ISOLATION ISLAND
LOUISE MINCHIN
*****
IT'S A PRIZE ANYONE WOULD KILL TO WIN...
Ten celebrities have arrived to take part in the most gruelling - and lucrative - reality survival show ever devised: two weeks completely alone on a remote Scottish island, in the depths of winter.
With a production team that seems incapable of keeping them safe, a gathering storm and the unrelenting gaze of hidden cameras, the contestants are stretched to the limit as they try and outshine their fellow competitors and hide their darkest secrets.
But when a contestant winds up dead, it soon becomes clear that the players are not just fighting for the prize, but for their lives.
MY REVIEW *****
10 celebrities are competing on a reality television show set in an ancient monastery on a remote Scottish island. However, when someone winds up dead, the stakes just got serious… Is it a prize worth killing for?
I love competition style thrillers and Isolation Island was one of my most anticipated reads on my 2024 list. Those that have read my blog will know that this rarely turns out well for said books, but actually this one exceeded even my high expectations! I devoured this book in 2 sittings – it kept me gripped throughout. Usually when you have 10 characters, it can be quite hard as a reader to separate them all in your mind and keep track of who is who. Each of these characters are well developed though and I felt like we got just enough information about them to distinguish them and empathise with them, whilst still having secrets about them that were kept from us.
The setting of the monastery on the remote island was also great – with a storm rolling in it made for an atmospheric backdrop to the internal drama. I also feel sometimes with these sort of thrillers that we don’t get enough of the normality of the game before it all goes wrong. In Isolation Island the murder doesn’t actually happen until about half way through, which leaves us with enough story to get to know the characters in a more normal sense and also to get a feel for the competition and what the original aim of the game was. I do wish that more was explored about the production company in the ending though, as it felt like a lot of health and safety guidelines were not being followed and there might be sabotage at play, but this then took a back seat to the drama between the contestants and wasn’t really mentioned again.
Overall, Isolation Island is a gripping, well-written thriller that I completely devoured and could not put down. Thank you to NetGalley & Headline for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
LINKS TO BUY
Comments