When a family get the chance to visit an island to see some wildlife in Australia they jump at the chance but when tragedy strikes can they all get out alive?

Well this was a great read - set in the Australian summer on a creepy island with deranged killers - what more can you want! I thought this was written very well and very twisty with great characters. I just wanted to read more and more. This was quite violent in places and gorey but I felt like it added a lot to the story. I struggled to put this down and had to know what was going to happen. This was my first book by this author and I’ll definitely read some more.

In my opinion...average! Fiction books quite commonly include elements where the author pushes the realms of believability...this was a few steps too far in that direction. A lot of people seem to.like it, so please don't just take my word...but this wasn't for me. Many thanks to Netgalley.co.uk for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Starts out innocently enough but soon becomes dark and dangerous.
Keen to please her new step children the family embark on an exploration of the Australian outback, wishing to see Koalas they take up the kind offer of strangers........big mistake. How far are you prepared to go to see your family survive and will you all come back

I went to go read this one but just decided that I'm no longer interested in reading this one. Maybe it's just because I've been struggling with thrillers lately? This might be one I change my mind on but as of right now I have no motivation to pick this one up.

So sorry!!

This book was TENSE lol. Tense would actually be an understatement. Rarely does a thriller actually put me on age but I loved this. Thankyou for the ARC! Will definitely be recommending to people!

OMG this book was part horror/part survival and to be honest, my heart rate was sky high the whole time 😨😅 It was also ridiculous as I couldn’t understand why these characters would even go to this terrifying island 🤣 Oh yeah, to see some koalas. Obvs.
I enjoyed the suspense and thriller side to this, as it was really wild 🤪 The fast pace was insane, it’s a proper page turner and it was exciting. Until it got too much. I was thinking “just take a breather please people. I can’t cope. THIS IS RELENTLESS” 😅😂 Heather was quite the kick ass character, but overall I found most of them either annoying, horrifying or unbelievable. The ending was so rushed. I turned the last page and was like “is that it? IS THAT IT?” 🤣

Would I have gone to a creepy island to look for some koalas? 🐨 Hells no. They may be cute but I don’t want to die. #TheIsland did read like a movie so maybe this would be a good adaptation. It has that terrifying feel to it so it may work.

McKinty is always nail-biting and this was no different - professional, and everything does its job from characterisations to set ups for thrilling plot twists, and unsuspected relationships and outcomes. I suppose some of what irked me is the underlying convention that maybe women cannot hack survival, and that it needs a woman to take care of kids. (Like what if it were Tom, the husband, who had to escape with the kids, and it was their new mother isolated…) - but anyway, despite that, and a vague sense of how unpleasant everyone seemed, and their bad and bloody decision! I raced through it all. McKinty always knows what he’s doing as deft author - and this is another achieved thrill for readers.

This is as creepy and horrifying as the previous book by this author. It’s a real talent, I have been completely pulled in, unable to predict and unwilling to put this one down.

This Is a fast paced gripping read. Heather is married to Tom, she is much younger than he is and has lived a fairly sheltered life growing up in a commune, she had decided to leave her family to see a bit of the world. She is a massage therapist, she met Tom through her job. Tom was a widower with two teenage children, his first wife had died a year earlier after falling down the stairs. The youngest child Owen was difficult to manage he has ADHD and is on medication for it, Olivia is 14 and is very close to her brother, neither of them seem to like Heather much.

Tom is an orthopaedic surgeon dealing mainly with knee replacements. He is invited to Australia to a conference, the children persuade him that they should all go. For Heather this is a trip in a lifetime as she has never been anywhere. Initially all is well, but Owen and Olivia want to see some Koala’s and Kangaroos. Over hearing this they end up visiting Dutch Island the only condition is they only stay 45 minutes then get the ferry back, along with them in another vehicle is a Dutch couple. But when driving back to the ferry something happens, something that once done cannot be undone. From there the drama really starts as the family that live on the island want revenge and will go to any length to get it.

The tension really goes up a notch at a time as Heather parted from Tom has to keep the children safe, she is better at survival more than she would ever had believed. I got the feeling Tom married Heather for someone to look after the children. He was always a little off with her if she mentioned where she grew up. I read this in one sitting, completely engrossed in the story, the tension just keeps ratcheting up. 6 people went on the island but how many will come back?

Thank you to #netgalley for an eARC of this and the publishers in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

I enjoyed this book, it was easy to read and held my attention. I will be reading more from this author :)

Never visit a foreign country on holiday, kill someone with your car and try to cover it up. Not a good idea. Especially on a remote island run by a “clan-type” family.
This is what newly wed Heather, her new husband Tom and his kids attempted to do until it all went horribly wrong.
After being held hostage by the islanders Heather and the kids escape and are separated from Tom. She enters into a race to evade capture, destroy her enemies and escape from the island.
The hunters try everything to recapture Heather and the kids but Heather has survival skills no one ever imagined. Lots of fast paced twists and turns and I loved how Heather managed to outsmart her hunters at every turn. A very enjoyable book.

Quite an exciting story. On a visit to Australia, where her husband is attending a seminar, Heather decides to take her 2 stepchildren on a visit to an island . This is the last day of the holiday season and she intends to catch the last ferry back. After she is involved in a road accident she misses the ferry and finds they are trapped on the island, possibly for some months but finds out they are not alone as there is a feral family who live there all year. Unfortunately the accident involved one of them and after finding the damaged hire car set out to hunt Heather and her family down. They manage to hide and get some food and drink by breaking into a closed hostel, but the others are getting closer and there are many difficulties until their hoped for rescue .

Heather is in her twenties and has been married to Tom for about a year. He’s twenty years older than her and has two kids who are struggling with the death of their mother, and aren’t a fan of Heather.

In an effort to bring the family closer together, they join Tom at a medical conference in Australia. They meet some shady characters who live on a private island and promise that the children can see wildlife up close and get amazing photos. Once they’re on the island, there’s a terrible accident, and their idyllic time in Australia goes very wrong.

The plot reminded me a bit of a film, where the family are trying to hide from the crazy islanders who are hunting them down.

I didn’t warm to any of the characters really, but I felt there was some character development in Heather and the children. Heather changes from this meek, people pleasing “trophy wife” to an independent, risk taker who’ll do what it takes to save the children. Inevitably, they develop a strong bond.

The story was quite readable, with nice short chapters. Despite not really liking any of the characters, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The residents on the island are unpredictable and a bit unhinged, so this gave the book some suspense.
If you are squeamish, you might want to skip past the gruesome descriptions of bodies and injuries.

There was quite a major plot point I had guessed early on, which was a bit disappointing. I found the end really abrupt and unsatisfying, after all the build up, I had expected a more climactic finish.

This is quite a quick read but the ending let it down for me. It was also a little predictable at times.

2.5 rounded to 3.

Thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for a copy to review.

McKinty’s latest triumph ‘The Island,’ is the thriller we all were waiting for. Thriving off contemporary suburban fears, (much like Horror Writer Stephen King likes to), McKinty dares to answer our deep-anxiety-riddled question of …what if? What if everything went wrong? What if we were stranded? What if our phones didn’t work? What if someone died?....

IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE A FAMILY VACATION.

A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT CHANGED EVERYTHING.

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE CAPABLE OF UNTIL THEY COME FOR YOUR FAMILY.

Heather is only in her twenties, and has recently married an older man, Tom. His wife died a year ago, so it a bit soon for the union, according his neurotic teenage children Olivia and Owen. Tom decides it’s time for a family holiday, to bond and let his children come around to the idea of Heather. When an opportunity to present at a conference in Australia comes up, he takes the chance, deciding to take the entire family with him. But it doesn’t go to plan.

Toms’ teenage children do not treat Heather very kindly and spend a lot of the trip whining about various things. Including not seeing enough wild animals. That is until they meet Jacko and Matt…

“We’re from across the bay there – private island – and there’s koalas bloody everywhere. And wallabies, echidnas, wombats – it’s like Jurassic bloody Park, mate,’ Jacko said.

Their discussions about their private island and bold statement of ‘no visitors allowed,’ leads to discussions of money, with Tom fishing out his wallet… no one could have predicted what would happen next.

“She’s the monster. The bunyip. She’ll destroy us unless we destroy her.”

The novel has a momentum that I have never experienced, gripping you in a ridged vice that you cannot escape. As the story progresses from friendly family holiday to fiendish family horror story, you become more and more engrossed, unable to put the book down or leave the next page unturned.

As the story turns nasty, pangs of familiarity arise. Echoes from previous horrors leak into your mind, such as Australian horror movie ‘Wolf Creek,’ ghoulishly disturbing ‘I Spit on Your Grave,’ or the Rob Zombie 2003 American black comedy horror ‘House of 1000 Corpses,’ the never-ending battle of perennial torment, chase and attack of this novel feel just as familiar as they do terrifying.

“Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an American”

Ignoring the horror and terror, there is some lovely historical context mixed into the narrative, and cute mythological mentions – such as the creature bunyip – there is also talk of the aboriginal history of the island as well as various topographical history.

“The federal government had a prison just down the road here from the 1910s to the 1980s. They paid us rent and we sort of live off the remains of that cash. They tried to run it as a tourist attraction after it closed, but Ma put a stop to all that”

McKinty makes apt sneaky nods at other authors work, most notably of ‘Waiting for the Barbarians,’ by South African writer J.M. Coetzee. The joke in the title of Coetzee's novel being quite a morbid one, pointing out that the problematic name of ‘barbarian,’ is a constructed falsity built into colonial discourse. The joke in McKinty’s text suggesting that it isn’t race or culture that makes you barbaric, it is your behaviour.

“It was night, and the barbarians were coming”

This novel should have a warning brandished on the title page, stating that ‘your heart will pound for Heather, your blood will boil for Owen and Olivia, and you will gasp and gasp at Tom.’ A thoroughly enjoyable read that I have recommended to nearly all of my friends who are going on holiday. I am excited to read more of McKinty’s work and hope to see more thrillers written by him flying off the shelves.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher & Adrian for the ARC.

A fast paced thriller, difficult to tear yourself away from. Well written and expertly crafted.

‘Deliverance’ meets ‘Castaway’ with a sprinkle of ‘The Hills have eyes’.

Fast paced ‘switch your brain off’ novel.

This book managed to deliver some totally bananas scenarios whilst also dwelling over small movements and an almost halted pace, in other areas. I felt on unsure footing with it and although it remained, overall, a solid thriller some disconnect had formed between myself and the characters and unfurling events.

Wow. Another stunning page turner from the author of the equally stunning The Chain. A guaranteed page turner that you’ll devour in one sitting.

I should have read this book sooner. A good and interesting read. Well written. I am sure that the book will be successful and enjoyed by many.

A thriller with a difference. You would do anything to protect the family, right?
A famiky holiday in Australia goes horribly wrong when Tom, his new wife Heather and his two childrenset off to see typical Australian wildlife. Bored they accept an offer to go to Devil's Island but once on the ferry they start to have doudts. A tragic accident sets them on a journey of survival. Heather must get herself and the two children off the island but a game of cat and mouse between her and the local family mean that she has to use all her wits, can she get them off the Island?