Book Review
The Island
Olivia Levez
⅖ Stars
Thank you to Oneworld Publications and Netgalley for providing me with a eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. However this will not change my opinion on this book, how I rate the book, or my review.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
“Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.
The Island is a gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didn’t ask to be the person she is but is also determined to make herself the person she wants to be.”
My Review:
For me this book was really hard for me to get into. The beginning was wonderful and It was packed with adventure and a little bit of suspense. I was so excited to read it but about ¼ way through is where I started to struggle. In my opinion I couldn’t connect with the main character Frances very well. She was very angry all the time and it was hard for me to like her. I’ve read a lot of survival stories but this story was just different from the rest of them, not a bad different, just different. I also found the story a little bit confusing, it was hard for me to follow along. I couldn’t keep track of who was talking, where the setting was, and if it was in the past or present. The style of writing was very unique and I have never really seen it in a book before.
The book switched between Francis in the past and the present. That was the part I found confusing, I couldn’t tell if Francis was in the past or the present. The writing was very descriptive which was great and it did help me figure out if it was in the past or the present some of the time.
I gave this book two stars for 1) it was packed full of adventure, 2) I did like sections of the book. I docked 3 stars from this book because 1) I couldn’t connect the character, 2) parts of this book were confusing and 3) It was slow some of the tim.
Thank you again to Oneworld Publications and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy. I know plenty of people that loved this book but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. Please do not think that I dislike the author! That is not the case at all! I’m sure she put a lot of time and effort into this book and I respect her very much!