Seven Students Stranded on an Island // ARC Review: The Island by M.A. Bennett

Publisher: Hot Key Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2018
Genre: YA Fiction
Buy Links: Kinokuniya Malaysia
Rating:
Source: Huge thanks to Pansing for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others . . .

When a school summer trip is offered, Link can think of nothing worse than spending voluntary time with his worst tormentors. But when his parents say he can only leave Osney School - forever - if he goes on the trip, Link decides to endure it for the ultimate prize. But this particular trip will require a very special sort of endurance. The saying goes 'No man is an island' - but what if on that island is a group of teenagers, none of whom particularly like each other? When oppressive heat, hunger and thirst start to bite, everyone's true colours will be revealed. Let the battle commence . . .

From the acclaimed author of S.T.A.G.S. 

I'm not even sure how to begin my review of this book. No, don't get me wrong. Not that I don't like it at all. So, hear me out what I thought about this book. I guess I put high expectation on this book and this is what happened to me.

It's all started with Lincoln (or Link) who is American who lives in England with his family and start at The Osney School. He parents want him to prepare for university admission and want him to socialize with friends from school. However, he has been bullied by the kids from the school throughout 3 years his been a student there. It gave him bitter and bad memories of the school and the people. Then, he goes to a summer camp with his schoolmate. The people who bullied him also go to the summer camp. That's when the plane crash on an unknown island with others 7 students stranded on the island.

First, the premise of The Island is amazing and I am super excited to dive in with this book. Stranded on an island? Hands down, I'm on it. It's like from the movie Cast Away meet Robinson Crusoe. So, when I read the synopsis it gave me all this excitement and I pretty much put high expectation on The Island. Somehow, it came off meh for me. The story starts slow until Disc Three that when they all stranded on The Island and it gets my full attention until the end of the chapter as I need to know what happens to all of them.

This my first reading a book written by M.A. Bennett and this is the second book from her after S.T.A.G.S. The Island is well-written with all the important details that we need to know about the book. The plot of the story is great although, the only thing that I'm a bit struggled is that it is quite slow and that's that.

Anyway, let's talk about the main character - Lincoln. I was okay with his character and I hate how he's been treated by the kids from the school like come on, Link doesn't do sport and that's fine but he been bullied because of that. Somehow after he is stranded with the other kids, his character became different. He becomes the most annoying person ever and that's lead to from the scale of 5 of liking him to 0.5. I could not stand him.

All in all, I liked the book despite the things I mention. However, I think I'd have been putting a high expectation because I could not contain my excitement on this book that leads to this thought. Regardless, I think I'm going to buy the finished copy of The Island and give it a second chance without any expectation and trying to empty my mind before picking up this book again because deep down inside, I know I will love this The Island, it just that I pick it at the wrong time to read and I am looking forward to her next book and before that I'm going to read S.T.A.G.S soon!

If you are a fan of Robinson Crusoe or Cast Away movie, I think you should pick The Island and read it. Who knows, you might be going to love this book more than I am (well, that's for now, maybe, in the future I'm going to love this book).