A spine-tingling story of shipwreck and survival! (Island - Richard Laymon)

Member Name: Wee_Jackie_163

Product:	Island - Richard Laymon
Date:	25/06/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: QUITE THRILLING

Disadvantages: SEE REVIEW

I love horror books and have read a few books by Richard Laymon in my time. I could never describe him as my favourite author, although I do find that his books are fairly enjoyable, and are easy enough for me to read without me needing to apply too much concentration or thinking, which at times is all I am really looking for in a book! I do like 'heavier' fiction at times too, but for the most part I am looking for something that is quite easy-reading.

It was when I had recently finished clearing out one of the cupboards in my flat that I came across a box of paperback books that I had put in there some time before! (See what happens when you have too many cupboards, dear dooyooers?) Anyway, one of these books was "Island" by Richard Laymon, and I opted to give it a go.

I was under the impression from the start that I had read this book a long time ago, but about three chapters in I changed my opinion, and having read it now from cover to cover, I know that this story is a new one to me.

The idea of the plot however, is perhaps what caused me some confusion, as it is a plot that I have come across in different books over the years.


*~* THE PLOT *~*

A group of eight people, who are holidaying in the Bahamas, are taking a picnic on a remote desert island (as you do..!) when their boat blows up. This means of course, that they are shipwrecked on the island.

Not being too worried about this at first, they manage to rescue some of the supplies from the boat, that are floating in the water following the explosion and set about making a makeshift camp for them to be as comfortable as possible until the time when they are rescued.

Unfortunately one of their party was on the boat when it blew up, and therefore the group is reduced to seven. As nobody seems to be a particular fan of the man who was killed on the boat, this is not the biggest problem for most of the remaining members of the group.

It soon becomes apparent that somebody is trying to kill off the remaining members of the small group one by one. A couple of bodies are found, and this obviously is the basis for the horror story to unfold....


*~* MY OPINION *~*

All in all, I did enjoy this book and read it in about three days. I was quite surprised at how the book kept my interest enough for me to find it fairly addictive. Having read several books by Laymon before, I know that his style of writing doesn't necessarily have this effect on me, so this was a welcome surprise this time around!

The story was very easy to follow, and had no 'loose ends' and no aspects of the mystery or story itself were left unexplained.

I also liked the way Richard Laymon had written this book, which was in the first person. The format was basically that of a journal or diary, which was written by one of the members of the stranded group, a young man (I think he was 18), called Rupert.

Rupert's 'writing style' was one which was not only dipped with humour from time to time, but his opinion was usually a sarcastic one, as is the case with lots of young men of a similar age group. It is fairly obvious quite early on in Rupert's 'Journal' that he is very attracted to a couple of the women who are shipwrecked with him, and this means that some of the things he is writing about have a rather *ahem* 'adult' nature to them!

All in all though, I got the general impression that Rupert was a fairly decent guy, and I grew to like him the more that I read this book. I would go so far as to say I felt a sort of affection towards the character, which is quite unusual for me when I am reading a book like this one. I can assume therefore, that it is the author's writing style, and the fact that he has given Rupert enough personality and 'depth' to his character that has made me have this impression.

The other characters for the most part were quite annoying because they did all manner of annoying things, such as overreact to minor things. One of them in particular, a young female and Rupert's girlfriend, was very shallow indeed. The other members of the stranded party were rather insignificant to begin with, but their characters took hold as the book developed, and I got further into the story.

I also found it quite annoying the way that the author (well, Rupert) gave us so much detail about the figure and 'cup size' that each of the females had - at some points it was just plain crude. This amount of detail led me to wonder whether this book was aimed at a male reader instead of a female one! - The author went on about such things in a little too much detail for my own personal tastes, and I would say that this book is not ideal for a teenage audience.

Whilst I am on the subject of attention to detail - I did find it a little distracting to read all of the detail given by the author at times. This was particularly the case a couple of times at really thrilling moments in the book. As with any decent horror story, there are several occurrences of intensity in 'Island', which had me gripped due to the thrilling twists in the story. Whilst I know that it is important to set the scene properly for readers, I felt that the detail given by Laymon was at times just far too much! I found this to be both distracting and rather annoying, and I felt my concentration wander once or twice... I guess I just wanted the author to stick to the story, and give the imagery a rest!

The story itself, as I am sure you have worked out by now, is very far-fetched. To be fair though, I kind of expected as much before I even started reading the book. I was surprised that the story was not more predictable than it was, but I can honestly say that at no point did I have that annoying feeling where I knew what was coming next... the story was certainly filled with enough twists and shocks to keep me guessing, which I personally find enjoyable in a book.

As I have touched on before, this book had some very 'adult' themes and it is probably not everyone's cup of tea. There are tonnes of sexual references, and a couple of occasions of rape and even a hint of incest. There are also many violent elements to the story, and for the most part it is really quite gruesome and very gory - lots of blood spilling and machete-wielding. There are also some elements of torture, all of which is witnessed by the reader of the book. (Me.)

At times if I am honest, I felt that some of what was written was quite shocking, and believe me when I say I have read a LOT of horror fiction in my time. I did not find it to be disturbing though, I was just left wondering the same question I usually wonder when I finish reading such a violent horror book... "My god, why does the author write about such things - maybe he is a bit sick in the head?"

Hmm... at this point, let me remind you again that the book is NOT for the faint-hearted.

I suppose though, if I am being honest, if I had read this book and was left without feeling a bit sickened, then my opinion would probably be that the author had not done a very good job, and it should have been categorised in the 'thriller' section rather than the 'horror' section. Make no mistake that this book IS a horror and belongs in that genre.

I would give the book three stars overall, because I did quite enjoy it. The way that Laymon produced this constant fight for survival, which goes on throughout the whole book, had enough thrills to keep me reading on to find out more. It was most definitely not as gripping as other horror books I have read though. I would recommend it, but only if you had nothing better to read.

And I most definitely would say that it is NOT one to take on holiday if you are going to be on an island, or surrounded by water, or anything like that... ;-)

Island is available to buy on amazon.co.uk for £5.49 (new) and prices for a used copy start at £0.01.

This gets three stars from me!

Summary: NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED...! :-o