Lux and her boyfriend, Nico, might be living in paradise but they are far from living the life they had hoped. When Lux met Nico and he invited her to see the world, she hadn’t expected to be “stuck” in Maui for several months working as a maid at an upscale hotel. Still, Lux believes in Nico and knows that one deal they will leave Hawaii behind and travel the world on Nico’s boat. As it turns out, that might be sooner than they expected when Nico is approached by two American college students, Brittany and Amma, to take they to an abandon and remote island in the Pacific that has a shady history of cannibalism and WWII secrets. Upon arriving at the beautiful paradise and meeting a couple, Jake and Eliza, a dark cloud of mystery, tension, and fear settles over the group that will eventually snap into unimaginable crimes being committed.

Let’s begin with this cover. Stunning! The cover alone is enough to hook you so major points for that. The story itself is very engaging and this book absolutely does tension building perfect. From the moment Lux and Co. arrive on the island there is something that just isn’t right. Perhaps it’s the couple that are already there, or maybe it’s the island unsavory history. Yet, whatever it is, something is obviously not right and most of the book focuses on this tension growing and growing until it snaps in the last few chapters.

The premise of the book is very good and obviously takes inspiration from Lord of the Flies and, as the summary says, And Then There Were None. I have not read either books but I have read The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins and the author does do a good job of taking classics or famous stories and keeping the overall theme but making them uniquely hers. At the same time, Ms. Hawkins also provides us some flashbacks of the characters before they all meet each other, providing some interesting background on these individuals and their possible motives, adding another layer of complexity to what is going on.

Yet while the story does do good with the tension building and providing meaningful flashbacks, it does feel like at points that the story is drawn out and could have been condensed a bit, which is surprising given it is not a very long book. At times, it feels like the story stalls and one can easily find themselves glazing over some of the passages to get to the good stuff.

Another point worth mentioning as I first noticed it in The Wife Upstairs but seemed to be more of an issue with this book is that some of the characters’ motives or plot points are never wrapped up or explained. While I can’t go into this with too much detail because it will reveal spoilers, I can say that when the conclusion occurs and what has happened is explained by one of the characters, I was left with more questions and answers. Perhaps this was done intentionally but if so, I wish it would have been done in another way to at least give the reader some closure. Mainly, the plot points involving the island’s sinister nature and Amma’s true story were the two stories I wish would have been flushed out a bit more.

Overall, this book is a fun summer read and something a reader can easily finished off in a day but is not one of the best thrillers I have read.

3 out of 5 stars