Book Review- Savage Island
Title: Savage Island
Author: Bryony Pearce
Published: 5th April 2018
Pages: 416
Genre: YA, Horror
Rating: 5/5 stars
When reclusive millionaire Marcus Gold announces that he’s going to be staging an “Iron Teen” competition on his private island in the Outer Hebrides, teenagers Ben, Lizzie, Will, Grady and Carmen sign up – the prize is £1 million pounds … each. But when the competition begins, the group begin to regret their decision. Other teams are hunting their competitors and attacking them for body parts. Can the friends stick together under such extreme pressure to survive? When lives are at stake, you find out who you can really trust… -Goodreads
My thanks to Little Tiger UK and NetGalley for the ebook copy of this novel.
This is a Young Adult horror novel (that’s been a bit of a theme in my reading the past few weeks!) and it is definitely one of my favourite books of the year.
The novel is about a group of 5 friends who decide to enter a competition to win one million pounds each by successfully completing an adventure weekend. The group of friends naively compare the weekend to a Duke of Edinburgh weekend, and they have no idea what’s in store for them!!
I really loved this novel a lot, and one of the biggest reasons for my love is definitely the characters. They are an eclectic and entertaining mix of
different characters and they certainly added to my enjoyment of the novel. Ben
is the narrator of the novel, and I liked his narration a lot. He was a
sensitive and caring teenage boy, with a level head, and I appreciated his
narrative voice in describing some of the events of the novel which could’ve
been a touch ridiculous had they not narrated by such a voice. The female
characters in the friendship were group were also well developed. They were
separate characters who had distinct voices and personalities.
packed, every time you think there is going to be a pause in the action, more
twists and turns appear. The tension is palpable throughout the novel, the
author does a great job of creating this tension and keeping the reader in
suspense for the whole novel. I particularly enjoyed all the twists and turns
that Pearce threw into the plot, some of which I definitely didn’t see coming!!
The fast-paced nature, and unexpected turns of this novel make it a very quick
novel to get through, a few hours was plenty time for me to race through it!!
serious praise! This ending is one of the best endings to a YA novel I have
read in a really long time. It was so unexpected and completely shocking, and I
was heartbroken!
Personally I wouldn’t say it was all that gory, it definitely isn’t
particularly graphic. There are some ideas which are invoked by the author which
could be described as gory, but the author’s actual imagery isn’t very graphic,
and there isn’t much in depth descriptions of bloody violence.
one of the best to be released in a while, but it would also appeal to adults
too. If you enjoy Stephen King’s novels, check this one out!
