Paradise Island: A Sam and Colby Story

by Sam Golbach, Colby Brock, Gaby Triana (Primary Contributor)

When YouTube ghost hunters Sam and Colby head to Kauai for an annual bro trip with two childhood buddies, they’re dying for a break from paranormal investigations—instead, they find themselves at the center of their most horrifying mystery yet.

Four best friends— Check .
One unforgettable week in Kauai— Check .
Sun, surf, and hula girls in bikinis— Check .
A creepy mansion on the forbidden side of the island…. Check?

Sam and Colby’s vacation in paradise goes from enchanting, to weird, to deadly, when Trey, an old acquaintance, insists they can’t leave without a visit to the legendary Na Pali Coast. It turns out Trey has been living at the infamous Belle Estate, owned by a wealthy and eccentric widow—who locals believe is a witch. The only thing odder than how a twenty-three-year-old college kid from Utah ended up living in a remote and isolated mansion on the North Shore of Kauai is that he is romantically involved with a woman old enough to be their grandmother. Belle Estate’s walls hold an eerie sway over all who enter, and a dark, shadowy presence seems to be following them around the grounds. When an unfavorable change of plans forces them to stay overnight, Sam and Colby are in for the most terrifying encounter of their lives.

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Horror Thriller, Science Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published November 17, 2020

Reviews

[Abby Helms · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was amazing. I thought that the twist was cool, but scary. I’m glad that the ending is fictionalized and not what really happened. Now I want to know the real ending. I’m sure it’s just as interesting as the book ending just way less intense.

[james ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐

oof.

the 15 year old sam and colby viewer in me really wanted to enjoy this...

i've read worse books. by far. the plot was engaging and exciting and it was a suspenseful adventure all the way through - made even more chilling by the fact that most of it is allegedly true. however, the writing was fairly juvenile, more like a lackluster fanfiction than a novel, and in this case, the idea of an autobiographical fiction book was better in theory than in execution.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so cool I love this book you should make more books to everyone out there read this book I promise you it is one of the best books out there Sam and Colby if y'all can hear me I loved your book my favorite part is the whole book it's just so cool is it based on a true story if you can then text me back on this app or on anywhere else you can find to me you really inspired me to be a ghost hunter I would really love to go hunting with y'all for ghost if you read the whole thing thank you so much and I have watched every single one of your videos almost okay fine at least 3/4

[kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3/5 stars (I originally posted this on Tumblr back when I first read the book, but I finally remembered to add this over here)

Visiting the North Shore had been a bizarre and unsettling experience, to say the least, but when they got home after vacation was over, he was going to suggest to Colby that they make a video about it.
Hell, no. Even better. Write a book. Videos melted away after a while, but a book? Books and stories solidified on the conscious mind forever. (pages 91-92)

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I generally enjoy stories like this, but there were a few moments throughout the novel where things just fell a bit flat.

While I was reading, I made a few notes, the first being that there was a weird juxtaposition between talking about more adult topics (drinking, women, sex, etc.) but in an odd, almost kid-friendly way. Some of the word choices were interesting, such as constant use of “fancy-pants”, “hottie”, “goofball”, “oddball”, and “doofus”, as well as the one moment where Colby said he hated “dicky” people and the moment where Sam said Colby was about to have an “emo-ruption”. (Though I did laugh a lot longer than I should have at “emo-ruption”.) It felt like they were still trying to make the story appropriate for their younger fans by using more kid-friendly language, while also appealing to their older fans by being like “look!! we drink!! and ooh look, we talked about smoking weed 👀🤪”. I wish they would’ve committed to one or the other, because it added an odd sense of disjointedness to the story that could’ve been easily resolved.

The other big thing I made note of was that there was a lot of “tell, not show” throughout. There’s a heavy focus on dialogue to progress the story rather than seeing into the boys’ inner thoughts and using other means to find out information. (I’m not one to talk, though, since I also focus more on dialogue than description.) It sometimes made it difficult to fully get into the story. I struggled with developing a picture of what the Belle Estate looked like, or what the other characters (beside SNC, Nate, and Alex) looked like. In terms of the boys, it seemed very reliant on us knowing who Sam and Colby are and what they’re all about (which is fair, since probably 99.9% of people who bought the book are fans of them but, if they want success outside of their audience, it could’ve been more descriptive in that regard).

As for the big twist at the end, it was a bit lackluster. I’ll go more in detail on this in the “spoiler section”, but it kind of diminished everything that had happened throughout the story and left me wondering “what was the point?”.

I was excited when I’d heard that the story was told through both Sam and Colby’s POVs, but, I’ll be honest, I saw little difference between Sam’s chapters than Colby’s chapters. The most difference was the almost stereotypical portrayal of Sam being the logical one while Colby being the emotional one. Aside from that, they were almost indistinguishable from me and I often had to flip back to the start of a chapter to remind myself of who’s head I was in.

Since that was all critical, here’s some things I did like:

I feel like, while the inner monologues were a bit lacking, Gaby did make up for it by making the dialogue between the boys really realistic to them. In this regard, she really nailed the portrayal of them.

The depiction of the paranormal things was really great. I feel like those parts were the ones I could get most into the story. The way Gaby wrote them was so interesting and pulled me in. I wish there was more of these moments throughout the story, because I think they really showcased who Gaby is as a writer.

Just how meta the book was. Like, the quote I included at the top? I laughed for way too long when I read that.

There was a nice sense of nostalgia throughout, specifically when they brought up their YouTube channel, their Vine days, them being arrested, wining a Teen Choice Award, and Corey and the Shadowman. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and reminded me of how proud I am for how far they’ve come.

Speaking of being arrested, there was a moment where SNC were contemplating escaping to the beach and they had a conversation if it was worth being arrested again. I really loved that, especially with how much fans joke about them inevitably being arrested again.

This is more for the person who designed the cover, but holy shit, I loved it so much.

I don’t know if I would have picked this book up if it didn’t have Sam and Colby’s name attached to it. I will say, though, I finished the book in one sitting, which is pretty rare for me nowadays, so it was engaging. I think, overall, it was a great story with a great concept but it could’ve been fleshed out more. In some ways, it almost felt like this was a draft rather than a completed novel.

That being said, for SNC’s first book and Gaby’s first time working with the boys, it exceeded my expectations. If they were to continue writing books together, I imagine it will get better and better as they get more used to each other and potentially open up more so that their characters become a more accurate depiction of them.

Overall, the book’s not something you really need to race out to get. I think, if you have a gift card or there’s some sort of deal or you need to spend a little more to get free shipping, it wouldn’t hurt to pick up Paradise Island. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a great, top-tier novel in my opinion. That being said, if you do pick it up, I think you will enjoy the book.

Now, into the spoiler section of the review:

The characterization of all four of the boys is a bit 2D. Sam’s logical and wants to keep the peace, Colby’s emotional and more of a wildcard, Nate’s focused on his schoolwork and flexing his vocabulary, and Alex? Well, I couldn’t get a good read on Alex until he sells out SNC at the end of the novel and even then, he didn’t feel so much like his own character, more like someone just present to further the plot.

Speaking of characters, the introduction of Trey was...meh. I wish we could’ve gotten more insight on why Colby was so adamant about not liking Trey and why Nate was so gung ho to ditch their plans to go to the North side of the island for this guy they barely knew. Finding out that Colby didn’t like Trey because he said college was the only way to success was such an odd thing? Like, undoubtedly there’s been many people who would’ve said that, so does Colby also dislike everyone who’s said that or is there a more specific reason he didn’t like Trey? Just...👏🏻 more 👏🏻 inner 👏🏻 thoughts 👏🏻 please 👏🏻 and 👏🏻 thank 👏🏻 you 👏🏻

Colby’s fixation on the mermaid statue of a 16-year-old was really odd. It probably wouldn’t have been as odd if Amy was aged up a bit to 18, but as a 16-year-old with the descriptions that were given? Yeah...not the vibe.

I also wasn’t a fan of how so many things plot-wise was just...told to the boys. They could’ve found some newspaper clippings or something, anything to make them put in a little bit of detective work. But for so much information to just be handed to them? It got old, and almost lazy.

The big twist being that all of the paranormal stuff they’d encountered being a hallucination? God, that was so fucking annoying (though I did go back afterwards from the moment that they first arrived at the Belle Estate—starting as early as page 36—and it felt incredibly obvious knowing now that it was all drugs, so props to Gaby for dropping that many hints early on). To spend so much time making all of this scary shit happen just to turn around and say “HAHA JK THE BOYS WERE JUST TRIPPING BALLS” was such a cop out. It would’ve been more terrifying for it all to be real, make the boys question their beliefs and the reality of there being something out there that they didn’t quite understand. Though, there is something terrifying about not knowing you’ve been drugged and having hallucinated that vividly, but I feel like it didn’t quite fit in with the story.

Alex betraying the boys? So interesting! This was one of the few things that made sense in terms of them being drugged. But then when he was betrayed when Pauahi (who’s name was misspelled a few different times in the book) escaped? Ugh, amazing. We love instant karma like that.

Going back to the “tell not show” thing, I wish the sacrifice at the end would’ve been more detailed. For all of the paranormal stuff to be written off as a drug-induced hallucination, I would’ve loved if Gaby had leaned more into the horror of being used in a human sacrifice. There was more of a focus on Colby bargaining for his life, which is fair, but I would’ve loved to see more of the pure terror there.

That being said, the way Trey finally snapped out of it? *chef’s kiss* Loved that shit so much. And I loved the fact that Trey stayed behind in the end. It added a nice eeriness to the story that had been lacking since they debunked the paranormal shit as being hallucinations.

Again, going back to my overall, thoughts, I enjoyed the book in general. Some things could’ve been fleshed out a bit more to reach its full potential. I wish they leaned more into the paranormal aspect and had more descriptions to balance out all of the dialogue, but other than that, I did enjoy the book and don’t regret buying it.

[Kara Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy shit!!! Bitch!!! This one was a wild ride. I don’t know what I was expecting when I came into it but it was so flipping good. The author did a full five stars on descriptions, characters , and setting. This book is messy but in the best way possible. The last 40 pages that’s where the one star for me it didn’t hit 100 percent because I was a little bit lost but then we got there at end and I loved it. Also it was like you there in the moment with Sam and Colby just a little bit exaggerated for more of a pay off type novel feel because that’s how horror stories are suppose to be. Well done I loved it. That’s all I’m going to give you also no turtles were harmed in the making of this book. I will give you an example of the authors good ass descriptions though and from there you can decide wether or not this is the book for you “the rocks,the waterfall..., the sights...and the ocean around him turned black... swallowing his consciousness whole.” Also the author does a great job of keeping Sam and Colby’s personalities In the story and not making them larger than life characters since they are real people in this story is based on a vacation they took just with a little bit of exaggeration towards the end but she didn’t make them as the people they are exaggerated for dramatic affect and for that I absolutely thought this was a terrific book,definitely worth the read. It’s a 4.67 star review overall

[Meg🎊 · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Welcome to Hell”
⥼~-✰-~⥽ ☽ ˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚＊☾ ⥼~-✰-~⥽


✦⤷
𝚆𝚑𝚢 𝚒 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔
⥼~-✰-~⥽ ☽ ˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚＊☾ ⥼~-✰-~⥽
So it’s taken me like what 2 years? I have had this on my shelf with their upcoming videos they do every October “hellweek” it seemed like a perfect read. Even though they haven’t discussed on what happened on their trip on YouTube I really wanna know what happened they could not explain



ೃ︵➷
𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚊��𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔
⥼~-✰-~⥽ ☽ ˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚＊☾ ⥼~-✰-~⥽
So this follows Sam and colby going on vacation with their boys from childhood Nate and Alex
They visit the most beautiful place Hawaii but things doesn’t go accordingly to plan especially for Colby he likes to make plans and stick by them (which is almost like me in a way I hate things being changed too)

This book so unbelievably good, the way colby and Sam took their best childhood friends with them on vacation the most surprising turn of events happened to them. I was completely shocked like maybe this was why they could explain this in their videos on what happened with how gruesome and traumatic happened to the 4 boys.

Colby I love him honestly, he has such a good heart even Sam does I think that’s why they both get on so well they both hated high school had same personality.

[niko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, this book seemed like fanfiction written by one of their fans. They said the book was based off of true events that happened to them back in 2019, but I feel it's hard to believe something like that actually happened to them. I was also expecting something more along the lines like their videos to happen throughout the book.

The ending was also very strange when they're in the basement and about to be sacrificed. I honestly highly doubt that something like that happened to them, along with Trey being possessed to think there really was a Dark Man that would have given them gifts if he and Georgia had killed the five of them.

Honestly I just wasn't a fan of the ending. Like I said, I don't believe something like that really happened to them, so therefore this book just seems like fanfiction. I give it two stars. Will I read the book again and change my rating? Who knows? Looks like we shall just wait to see what happens.

[Darcy Blake · Rating 1 out of 5]

*sees a heart get carved out"
Colby: anyways...

[Loes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extreme bbq met thema vibes

[mello · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love sam and colbys youtube videos but idk...it was okay but I also haven't read anything from that kind of genre yet, so I might have to get used to it more!

[Viktoria Mikoova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Sam and Colby story

Great Sam and Colby story. Full of action an suspense. Loved it. I don't care if it was real or not it's a great story if you love Sam and Colby

[Milly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d love to know if this book is actually a true story or just inspiration from a trip they had.

The way they nearly got sacrificed in a ritual is crazy man and the human bone made stuff throughout the house? And the drugged everything? Food? Incense? Crazy.

Love Sam and Colby and of course I have watched basically all their YouTube videos and now their book. I thought at first it would be a true story about maybe a haunted house or something? But kinda went unbelievable at the end with all the cult and drugging and nearly being m*rdered stuff.

I didn’t know about the book originally until I saw them talk about it then bought it through work. Best decision ever. Will keep watching their videos, real or fake. Love them sm.

<3

4/5

Edit: Found out the last half is fictionalised in a YouTube video :)

[Leah Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read as a Sam and Colby fan! Loved that the commentary felt just like watching one of their videos. Now I want to hear the real story.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING! LIKE IM FR! HANDS DOWN AMAZING!!! I really love how detailed they were in the book, especially since each chapter was a POV of Sam and Colby. The vibes that the book gave me were the same vibes i got when i would watch their paranormal videos. I really loved this book <333

[_omgtori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I was actually really shocked that I enjoyed this book because the only reason I got it was for Sam and Colby. But OHMYGOSH, it was actually really good. It has a slow start, but when it picks up, it is really creepy and interesting

[Kayla Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay… I wanted this book because I’m a fan of both Sam and Colby. It’s a good book don’t get me wrong I was so invested into the storyline and loved that they came out with something other than a YouTube video and put it on paper.

[Zac · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fucking book!

[Eliza Burley · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first mystery/thriller/haunted book and I liked it! A story about 2 of my favorite YouTubers and it felt so real. I would recommend if you want a scary/haunted reading or if you like to watch Sam and Colby videos:)

[paureads . · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this!! Even more fun to read at night

[aubrey&#x1f3a7;&#x1fae7;&#x1f9f8;&#x1f48c; · Rating 5 out of 5]

i LOVED this book! im a huge fan of sam and colby and ive read this book last year but i was bored and started reading it again.

[Talesreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the ending. I didn’t expect that. LOL.

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books ever read it so quick that it was crazy ( read it along time ago but I just got this app so yea...)

[Haylee Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was stipid and i only read it because im fans of S&C! But the end of the book still has my mouth wide open!! And i cried!

[brie · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK IS SOO GOOD OMG! i could not put it down!!

[Lillie m · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it it’s was intense and sad and wholesome at all the right moments

[wh0tfislisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

leck meine Eier das war brutal junge

[Liana Marie ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Sam and colby and this bok was really interesting and funny. I really recommend

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book some much. I am not the person who likes to read but I read the whole book. Sam and Colby kept the book intresting the whole time.

[Ellie-Mae Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was what I expected and more. The story that it tells is one of a kind and is based on a vacation they had in 2019.

[Sherri Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope they write another!!!