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A review by bayy245
The Island by S. Usher Evans
4.0
4.5/5
I’m not going to lie, when I read the back I was not exactly enthused. I thought this was going to be a book filled with clichés and I would hate the whole thing. Now don’t get me wrong there are some clichés but I found I didn’t mind them as much. There is the royalty falls for lowly citizen and torn apart by a war trope, but I didn’t even really notice it there. It was a unique story. But I’m happy to report there is absolutely no love triangle! Love triangles are what I can’t stand above all else.
I really liked how we got both points of view and the parallels we saw between the two. I really liked the bickering and dynamic between Theo and Galian. I loved the unique names and how the author sprinkled in the unique language of the Raven people. I loved seeing the culture of the two different sides. It was also nice to see the prejudices and ideas the sides had about each other and how wrong they were. One thing I admired more than anything is that both girl and boy Ravens were conscripted.
Theo wasn’t another Katniss, it was refreshing. She wasn’t the chosen one or born for this. She survived on will and skill alone. Skills she’d fought for and learned in battle. I loved the wordbuilding too. I really felt like I was on that island with them. I could feel their desperation and hunger. I loved the journey both of them had to go through: both to see the other side as not an enemy and specifically Galian to see that his family are indeed monsters and that the Raven people aren’t as stupid and naïve as he thought.
It ended with sort of a cliff hanger, leaving me tweeting the author for book two. I honestly couldn’t put it down.
I’m not going to lie, when I read the back I was not exactly enthused. I thought this was going to be a book filled with clichés and I would hate the whole thing. Now don’t get me wrong there are some clichés but I found I didn’t mind them as much. There is the royalty falls for lowly citizen and torn apart by a war trope, but I didn’t even really notice it there. It was a unique story. But I’m happy to report there is absolutely no love triangle! Love triangles are what I can’t stand above all else.
I really liked how we got both points of view and the parallels we saw between the two. I really liked the bickering and dynamic between Theo and Galian. I loved the unique names and how the author sprinkled in the unique language of the Raven people. I loved seeing the culture of the two different sides. It was also nice to see the prejudices and ideas the sides had about each other and how wrong they were. One thing I admired more than anything is that both girl and boy Ravens were conscripted.
Theo wasn’t another Katniss, it was refreshing. She wasn’t the chosen one or born for this. She survived on will and skill alone. Skills she’d fought for and learned in battle. I loved the wordbuilding too. I really felt like I was on that island with them. I could feel their desperation and hunger. I loved the journey both of them had to go through: both to see the other side as not an enemy and specifically Galian to see that his family are indeed monsters and that the Raven people aren’t as stupid and naïve as he thought.
It ended with sort of a cliff hanger, leaving me tweeting the author for book two. I honestly couldn’t put it down.