Book Review: The Island by Adrian McKinty
Title: The Island
Author: Adrian McKinty
Release date: May 17th, 2022
**Huge thanks to Netgalley, Adrian McKinty and Little, Brown & Company for approving me for an ARC of this one!**
This book wasn’t on my radar until recently when a fellow reviewer posted about it. I figured I’d give it a shot, see if I would get approved for it, and to my utter surprise – I WAS! Now, I’ve never read anything from McKinty before, but have had his novel ‘The Chain’ on my ‘To Buy List’ since it came out. Not sure why I’ve not gotten around to both buying it and reading it, life I guess, but I was intrigued to see what he’d unleash on us with this one, ‘The Island.’
Now, the description itself doesn’t give us anything you’d consider groundbreaking or differentiating between a lot of the dark fiction books I read. Family goes on a vacation, things take a turn, those that live need to find a way to survive at all cost.
That’s fine, I’m ok with a common horror trope set up – BUT – this isn’t a horror novel. This is marketed as an action/adventure/thriller story, one that is already in development for HULU and because of that, I went in with my “gore-meter” already dimmed and my “extreme events” mindset dampened.
What I liked: I think the shining light in this story is the main character, Heather. Heather grew up on a small island near Seattle, living in an art commune. Eventually, she moves to the big city and while there, falls in love with Tom. Tom is a recently widowed doctor, now a single father of two teenaged kids. Doesn’t matter, they love each other and get married. That is all backstory, stuff we learn about, but it is key to why Heather’s story arc is the highlight. She transforms from a meek, worried, secondary spouse, to a take charge, survive at all costs provider and it was great to read.
The story itself follows the family as they head to Australia for a conference that Tom is speaking at. While there, they do some sightseeing and it’s on one of these excursions where they bribe their way onto a private island to try and see some wildlife. Something happens, they try to flee, but are stopped and from there, the story morphs into “we need to get off this island” territory.
McKinty does a great job of creating tension between the two kids and Heather throughout the first quarter, but there is a subtle shift when the trio is separated from Tom and the two kids understand Heather is their only hope to survive.
I thought the ending was good, if abrupt, and the pseudo-epilogue after was a touching closure to the story.
What I didn’t like: No matter how many times I reminded myself that this was a mass-market thriller, it still became a bit underwhelming at times with how dampened and polished some events felt. Some of the characters were too one dimensional (I hated Tom from the start, and the entire scene of him having a toddler meltdown over the rental company not having the specific Porsche SUV for him pushed me close into DNF territory he was such a knob) and stereotypical.
Why you should buy this: Don’t get me wrong, McKinty serves this up really nicely and the writing is a ton of fun. He has one of those writing voices where you don’t realize you’ve read as much as you have, because it flows so well.
I think for those who’ll see this on the bookstore shelves or grocery store lanes, this will be an exhilarating ride, but for those who enjoy a bit more of a visceral, descriptive island survival story, you’ll be underwhelmed.
Overall, a solid adventure story, if not a bit too commercial in spots.
3/5
