A review by melbsreads
Sole Survivor by Zachary Ashford
adventurous
dark
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? No
2.0
Trigger warnings: blood, gore, body horror, gun violence, animal death, SO MUCH EYEBALL TRAUMA HOLY HELL.
Okay, look. I pretty much knew going in that this wasn't going to be good. But at the same time, it's giving drop bear vibes, so obviously it was my patriotic duty as an Australian to read it. The premise - the cast of a Survivor-esque TV show are stranded on a remote island when their plane crashes, and the island is full of killer beasties that promptly start eating their way through the cast - was a lot of fun, but if you're going to give me this many characters, you need to actually give me half a chance of giving a shit about them before you start killing them off. People were dying so fast and so frequently that I had no idea who half of them were, so the deaths had very little impact.
The ending was a little rushed, and I was mostly left with the feeling that if this had been more like 200-250 pages, it could have been a lot less frantic and a lot more fun.
Okay, look. I pretty much knew going in that this wasn't going to be good. But at the same time, it's giving drop bear vibes, so obviously it was my patriotic duty as an Australian to read it. The premise - the cast of a Survivor-esque TV show are stranded on a remote island when their plane crashes, and the island is full of killer beasties that promptly start eating their way through the cast - was a lot of fun, but if you're going to give me this many characters, you need to actually give me half a chance of giving a shit about them before you start killing them off. People were dying so fast and so frequently that I had no idea who half of them were, so the deaths had very little impact.
The ending was a little rushed, and I was mostly left with the feeling that if this had been more like 200-250 pages, it could have been a lot less frantic and a lot more fun.