I chose this thinking it would be more of a murder mystery. It wasn't. It's more of a survival story, with the extensive descriptions of foraging, building, food preparation, water filtering, latrines (toilets), etc rather repetive and tedious at times. Sadly there's also more of that than the characters themselves. Other than main character, Maddie, we don't get know any of the other seven characters (or reality TV contestants) - their backgrounds, their motives or even really their personalities. Therefore, it's hard to understand how things escalate so quickly from such trivialities and hard to care about anyone's fate - including Maddie as whilst we know her more sadly she's just not that likeable. That said it was still a compelling read until the last third where things got a bit weird to say the least.

Sarah Goodwin's Stranded is an intense, suspenseful psychological thriller, but go in blind and you'll be thoroughly rewarded! It’s described as 'unputdownable' and for me, it certainly was as it had me reading late into the night. In this tale about a social experiment that goes south, Set on Buidseach Island off the west coast of Scotland, Maddy, a former botanist is the sole narrator which brings into question how reliable she is. The palpable sense of foreboding and the fever-pitch tension meant this was a real treat and a gem of a tale. With Sarah Goodwin's perfect crafting and deft hand, Stranded is one of my best reads of 2021.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Avon Books UK via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅
𝘉𝘺: @sarahgoodwin
𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦: #thriller #mystery #suspense
𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳: @avon
𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘖𝘯: Sept. 15th 2021
@goodreads 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘦: 4.38
𝘔𝘺 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘦: 🏝️ 🏝️ 🏝️ 🏝️ 🏝️ / 5 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴

Thank you @netgalley and @avon for this gifted E-ARC for my reading and reviewing pleasure.

🄿🅁🄴🄼🄸🅂🄴

There's eight strangers on one island. A beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, where they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.

Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She’s desperate to explain what happened to her: how the group fractured and friends became enemies; how they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come…

🄼🅈 🅃🄷🄾🅄🄶🄷🅃🅂

This was my first book from author Sarah Goodwin and I can tell you it will not be my last. I cannot tell you how creatively brilliant this novel was. It surely is a gripping page-turner about secrets, lies and survival at all costs. It's very twisty and just incredible. I really hope it becomes a movie and more so I hope they do it right and get the right people to play the right people.

I always say this, when it comes to a perfect novel that I believe has brilliant potential to becoming a movie they MUST GET EVERYTHING RIGHT. Haha because if they don't it's just sad and disappointing. I'll give you an example. I know this is a review for this wonderful amazing book. But the movie thing is still apart in it.

So, my example is "The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn. PERFECT ASS NOVEL, right? And what happened with the movie? It was FANFREAKINTASTIC! IT WAS PERFECT! Perfect cast, perfect house setting, perfect lines, they took all the good parts from the novel. It was LIT! Is that what the kids are saying these days? LOL, IDK…all in all. If "Stranded" gets made into a movie I just hope they, do it right!

@sarahgoodwin fantastic job I can't wait to read more from you!
"The clearing itself was littered with bones. They looked to be rabbit but some were a lot smaller - rat or something similar. It looked like the others had eaten and just dropped the bones when they were done." Sarah Goodwin, 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅

“Stranded” by Sarah Goodwin is an intense, suspenseful psychological thriller. But do yourself a favor and do no read the blurb as it basically gives everything away.

Eight people and two cameramen are taken to a remote, uninhabited island off of Scotland. They’re there to recreate civilization for a reality survival show.

It’s advertised as “unputdownable” and I have to say I agree with that statement. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a fun read but it’s gripping and interesting and I literally had to finish after I got to about the 30% mark. There are plot twists that I never saw coming and I had to know what was going to happen. I was absorbed by the way these people dealt with their humanity when there are no rules and no consequences.

I highly recommend this to fans of psychological thrillers as this is terrific.

I received an ARC from Avon Books UK via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Believe the Hype!

Stranded is a tension-packed read about a social experiment gone awry.

Maddy, a former botanist, is desperate for a change. Unable to deal with the grief stemming from the loss of her parents, she is eager to earn a spot on a new reality show taking place on a deserted island. This is not a competition-based reality show, a la Survivor, but rather a study on what happens when a group of 8 strangers become stranded on a remote island off of the coast of Scotland. What seems like a challenging experiment becomes a life or death situation. Only the strong will survive.

Narrated solely by Maddy, it was a little exhausting spending time in her head. I was constantly questioning her reliability and also wondering what was really happening. I would have loved to have the perspective of other characters, but at the same time, I can appreciate the tension and drama that stemmed from Maddy’s narration.

Every chapter ends with a sense of foreboding. Maddy’s narration could have been a bit more subtle, which would have added another layer to the events, but this is just a small criticism.

Stranded is a page-turner. It’s a fascinating journey into the mindset of being in survival mode. The last 20% had my heart pounding, and my nerves almost got the best of me. I don’t think I would last a day on Buidseach Island.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for an honest review.

A devilish-ly good “locked-door” mystery / psychological thriller of survival. Stranded takes place on a remote island, where eight strangers are chosen to live for one year, completely sustainable, as contestants on a reality tv show.

After arriving on Buidseach Island, our heroine Maddy is fairly early-on, singled out, and later ousted by the hate-filled mob of contestants. Completely on her own, she moves back into the makeshift beach teepee, must forage for food, then try to keep the others from stealing it when away. When their boat home fails to show, everything turns for the worse. The others then turn on each other. I loved the slow build of tension and strain on each contestant the longer they remained on the island. I worried for Maddy as to what the others would do to her if she were found.

Eight were chosen — only three return. Told by Maddy in past and present, after her ordeal Maddy is interviewed telling her story, warts and all, of what really went down on the island.

This put me in mind of Lord of the Flies. It’s just as creepy and frightening, with characters being unpredictable and savage. I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out, but I got all the answers to my questions by the end. Is a slow-burn but well worth it. Enjoyed it, a fun read.

Thanks so much to Avon Books UK via NetGalley for kindly providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have a bit of a penchant for thrillers set in remote areas where there is literally no escape and where even natural elements seem to be against the protagonist. This book ticks all of those boxes and I’m not surprised that I couldn’t put it down.

Maddy is desperate to escape her tiny life, where there is nothing left for her. So a chance to appear as one of eight participants in a televised experiment recreating the end of the world on the isolated Buidseach Island, seems like the perfect opportunity to disappear for a year. Almost two years later, a woman is desperate to tell her story of what really happened on Buidseach Island and how five of the people who were dropped off there never made it back.

Maddy’s parents have recently died suddenly and although she is an adult, she has no one else in her life to turn to. She literally has nothing to lose by running away to a desert island for an entire year and I wonder if a part of her was hoping to make friends and take her life in a much needed, brand new direction. However, it seemed to me that Maddy was trying to run away from herself which I know just simply isn’t possible. You’re always with you, no matter how much physical distance between you and your problems.

Maddy is quite possibly on the autism spectrum but it’s obvious that her upbringing hasn’t helped her to learn how to successfully navigate the adult world. Her parents seem to have stifled her by keeping her incredibly close and as a result, now that they’ve gone, she not only has no one but has zero tools or lifelines to hold on to. I loved how Goodwin shows the reader exactly why Maddy is the way that she is and through her own eyes -we learn the effects of her past as she does.

Buidseach has many suspicions and folklore surrounding it and we find this out very early on. If you didn’t know that this was a thriller already, the strong foreshadowing before they’ve even arrived will let you know the kind of content that is about to come! I wasn’t entirely sure how the witch myth would come into it but I loved how it did because I would never have expected that crazy but fantastic flex.

The tensions between the group start to show quite early on and there wasn’t really enough time for any firm friendships to form. The obnoxious, self-appointed ‘leader’ Duncan is quite frankly terrifying and he seems to be able to get most of the group on his side, leaving Maddy to become an outsider because she immediately sees through the hypocrisy and unfairness. Although Zoe appears to be somewhat of an ally, they don’t have a solid foundation for anything meaningful to grow so Maddy becomes more and more dependent on herself. I suppose this mirrors what life would have been like for her in civilisation too and perhaps in some ways, being forced to fend for herself in an extreme situation is what she needs.

We get sections of Maddy’s pre-interview with the show’s producer Sasha. Maddy is very good at masking and presenting herself as someone ‘normal’, which is probably something that a lot of neurodivergent people do. I think I knew that in the basic, stripped back, extreme circumstances that Buidseach Island offered, she would struggle to keep those pretences up and that the true Maddy would come out. Therefore, I was a little worried that she would be singled out as ‘weird’ by the others and punished for that.

I won’t talk too much about what actually happens because it is a thriller and there are plenty of twists that I won’t spoil. However, there is some really dramatic, intense chase scenes that had my heart in my mouth. Goodwin captured the feeling of being hunted so well and it was terrifying. I ran every step with Maddy and I could almost hear her heart pounding in my ears and the unbelievable fear coupled with determination to live flooded my mind. It was one of the most visceral, pulse-racing reading experiences I’ve had in a long time -a real adrenalin rush.

Stranded is an addictive, horrifying, graphic thriller that often makes you feel like there’s no escape. The final unraveling was deliciously fantastic and although I didn’t see it coming, I felt like I should have done. It combines the best elements of Lord of the Flies and Lucy Clarke’s The Castaways while still being thoroughly unique through its protagonist and endless feeling of fear in this epic rollercoaster of a survival thriller.

Absolutely breathtaking and brilliant, one of the best books I've read in a long time.

The suspense just amped and amped and the conclusion was stunningly perfect and brilliant.

I cannot recommend getting your hands on this highly enough.

5 BRILLIANT STARS.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was based on a reality survivor type tv show where the contestants were stranded on a Scottish island for 11 months.

The story was told from the main characters point of view. There was sneakiness, gossiping, backstabbing, violence and suspense.

The author did a great job of setting the scene and creating an atmosphere that at times I felt like I’d been holding my breath.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #AvonBooksUK for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

#Stranded #SarahGoodwin

This was a surprisingly good read, I read it all in one night urged on by the short chapters and the high intensity. Although there were issues, this book was a fun ride.

Talk about a page-turner! <b>Stranded</b> kept me up late at night reading because I just couldn't stop. Sarah Goodwin knocked it out of the park with this debut!

8 people are chosen to spend a year on a remote island off Scotland's coast for an end of the world type reality show. The story is told from only one perspective, Maddy's. She is a botanist, was raised by somewhat oppressive parents, doesn't have many friends, lives a mundane life, and just wanted to escape it for a while which is why she decided to sign up.

This is an immersive and atmospheric read. You truly get to see and feel everything through Maddy's experiences on the island. By no means am I an outdoorsy camping type, but I found the day to day descriptions of life on the island fascinating and not at all tedious. With Maddy's growing mistrust of the group, the tension continually builds until it is almost unbearable. I found my heart pounding and caught myself holding my breath many times while reading. The anger and frustration that I felt towards some of the characters was palpable. My only minor critique is that the ending felt rushed to me. I remember being at the 90% mark thinking, "how is this going to wrap up with only 10% to go?". Bottom line, I really loved this book and look forward to reading Ms. Goodwin's next story. 4.5 stars rounded up because it was just so good!

I didn't read the synopsis before reading the book, I chose it based on the recommendations of a few GR friends. Sometimes less is more and this is one of those times when the synopsis definitely gives too much information.

Many thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eight strangers have to live together in a deserted island for a year with minimum resources as part of reality show. Two cameramen will be in the island also though they will live in separate portacabin and won't mingle with the participants. Eight strangers need to survive to build a community, forage for food, build a shelter; but things didn't go smoothly.
The narrator on this book is Maddy, one of the participants, who is a botanist and has knowledge of foraging plants for food. You will like Maddy and feel sorry for her being bullied by other participants. I personally hate all the other participants, especially Duncan 🙄, however while I'm reading this, I'm questioning myself too how far I could trust Maddy.
How could Maddy survive and out from the island alive?
One word for this book : INTENSE 👍

When reality TV goes bad

Bwa ha ha

I enjoyed this one. Dual time line, plenty of mystery and one heck of a fun ride

Wow! I don’t give out 5 star reviews lightly but this suspenseful survival story by Sarah Goodwin is excellent. I was intrigued by the idea of 7 strangers being dropped off on a deserted island for a year and left to survive on their own wits. The main character is a young woman named Maddy and it is through her voice that we learn of the disfunction and dynamics of this group. The suspense was high and the book was totally absorbing and unputdownable.
Of course nothing went smoothly and personalities and bad behavior made this journey dangerous and deadly. What was supposed to be a reality TV show did not happen as planned. I loved this author’s writing style and I look forward to reading more of her books.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher, Avon Books UK, for the opportunity to read this book.

Loved it!!! It reminded me of Naked and Afraid but with clothes or Survivor with all the mean and manipulative contestants. Plus there's not a $1 Million dollars at the end or all the rewards that the Survivor contestants get. What did the eight people get out of this besides being on TV? It's pretty much "Lord of the Flies" with adults who should no better. This is one reality show I would never have participated in, I would watch it on TV but would never want to be on it. I think the producers chose people who were completely unstable, most likely to kill someone for food and extremely manipulative. People who will make great TV. Poor Maddy. She was pretty much thrown to the wolves. I'm surprised the people lasted as long as they did. Most of them were lazy and did nothing to find food. I'm pretty sure Maddy would have been able to survive on the island by herself. I wasn't sure who was behind everything and was suspicious of everyone. It could have been anyone of them. They were all crazy and capable of murder. Loved the ending. Definitely shocked and surprised. Maddy was stronger than she thought and one smart cookie. The community probably would have prospered if they actually listened to her.

Definitely recommend the book. It's a great mystery/thrilled. Enjoyed the story, characters and writing style. I was hooked from the start and couldn't wait to find out what happened. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Avon Books UK through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from Avon Books UK through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a great thriller, albeit a fairly long audiobook.
The audiobook was narrated by Esme Sears, who performed a strong narration but sadlyat all, I did feel my attention wandering on several occasions. I have had a difficult week personally which has not helped my concentration levels at all, but I do love a thriller that can hold my attention no matter what, and one I can truly escape from reality into.
The characters were many, and at times a little difficult to keep track of.
It was a great premise and executed well, I would recommend it to thriller readers.

I’ve always loved a touch of reality television, just a bit – well only, Survivor. Amongst the cut and thrust of our everyday lives – there’s always time for cranial evacuation by watching a dash of other people arguing, conniving, scheming and faux suffering.

Well, Stranded by debut author Sarah Goodwin, is a cracking good story about a reality television series on STEROIDS – this group of likely Survivors are thrown onto a remote Scottish Island with meagre supplies, body cams and a period of around a year to survive.

Goodwin hurls the usual types of characters you’d expect at us – the aggressive alpha male, the followers, the meek and mild, the lazy middle-aged dude, the middle-aged mum – you get it. But the one we get to learn the most about is Maddy as she is the narrator. This is a wonderfully paced story where the reader will know it’s all going to hell, but this reader didn’t quite know how and was so invested in (a) the narrator and (b) the cast of characters he found it utterly riveting.

One theme that resonated with me in this one was ostracisation. The feeling of being left out, picked on bullied by the group. The depiction of this was visceral, it was a little upsetting and frustrating in parts. There was violence, gossiping, peer group nonsense all done in a way that wasn’t silly, stupid or too thickly laid on.

A very engaging, interesting story that had me to the very end – an ending, by the way, that was excellent. This is a real tidy piece of work.

4 Stars

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Great plot, strong characters, well written and a lot of twists and turns to hold your attention to the end. A great read that I would recommend!

Maddy feels alone and unhappy about her life after her parents died in an accident she blamed herself for. She then signs up for a Survivor reality show on a sort of island with 7 other participants. Where they will live on the island for a year.

It starts with a couple of disagreements over how to manage the camp becomes something far worse. The group leader, Duncan, hates Maddy for whatever reason and opposes her for anything. And the rest of them would follow everything that Duncan said and do, reasoning, might be that they're afraid of being hated and driven out of the rest.

Every day they would take turns cooking, hunting rabbits, cutting wood, picking mushrooms, seaweed, shells to survive. The day they are expected to finish their show and leave the island, no boat comes to fetch them. They waited a day, a week, and then for months, nobody picked them up and then they found the cameraman dead. Maddy is accused of having poisoned the cameraman and is forced to live on her own in a cave she found and to hide from others.

Maddy got to struggle and learn to survive on her own without much food and water. She can't let them find her and would destroy or take everything from her again and again. When Maddy had a chance to get out of the cave, she soon learned that there was no one on the island except herself. They might have already been saved? Will someone come to rescue Maddy? Is Maddy going to survive being the last one on the island?

I enjoyed Stranded very much. I admire Maddy's mental strength to be able to fight for her rights and survive on the isolated island with minimal supplies. I got hooked from the very beginning. Maddy's character draws me in very quickly. I like the story, however, I would like more thriller or plot, unfortunately for me, the whole story is very smooth that I would expect more especially at the end. But overall, I liked it.

Thank you Netgalley and AvonBooks for this ARC.

Maddie has always been a loner. Home-schooled, smothered by her parents she struggled to make a life for herself but when her parents are killed she needs something to shake her out of her rut. She applies to be part of a reality TV show where eight people are left on an isolated Scottish island with limited resources for a year. Equipped with body cameras & with two engineers secreted away to deal with the footage the adventure begins. In the manner of these shows, the people are chosen not to get along, but to make good viewing. Maddie may be quiet but she is not afraid to stick up for herself. Apart from the action on the island there are excerpts from Maddie's audition & her interview when, eighteen months after they arrived on the island she turns up alone on the mainland.

We know she survives but HOW she survives is another matter altogether & it kept me glued to the page. This was an amazing read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this gripping book.