For a long time, I was fascinated with the premise of reality TV shows like Survivor, until I found that they were more about bitching, backstabbing and forming alliances than actual survival skills and team work. Apparently this is what viewers like to see – go figure! If you are like me, and those things bring back all the bad memories about high school and some workplaces, then you may find this book super stressful to read. If you were one of the popular group who ruled the courtyard and inspired fear in the lesser mortals, you may also find it stressful – eventually.

I love how Sarah Goodwin has run with the theme and explored it all in depth. And be assured, bitching, backstabbing and forming alliances aside, there is plenty of survival to be had in STRANDED. It’s all that reality TV promised but never delivered (perhaps because no ethics committee would ever approve it), and despite biting my nails to the quick I appreciated the mounting tension and breath-holding levels of anxiety some of the scenes induced.

In a nutshell, STRANDED explores what happens when you put eight strangers together on a secluded island and let them sort out their own pecking order. If it’s one thing that the TV version of Survivor has shown us, it may not necessarily be the cleverest who win points, but the ones who can get the majority votes, even if they rule with bullying and threats. Maddy, with her history of a sheltered childhood, overprotective parents and home schooling, was never going to be well equipped for this type of power game, so as soon as she calls out the head bully, her fate is sealed. And if you think that someone in the group would stick up for the underdog, then think again – because suddenly Maddy finds herself out in the cold, fighting for survival. And the wilderness is the least of her problems ...

STRANDED was one of those books that totally took me by surprise. I was lured by the wilderness setting and found myself with a gripping, adrenalin-fuelled and tense read that was hard to put down. At times, it was also immensely frustrating as the voice of reason was overruled, time and time again. Even though Maddy was perhaps ill equipped for negotiation and getting her point across, it was easy to see how anyone could easily end up in her position. And once the die was cast, there was no going back. “Wow, that escalated fast”, I kept thinking, not realising that much worse was yet to come.

STRANDED is a book that speaks to both our inner survival instinct as well as addressing the question: “If the world as we knew it ended tomorrow, how well equipped would you be to survive?” It also confronts the theme of herd mentality and how easily we fall for power rather than reason. It’s a LORD OF THE FLIES, adult version, and just as brutal. For those easily triggered, some scenes may turn your stomach and give you nightmares, but then the end-of-the-world scenario isn’t ever going to be pretty either, is it? I loved the background information about all those skills necessary for survival our ancestors knew but most of us have long un-learned: foraging, how to grow a crop in the wilderness, how to build a basic shelter and most of all, how to be part of the natural environment and work with it. It’s a clever, original and heart-pounding story that will keep me mulling over some of its themes for a long time to come.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Eight people are taken to a remote Scottish island to live for a year for a reality TV show. A great premise for an exciting story! The narrator is Maddy, who wants to escape from her unsatisfactory life after the death of her parents. Relationships quickly become fractured and Maddy finds herself an outsider, banished from the group. When the boat that is supposed to return them to the mainland fails to arrive, things get a whole lot worse! This is a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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This is a book where the premise is very familiar to me. Strangers marooned somewhere and left to survive. There are numerous tv shows, and books, of the same genre out there. But this one did not seem so familiar once it really got going.

The question here is what would happen if you were left to survive after an apocalypse? Would everyone get on with each other, would they manage to forage enough to keep themselves alive, and would they all make it through to the end?

All of those questions are answered in a brilliant way as you continue through the pages. I recommend this to anyone who loves survival shows or books.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy.

A captivating and addictive book to read. I literally couldn't put this book down and was hooked right until the last minute. Amazing idea for a reality tv show and although not the first time someone has written about one going wrong, this was really well executed and written. Look forward to reading more by Sarah Goodwin.

I love a locked room mystery so when I came across Stranded I was intrigued. Eight strangers are chosen for a new reality TV show to live and survive on a remote island with limited resources. What could possible go wrong? Eighteen months later a woman turns up in a fishing village asking for help. She’s one of the original eight, where are the others?

This was a pretty interesting book that ticked a lot of boxes for me. An isolated setting, an air of mystery as well as the added bonus of social interactions and human conflicts. A bit like Lord of the Flies. This was a slow burn with mounting tension throughout the book that I really enjoyed. One of those books where you can’t help but picture yourself in a particular scenario and ask “What would I do?” 3.5⭐️

Lord of the Flies - Reality TV Edition. Eight strangers are chosen to survive on an island for one year, but what started out a a co-operative community turns into a nightmare as personalities clash and supplies begin to run out.

This book was impossible for me to put down. I stayed up until the wee hours of the night engrossed in the story. I watched as our group of contestants slowly devolved from civilized people to selfish factions. Goodwin managed to make the story wild but also believable.

A great read, especially if you like survival stories and reality TV drama!

Suspenseful and addictive once the story gets going. Read it in a single sitting. Excellent use of characters and plot to keep the reader hooked.

Oh my gosh! What a brilliant book! I was hooked from the start and found myself unable to put it down. I read it in one afternoon! The characters, the setting and the storyline were all believeable and you quickly find yourself immersed into the story. Thank you for letting me read this.

This is a gripping, twisty page-turner you won’t want to put down.

Eight people arrive on remote Buidseach Island off the coast of Scotland to participate in a realty style TV program. They’ll live there alone for an entire year with only a two-man camera crew who remain in an ‘out of bounds’ area solely in case of emergency. The participants are responsible for everything: food, shelter, latrine—even charging the solar-powered camera they’re supposed to wear everywhere.

It’s billed as a social experiment: How will a few strangers survive if the world as we know it ends?

Eight people means different skill set and different personalities, and some of those personalities are going to clash.

Working relationships deteriorate quickly. Is anyone surprised? In normal life, all it takes is getting cut off in traffic, or being belittled by a coworker for some people to turn savage. In no time, this challenging adventure descends into a Lord of the Flies fight for survival.

Eighteen months later, one single woman shows up in an isolated fishing village, desperate to explain what happened and why so many died on the island.

The author’s skill is in isolating Maddie, her narrator, and generating sympathy for this bookish, home-schooled, socially awkward introvert, while, at the same time, making us distrust her. Maddie is resourceful and has bush foraging skills to admire. The many descriptions of the island is fauna botany were vivid and authentic. I really felt like I was there with Maddy seeing her struggles.

But she also harbors a disturbing paranoia that hints strongly of an unreliable narrator, and that part of the tale keeps us guessing. We feel her growing isolation, anger and fear of the other participants on the island.

Stranded is a gripping debut that kept me on the edge the entire time. Great book with a surprise ending. You’re going to want to read it in one sitting. Look for the release next month.
Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for the opportunity to review it in advance.

I actually enjoyed reading this book! Liked the fact there was a timeline and we read different exerts from the past to the present of the telling of the story. It’s makes want to read to the end to find out what happens at the end.

Maddy is a young woman who has signed up for a survival reality TV show. She, and seven other participants, must survive on a deserted Scottish island. However, it is only eighteen months later that Maddy is found. Now she wants to tell her truth about what really happened on this island.

I had a little trouble getting into the story, but once the protagonists were on the island, I was hooked. I wanted to know what really happened to Maddy and the others.

As I read this book, I had an uneasy feeling growing inside me but only because the characters were detestable and unfortunately so close to reality. I can imagine real human beings behaving like that in similar conditions and that’s where the uneasy feeling came from.

This is Sarah Goodwin’s talent: you read this book as if you were on the island, but from an omniscient point of view, even though Maddy is the narrator.

Most of the time, I can tell how a book is going to end. I couldn’t with this one and I liked it.

Stranded is a really good thriller.

I give it 4/5.

I recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon Books UK and Sarah Goodwin for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What happens when strangers embark on a reality television survival experience? This book dives deep into the daily realities of living on a deserted island, as well as the mental challenges of a group of strangers forced to rely on one another. I’d recommend this book to fans of reality shows, survival books, and thrillers. The writing is atmospheric and packed with escalating tension from beginning to end.

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin

A group of people take part in a social experiment for a TV show . They get taken by boat to a remote Scottish island and have to exist on a few items brought with them and their wits.
Wow ! I cannot say just how much I loved this book. I've read lots of books this year , and this has to be up there with the best of them.
It centres on slight misfit Maddie , but she has the determination to survive.everything that comes her way , and the people who are out to harm her.
I can imagine this book as a film , or even better a TV series.
Excellent does not give it the credit it deserves. READ IT .

Loved this terrifying, pacy thriller set on an isolated island off the coast of scotland. Like a cross between Love Island and Lord of the Flies with a dash of The Beach and Blair Witch, this is a perfect autumn read - but definitely not one for when you're home alone!!!!

Stranded has such a unique plot! The book is dark and twisty from the start and I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen!

Wow ! Wow ! Wow! I definitely lucked out when I was approved for this instant favorite ! Stranded is a thrilling psychological thriller that will pull you in from the first chapter !

Sarah Goodwin is a creative genius and I have become a super fan !

I would highly recommend this book to all thrill/mystery book lovers

Eight strangers get dropped to a remote island for a survival television show. Eighteen months later a woman turns up on the mainland disheveled. What exactly happened on that island?
The writing had me hooked from the very first pages, intriguing and exciting, I finished this in just a day. even though you know the lead character Maddy survives, you are still totally taken into the story and gripped wanting to find out exactly what happened to the other contestants and how Maddy escaped.
Written from Maddy's point of view you really get to know her and get a real feel for her character. and I became really fond of her, both because of her background and her sheer determination to survive.
The story was really well researched and felt so real! This added to the atmosphere and and tension and you really felt like you were on a deserted island and made it all totally believable.
The pace was perfect, slowly building the background to begin , with changing timelines to hint at the action to come, making this a real page turner.
One of my favorite reads of the year so far, atmospheric and exciting, the setting was perfect and the characters so well written that they made this feel like such a menacing situation. I loved the hint at the supernatural this just brought an extra magic, mythical and creepy edge. It truly was a thrilling read.
Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Goodwin and Avon for the copy, I look forward to exploring more by this author.

What an amazing story of survival. Touting the harrowing tale of an ostracized and misunderstand woman and the groups herd mentality that ultimately fell them. The concept was interesting and the setting was easy to imagine as it was rich in detail. The emotion was palatable coming off the pages. Couldn’t get enough. Well done!

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Compelling Suspense…
What happened on the beautiful, remotely situated Buidseach Island? From the very first page the reader is drawn into this chilling, atmospheric and completely compelling suspense and will absolutely need to know. Well constructed read with a solid sense of place and well drawn characters, tense and intriguing.

I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this advanced copy of Stranded, an unbearably tense story of a descent into cruelty and madness. It is a breathtaking, dark, haunting, and claustrophobic story.

As a fan of intense survival shows on TV in hostile environments, such as Alone and Naked and Afraid XL showing danger, hunger, sickness, injury, and group tensions, I thought I would find Stranded a book to keep me riveted to its pages, and I was not disappointed. This book carries the premise of these TV shows to its extreme limit.

Eight participants are dropped off at a remote, uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland to participate in a year-long reality show. They must build a shelter, hunt, fish, and forage for food. There are also 2 cameramen situated at a distance to be approached only in an emergency. Each contestant has a solar-powered camera, and cameras are placed at strategic positions in trees for the 'entertainment' of the viewing public. The four men and four women participants start by dividing up the tasks. This begins to fail due to a self-appointed group leader, selfishness, greed, laziness, and conflicts over how to proceed. They experience violence, shocks, and human behaviour reduced to its darkest element. Rumours and lies abound. It shows how a bully group evolves and chooses its target. Their need to survive causes a breakdown in morality and turns them into savages. When the return boat fails to return at the end of the year, they are stranded. The human drama becomes sinister and terrifying.

Eighteen months later, a dishevelled, haggard woman shows up on a mainland settlement with a gun and asks a homeowner to call the police. The story switches back and forth in time from events on the island to Maddie in the present. She is being interviewed for her TV account of what happened. Is she a reliable narrator? We are told early that of the ten on the island, only three survived, and there is going to be a trial. Who died, and by what means?

Maddie is the story's predominant character. She is introverted, socially awkward, and was home-schooled by her overly protective parents, who discouraged her socializing. She has no friends, and her parents recently died. She is depressed by her lack of personal development and hopes the year's experiences will lead to self-improvement and friends. When she challenges some of the leader's plans, she is considered disruptive, and when not speaking up, she is regarded as timid and weak. Maddie becomes the target of the group's scorn, is bullied, and eventually unjustly exiled. There is a desire of the others to conform to the leader's lies and hostile intent. Maddie is the object of blame for wrongs for which she had no part. Her expertise in identifying edible and poisonous plants is a loss for the group.

Her situation, while exiled by herself, is mainly in a gross, suffocating hiding place. She remains the target of theft and violence by the group. Her suffering and determination to survive are disturbing but mesmerizing.
Recommended to anyone who likes gripping and disturbing survival stories. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.