Book Review: The Island | Adrian McKinty

More survival thriller than psychological thriller—Adrian McKinty’s The Island explores the aftermath of an accidental murder in a remote island where law and order are dictated solely by family who inhabits the island.

About the Book

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.

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

Reflection

It took me a bit to write this review because to be honest I had to think through my thoughts on it. Heather, 24, marries Tom, 44, the same year his first wife passed away. Heather is scraping by as a massage therapist while Tom is a wealthy, widowed doctor with two kids (who hate Heather). Based on the set-up alone, Heather is hard to root for until past the halfway point of the book. She doesn’t really want to be a step mom and she gets (in my opinion, understandably) frustrated with the kids. The kids should be characters that you want the best for, but they are bratty and spoiled. Their grief that I was waiting to emerge doesn’t really happen until the last third of the book.

Tom is a bit of a mysterious figure in the book. He seems to love his kids and Heather, but it makes you wonder how he seemingly moved on so quickly after the death of his first wife. Mysterious, right?

While on a work trip, Tom has brought Heather and his kids along to Australia for some family time. They decide to take a trip to see some animals, and pay a local with a boat to take them somewhere “less touristy”. While on this island off the short of Australia, Tom accidentally hits a local girl riding a bicycle. In a split second decision, they decide to hide the body so they can depart the island and report it, having already gotten a bad vibe for the local family who inhabits the island. Over the years this family has created a law amongst themselves.

Of course, you can imagine this is the exact wrong thing to do. The family learns of the murder and what follows is a race to survive on the island and escape the family who they wronged. Heather finds herself doing everything she can to save two children who don’t like her, but whom she feels the need to protect. Naturally, even she considers just saving herself at times, which is realistic but didn’t do her any favors as a character.

One challenge with the book is that the author seemed to be trying to make a point about tourists who come in and go for the “local experience while largely disrespecting it and expecting a sanitized version more similar to what might be found in a zoo. In this instance, you can imagine Heather, Tom, and the kids being almost the villains in the story (and in a way, they are). The problem is the locals on the island are somehow even more abhorrent. I wanted to support them because I understood how it might feel to have these wealthy western tourists come in and murder one of your own and try to leave without taking accountability. But the local family is full of murderers, rapists, and all-around despicable people.

All of that said, the book is one that is compelling in the pace. The main story takes place over several days on the island where the inhabitants are chasing Heather, Tom, and the kids. As the book goes on I did grow to care a bit more about the main characters in a way the first 60% of the book didn’t manage to accomplish.

There are a few twists along the way that kept me interested, though fell partly flat in the broader meaning of them. I don’t want to say much more about those because they really are best left as a surprise.

This was a book club read and we were a bit mixed. Some were more with me, while others found this to be a gripping survival thriller that hooked them to the last page. It has made a few best thriller lists so I encourage readers to give it a shot!

I was left thinking the author was talented but this book was probably not for me.