Review of Island Games
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Abi McCoy
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Review of Island Games
[Following is a volunteer review of "Island Games" by Caleb J. Boyer.]
Island Games centers around the adventures of two boys, Matthew and Ryan. They awake confused and by themselves on the sandy beach of a deserted island. Inland, they see a large volcano, and out to sea they see a cargo ship. The mysteries continue as they try to discover how they ended up on this island without their memories. As they do their best to survive, they encounter danger after danger, from monsters to supply shortages. Throughout the dangers and struggles, the boys begin to realize that they have some personal growth to do if they’re going to survive. With this realization, they begin to work together and conquer this game they find themselves in.
I didn’t run across any typos in this work! It was very well edited. I also read the “About the Author” section and learned that the author, Caleb J. Boyer, wrote this work when he was only twelve years old. Honestly, I find this to be so inspiring.
I noticed a few negative things about the book. I felt that the events, and the story overall, were repetitive. It became predictable to guess what was going to happen next, and each new challenge or setting was almost the same as the last one. The dialogue also felt stilted throughout the work; in many places it felt much too formal for two young boys who were best friends. There were also some things that were overexplained in a very repetitive way. For example, in some places we would read one of the character’s thought process concerning a decision or idea. Then, the character would share his thoughts almost verbatim to the other character, meaning we had to reread the entire paragraph of thoughts. This happened several times throughout the work, really slowing the story down.
The book also ends with a major cliffhanger. Normally this doesn’t bother me, but this time it did. Almost nothing was learned or explained during the story concerning what may or may not be happening to the boys, and who may have put them in this situation. Having such a huge cliffhanger for an ending without any sort of explanation created an unsatisfactory end to the book.
I believe that Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer deserves a 3 out of 4 stars review. It was impressive he wrote it at twelve years old, as well as that there were zero errors in the book. But I found it to be a little less interesting than I hoped it would be, and the cliffhanger ending wasn’t satisfying at all. This book would be suitable to preteens and teens (probably ages 9 to 14). There was no bad language or anything sexual in the work, and though there were some tense scenes, there was nothing graphic.
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Island Games
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Island Games centers around the adventures of two boys, Matthew and Ryan. They awake confused and by themselves on the sandy beach of a deserted island. Inland, they see a large volcano, and out to sea they see a cargo ship. The mysteries continue as they try to discover how they ended up on this island without their memories. As they do their best to survive, they encounter danger after danger, from monsters to supply shortages. Throughout the dangers and struggles, the boys begin to realize that they have some personal growth to do if they’re going to survive. With this realization, they begin to work together and conquer this game they find themselves in.
I didn’t run across any typos in this work! It was very well edited. I also read the “About the Author” section and learned that the author, Caleb J. Boyer, wrote this work when he was only twelve years old. Honestly, I find this to be so inspiring.
I noticed a few negative things about the book. I felt that the events, and the story overall, were repetitive. It became predictable to guess what was going to happen next, and each new challenge or setting was almost the same as the last one. The dialogue also felt stilted throughout the work; in many places it felt much too formal for two young boys who were best friends. There were also some things that were overexplained in a very repetitive way. For example, in some places we would read one of the character’s thought process concerning a decision or idea. Then, the character would share his thoughts almost verbatim to the other character, meaning we had to reread the entire paragraph of thoughts. This happened several times throughout the work, really slowing the story down.
The book also ends with a major cliffhanger. Normally this doesn’t bother me, but this time it did. Almost nothing was learned or explained during the story concerning what may or may not be happening to the boys, and who may have put them in this situation. Having such a huge cliffhanger for an ending without any sort of explanation created an unsatisfactory end to the book.
I believe that Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer deserves a 3 out of 4 stars review. It was impressive he wrote it at twelve years old, as well as that there were zero errors in the book. But I found it to be a little less interesting than I hoped it would be, and the cliffhanger ending wasn’t satisfying at all. This book would be suitable to preteens and teens (probably ages 9 to 14). There was no bad language or anything sexual in the work, and though there were some tense scenes, there was nothing graphic.
******
Island Games
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Scrolls of the Bonefairy Castle by David Spiegel
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Rm21
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it's cool that the author is so young, but this book doesn't sound like it would keep my interest. having a predictable plot isn't ideal.
