition.

Personally I think the characterisation would've benefited if there were multiple narrators. Instead every character but Maddie seemed one dimensional and clichéd. Certain side characters seem redundant and I don't think the plot would change with their absence. Having read the whole book I still don't what Andrew added to the story.

Maddie was extremely unlikeable. Though she made valid points in some arguments she primarily did not know when to pick her battles. I can understand her being the sole narrator forces bonding towards her from the reader however she was immensely frustrating at times.

The pacing was hit and miss with some sections dragging and rehashing old ground. I also couldn't really see any character development as 'bad' characters were bad till the end and Maddie was just as disagreeable throughout.

The tone was amiss as well as it there were no positive aspects of the plot so the negative just became the standard. Even the light at the end of the tunnel aspect wasn't particularly joyous.

Despite these critisms it's not to say it was a bad book. I didn't hate it and found readable. There is definitely an audience for this but unfortunately it's not me.

* Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review *