Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Eikä yksikään pelastunut

This book is about a group of people who are sent to a mysterious island under the request of an unknown man named Owen. One by one, they all are murdered.

I thought the story was predictable, the characters uninteresting, the writing alright, and the ending a bit unsatisfying. I don’t believe this is a terrible story, I just don’t understand how it is as popular as it is. To be honest, I just don’t really get the hype.

All of the characters were unremarkable. None of them were likable; I didn’t find myself caring if any of them would die.

The plot was pretty predictable. Ten people heading to an island, the person who invited them doesn’t arrive, suddenly they are all accused of something horrible, and they all die. It doesn’t sound totally outlandish, but considering this book was written decades ago, this was probably the original island murder mystery, so that’s pretty impressive. Other than that though, it was easy to guess how everyone would die. From the beginning, I thought for sure they would all die the way the characters from the nursery rhyme would, especially after the first person died and the little Indian figure in the dining room was taken. I didn’t totally hate this idea, it was entertaining but it definitely wasn’t surprising if that’s what you’re looking for.

I liked some of the writing, there were a lot of passages I thought were excellent; but a lot of words were very repetitive. Imagine if you counted how many times the word “queer” was used.

The ending didn’t satisfy me very much. I think open endings can be done super well, but this felt lazy. Like, obviously I want to know who was behind all this. In the epilogue, two people detail a bunch of evidence that shows no one on the island were responsible for the murders, and you THINK you may get your answer on who was the murderer, but you never do! There is no explanation or hints whatsoever and it feels unfinished, as if the author didn’t know how to end the story and show who the murderer was, so they just didn’t.

Wasn’t a horrible book, but it wasn’t the terrific masterpiece many say it is. Considering it may of been the first island mystery though, that gives it a lot of credit in my opinion.

Content Warnings

annieree's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tinkithesquirelll's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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elisabethreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Count of everytime the word queer is said: 21. Would make a fantastic drinking game. Not a great book over all. You are better off watching Blues Clues.

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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I would just like to say that my review is based solely on the writing, plot, etc. and not the author. The author is extremely racist and I would not have read this if I had to pay for it, I got it from the library. But that aside, I enjoyed the plot and overall concept a ton. However I was able to guess the ending slightly which was disappointing.

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