Island Life

by William Meikle

Some legends are true... The old stories tell of an evil far beneath the earth. When an archaeological expedition ignores local wisdom and opens an old barrow on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, they unleash a horror beyond their darkest nightmares. Will anyone survive the onslaught of the Island Life? William Meikle spins a tale of terror that will keep you awake until you turn the final page!

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian, Thriller, Scotland

284 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2013

About the author

I'm a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

My work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and I have recent short story sales to NATURE Futures and Galaxy's Edge. When I'm not writing I play guitar, drink beer and dream of fortune and glory.

For an intro to me, my writing and my accent see my Youtube channel

Reviews

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

I love William Meikle's style--this man can write such convincing characters. His work is infused with such originality! I thought this story was captivating from beginning to end. A touch of Lovecraftian homage, combined with Meikle's own voice, makes for a very compelling read. An isolated island is the perfect location for this story of supernatural power. A great first novel to start the New Year out with!

Highly recommended!

[Jason Parent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creatures infest an island off the coast of Scotland. A fun read with a fascinating back story for the villain. A bit repetitive at times and a little slower than some of his reads, but overall a good story (but not my favorite by him).

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

On an isolated Scottish island, an ancient burial site is excavated by a group of students and their professor, the work done against the wishes of the island’s local inhabitants. The locals fear the old stories of demons and horror, but the barrow is opened despite their fears. And their fears are realized. What emerges from the barrow are hungry, blood thirsty monsters, and they swarm the island leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. It’s left to four survivors to face this hell head on, in a desperate battle for survival.

Island Life, by William Meikle is a good read, for the most part, taking the solid horror theme of a small band of survivors trapped in an isolated area and faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. The characters are well defined, even to the tale being told at times through the POV of the island’s only dog, Sam. The gore is there in bountiful doses, too, with enough blood and guts being spilled to satisfy almost any lover of the horror genre. The story even backtracks hundreds of years so the reader is able to see where these horrors of the mound really came from and why they are the bloodthirsty force they are in the book.

Unfortunately, where this novel falls down is in the pacing of the story and questions unanswered.

Each chapter is given the title of a character and an entire sequence of events is told through the POV of that character from chapter start to chapter end. While this does its job of giving the reader a good overall picture of all the chilling events as they unfold across the island, it also serves to lengthen the chapters and drag them out, which tears the pace right out of the story. The plot gave me questions, but these were left unresolved come the end of the story, and that was not a good feeling. There are numerous spelling errors throughout the book, as well, most that wouldn’t be picked up on a spell check (for example form instead of from), but while the frequency of these were jarring at times they were easy to overlook.

With that said, Island Life is a good read, if what you’re after is monster horror on an isolated island. The characters pull you through the story. Their predicament, and the abundance of gore, is what makes this book the decent read that it is.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a grim, dark, remorseless tale of terror. If you are in a mood to celebrate desolation and horror under darkening skies, this one might be your cup of tea.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler: same ending as Rawhead Rex? I think so.

[Shannon]

DNF 55%
I am having a bad run.

[Mae Clair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could say I liked this book, but overall I found it disappointing. The author did a remarkable job of relaying the isolation of the setting, but I just didn’t care for the plot. It wasn’t what I was expecting.

I was particularly bored by the chapters of back story devoted to “creatures” that are unleashed on the island by students during an archaeological dig. In fact, the whole creature concept (or the reason for their existence) didn’t work for me. I also found them kind of blah.

The first half the book was scarier before I realized what they were. Also, because each chapter is told from the POV of a different character, and because sometimes that character didn’t interact with any others, the pacing really dragged. I found myself skimming a lot as certain scenes of narrative went on entirely too long . . . especially those chapters devoted to the creatures.

For me, this one didn’t cut it, but I still intend to check out much of Mr. Meikle’s other work as his reputation precedes him.

[B Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the premise of strange things happening on some isolated islands off the coast of Scotland. Tales of strange creatures. There is a lighthouse keeper, a scientist, some visiting students, and a family running a pub and restaurant. Some romance. There's a dog that is abused but liked by the scientist. The good guys try to call for help from the authorities. But it got too weird for me. The creatures were not believable. I read the ebook. Copyright 2013.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a remote Scottish Island not much happens, but that is about to change. The locals are in for a fight, as an ancient evil awakes and terrorises the island and a fight for survival begins. As usual a good story from William.

[Daniel Stainback · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, though there were a few spots that I felt dragged on, but overall a good read.

[Tim Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

Very interesting and well written. It was just a little bit too bizarre for me. I think this guy is a great writer.

[Misty Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Monster” novels are unlike anything else you will read. They do not follow classic literary structures, they are not written with the intention of teaching, and they are not in depth studies of the human psyche. What they are… is pure unadulterated entertainment; penned to make your mind run wild with creepy images and scare the panties off of fully grown men.

“Island Life” by “William Meikle” was most definitely a “Monster” novel.

Living on an island is supposed to be peaceful, but when the residence of a small Scottish town start disappearing…or better yet, turning up in multiple pieces, rest and relaxation aren’t exactly at the top of anyone’s list. An archeological dig site suddenly becomes the mouth of hell, fog becomes a blanket of impending doom, and when what residence once thought were nothing but “crazy ramblings from a crotchety old lighthouse keeper” start to make perfect sense…it’s suddenly to late to listen. What happens when one very pissed off, very hungry spawn of Satan decides to wake up? What is it exactly that he’s looking for, and… are those human puppets?

“Meikle” created a fantastic story of monsters vs. humans, but unfortunately during the actual telling of it a few things got in it’s way. 1. The chapters that focused on the folklore aspect of the story were a little long, and misplaced. I understand the necessity of these chapters, because they explain the history of the monster, however the sudden appearance of them broke the plot. Here is what I mean… “Meikle” was spinning his web, setting up characters, showing their fear and starting to expand upon their upcoming challenges when BAM! all of a sudden your are 5000 years in the past listening to a story that had relatively no set up, made no sense (at first) and drug on for so long that I almost forgot what I was reading before I was whisked away to another time. I think this entire issue could have been (easily) resolved by adding a chunk of the history into the prologue and then waiting for slower points in the plot to expand upon them (aka…don’t interrupt a chase scene.) 2. The character development was impressive (even giving a voice to the dog) but at one point there were so many perspectives in narration that they started to get confusing. It’s ok to have multi-narration but it’s important to not crowd the plot.

Now… onto the positive side of the boat. The “intended” plot (when it wasn’t being abruptly interrupted) was fast paced and expertly written. “Meikle’s” visual descriptives left nothing to the imagination painting the reader a very clear (and very horrifying) picture of his creatures as well as the destruction they left in their wake, and like I stated before, his character development was spot on, allowing the reader to not only understand the characters ACTIONS, but to see into their minds and feel their REACTIONS.

All in all… it was a pretty decent tale.

There were blood covered campsites, pointy teeth, slaughtered sheep, tentacles, mysterious blue rocks, men afraid of stairs, and 1 very lost girl on the top of a cliff.

I don’t think this book is for everyone, it is a novel that takes an extreme amount of concentration to keep up, but if you like monsters (and really freaked out people) I think you will find it enjoyable.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: fog + dead people = ??? Duh! we should all know this by now. RUN AWAY!

[✨ Bookferatu ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was by sheer force of will that I actually finished Island Life and it has sadly become one of my worst kindle buys.

To be fair, I realise that sometimes a book needs a specific reader... that reader was not me.

Island Life started off okay, but the story was, in my opinion, quickly weighed down when the writing "style" the author adopted quickly became convoluted and the plot just became confusing to me.

I really wanted to like this book, I mean with an island setting, gothic atmosphere and "unholy things", I didn't think it could go wrong.

But it went oh-so-wrong.

With many repetitive perspectives, for one thing; too much going back and forth, requiring too much concentration which really got in the way of the whole trying to enjoy the actual story.

The reader must wade through excessive writing that's badly stylised only to be taken further out of the story by having to remember what the hell just happened a chapter ago, and yet, in all of this "detail", excitement and attention to the plot was sadly lost.

Somewhere around the middle it lost me and I became very bored with it.
I kept losing interest so many times that I actually went through two other books while i was reading this one, and finished them first.

All I could do when I had some free time was groan that I still wasn't done with this mess, knowing I still had to finish it.

It was all just too much of "the years grew long, Calent waited"...blahblahblah..."insert pointless memory during waiting period here"...blahblahblah... "days turned into weeks"...blahblahblah....repeat endlessly.

It wasn't even scary or creepy, not even with remnants of an Atlantian/pre human race as the "unholy things".

I do not know how on earth this could get 5 star reviews.

My summary -

PROS: I'm being generous here by grasping for something, but one thing positive was I got a real sense of fog on the lonely, misty island.
I guess that gave it a good gothic athosphere and description of the Scottish isle.

CONS: Too much backstory flashbacks of the "monster" and nothing actually exciting happening and it eventually loses the reader.
All the talk about the ancient race things in the past intermingled between present day kept me too distracted from the on-going story by all the useless nonsense. Also awkward relationship moments that didn't work very well making the flow even more inconsistent. In my opinion, the story could have been good if there was a better writing style/structure.

WHAT I LIKED BEST: The one thing I can say I liked was giving the dog in the story a narration. Having some of the story unfold as from the dog's perspective offered some sense of investment for me because I was almost genuinely worried for the dog's safety, while I didn't even care about the other characters.


When it comes to books, I honestly never thought I would feel I didn't get my moneys worth, my whole $2.99 that it cost to read this story,
but that's exactly how i feel about this novel.

I found it was just not an enjoyable horror story at all and would have given it a half star if i could have.

If you insist because you like Scottish island setting, pre-human creatures and ancient burial mounds so much that you still want to try this book out, I suggest reading on a dark stormy night outside on a beach, maybe that will make it scary.

The scariest part for me was trying to finish it.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Island Life is a pretty calm title for what happens on one of the islands off the coast of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, is a series of small rocky islands that have mostly small towns and villages. In some cases, there is just a few local house on some of them, but they do have lighthouses and the keeps that go with them.
Meeting a few of these locals is the basis of Island Life.

Island Life sets up the feel of how calm and possibly lonely a place like that can be, if you don't have anyone in your life at the time, and except for those few looking for solitude for what ever reason, it can be a daunting challenge to stay for an extended period there.
William Meikle does a great job of setting the tone, letting us know how hard it maybe to face that kind of solitude, but, despite the long chapters introducing the characters to us, when things start to go amiss he goes into it full tilt.

The story of Island Life isn't a fast one. It took me a little while to go thru it, which doesn't usually happen with some other authors, but his writing, in the Scottish way, keeps it all interesting. You so start to care about the characters and some of the ones I start to care about I shouldn't have, as that their part of the journey ends. I wanted to know a little more about them and the certain events that were going on with them. But due to the terrifying events and occurrences on the island, we never get a good resolution. I guess that's part of life. It doesn't wait for anyone.

Im inclined to give it three and a half starts if possible, I know I cant but I would do it. I want to give it four but, the ending was almost to quick. It was all tied up and there were a few other things he could have taken more time to take care of for those interested, but we have no choice to go but where he leads us.

As someone that would give almost anything to be an island lighthouse keeper, I have read about keepers and island life itself and I feel that I could go with it. But after reading it, if I ever have that shot at doing it, it will be inthe back of my mind. I've been on island in the past and its a totally different culture, islanders looking out for each other and always being wary of the land bearers. I could relate the feeling I was reading in the story.

Island Life holds a deadly curse. something's that have lived for centuries and shouldn't have. Terrible things waiting to come out and take over in a world that doesn't believe in such things. And only the islanders can take care of it.

This book may not be everyone's cup of Scottish tea, but its a good solid and entertaining read with a good cast.
oh and I just changed it to four stars. Why? Because I can.

[Martin Belcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides an archeological dig opens an ancient burial mound much to the annoyance and protestations of the local population who have an idea nothing good will come of this.....

This is a claustrophobic tale of terror in the good old fashioned style, remote island, small population, isolated, darkness, strange noises, fog, lighthouses, to be honest all the component parts for the recipe for a great horror story. It begins slowly building tension and setting atmosphere and place. Characters are introduced and chapters see the story of a different characters point of view including the local sheepdog which is a great inclusion and very entertaining. The story builds pace and we slowly discover the awful secret of an ancient evil that has been released from the burial mound and once again claims the island and its inhabitants.

I enjoyed it, I just felt it lost momentum half way through and the chapters concerning the ancient story of the mound were a bit confusing. So I have to give it three stars, if I were able to give half stars then I would happily give this book three and a half. Still worth a read!

[Dee Dodgson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a creepy thriller set on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. Farm animals start getting mutilated and their hearts removed, just the odd one to start, but things soon get rather disturbing!
Strange creatures disturbed by an archaelogical student dig, soon become stronger and start picking off the locals, leaving a trail of blood and gore in their wake. It's left up to a few terrified residents to solve the problem, but there's more blood and gore before they can even get anywhere near putting an end to it. There's unexpected twists in every chapter, you can't guess who'll live and who's going to be the next victim.

Meikle has a great imagination and sets the scenes quite vividly. This isn't usually the kind of book I'd read, but I was intrigued by a taster downloaded from Amazon Kindle and had to find out what it was the student saw in the cave.

This book kept me reading and wanting to get to the end, so if you like blood thirsty, chilling, scary novels full of suspense, then I'd recommend it to you. But keep your doors locked, the light on and don't go out in the fog!

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike other "creature features" that dominate William Meikle's bibliography, this novel tells a very interesting story that happens on a rugged Scottish island. Its protagonists are the usual adorable lot: a mother, a young girl, a brave lad, a determined senior, etc. Its antagonists are the usual despicable lot: cave-dwelling evil creatures. The story is a page-turner, but the device of using various first person narratives fail since all of them sound similar. The only thing new in this novel is the pseudo-historical link that threads the back-story of the antagonists, and the new spin on Mythos. Also, it was rather pleasing to find a new (and immensely PC) way to deal with such evil. Ideal reading for dark & stormy nights. Recommended.

[Emma Meade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meikle beautifully captures the image of an isolated, Scottish island and the quiet pace of life before the peace is so harshly interrupted.
The story starts off slow at first, introducing us to the characters and is told from multiple points of view, including Sam, an ageing sheepdog. Such a focus on characters is reminiscent of Stephen King. One of King’s best attributes as a writer is his ability to portray the people in his stories so vividly. Meikle has the same talent. Once the attacks begin the story really gets going and we read on with trepidation, hoping for Anne’s rescue and old Tom’s safety.
An enjoyable read

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent gripping read.

The setting was fully described by the author, and each chapter represented a character, each chapter left me wanting more as I was totally gripped.

It was a book that I could not put down; I was drawn in by the wonderful characters, the island and the monsters. I was constantly thinking how is this going to end? At times it was quite scary.
The story flowed and was easy to read, however there were a few Scottish words that I had to look up on my kindle dictionary, but don’t let this put you off.

This was my first book that I have read by William Meikle, and I will definitely be reading more of his books.

You can see more at www.thepinkreader.com

[Adele Clagett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read "The Road Hole Bunker Mystery" also by William Meikle and enjoyed that mystery - this one, not so much. "Island Life" started out good (in my opinion), but soon became too far out there. I realize it was a Sci-Fi but I found myself getting confused by the writing style. It repeated scenes so that you could experience them through the eyes of the different characters - that just didn't work for me.

[Uncle Dave Avis · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good read.
copied: An archaeological expedition is intent on opening an old barrow on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides despite the reservations of the locals, who all know and fear the old stories. The scientists unleash a colony of murderous monsters from deep under the earth. As the released creatures swamp the island, slaughtering livestock and people alike, the humans must band together to combat it with few resources save their courage and wits.

[Dawn Judd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. It was gripping right from the beginning and held on until the end. I loved the way William sprinkled the backstory throughout the book, giving us an inside look at the bad guys. But just enough without taking away the mystery and fear they evoked. Which is of course what I loved most about it. Horror. My favorite genre. This was the first book I read by William Meikle, but I can assure you it won't be the last.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent writing but I never really felt the story was scary. The hero's didn't endear me with there weakness...they just really seemed sort of pathetic. Still it was good for the price and I'm not sorry I read it. I wouldn't have wanted to pay more then I did.

[James Angell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one roller coaster ride from the get go. A great read for a dark stormy Sunday with a couple of nods to the great H.P. Lovecraft thrown in. See if you can spot them.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is written in a classic SF/Horror style of 50's B movies. A pretty good read for the first 75% of the book.

[SImon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraft fans will find something to like in this tale of a small community on a island off the Scottish coast falling foul of an ancient curse. A quick, fun pulp read!

[Cyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good story.