Stranded
Author: Sarah Goodwin
Published by: Avon Books
Pages: 392
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★★
Published by: Avon Books
Pages: 392
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★★
You’ll want to stay. Until you can’t leave.
Eight strangers.
One island.
A secret you’d kill to keep.
When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Osland, 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. And how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come.
But first she must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave…
My thoughts:
The setting for the story is a remote, deserted Island off the coast of Scotland. A TV company want to run a year-long reality television show featuring a set of eight strangers, four women and four men who must survive life on the Island, being self-sufficient and living off the land and sea surrounding the island. They are allowed to bring with them a small number of personal belongings but must build their own shelter and find their own food once they are dropped off.
Events take a turn when it becomes clear that the group of eight are stranded. They begin to work together but Maddy feels alienated, others in the group gradually show their true colours, and their trust in each other becomes compromised.
The story is told in the first person by Maddy, who the reader spends the whole of the book with, living her experience, living her isolation, and eventually living her terror. The atmosphere of remoteness and isolation is brilliantly portrayed, as is Maddy's fear. A chilling, tense and compulsive read. I thought the narration was brilliant.
Also, the research that must have gone into this book is huge. The botanical knowledge, the psychology of group dynamics, persuasion, and influence. It’s a story of the dark side of human behaviour in desperate circumstances.
I found it all very believable from start to finish, and I I really didn't want it to end. It's an amazing story. I felt in a state of dread and high alert for a good part of the book, The tempo gets faster and faster as the story progresses and it’s genuinely very hard to put down. The writing was just so gripping and entertaining throughout.
I’d describe Stranded as an unnerving tale of survival. A completely unputdownable psychological thriller.
Thanks to Sarah Goodwin, Avon books and Tandem Collective for providing me with a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.
Overall reaction: