This suspense opens with Virginie and her husband Jake as their distress signal is picked up by a Navy patrol vessel in the Indian Ocean. Once aboard, Virginie recounts the dream life of living aboard a yacht and exploring the seas and how it turned into a nightmare. They began in a small harbor in Malaysia when they heard about a small, isolated, island renowned for its beauty. When they arrive weeks later, they find they are not the only ones there. A small group of visitors have set up a community - complete with guidelines to keep everyone content and safe. However, tensions begin to rise between group members and when a few disasters strike one after the other, they push the group past the tipping point.
TW/CW: death of a spouse, death of a child, miscarriage, sickness of a pet (no death), medical trauma
I know it takes 3 to make a pattern, but between this and Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins, I'm finding isolated tropical island suspense/thrillers really satisfying. Isolation books are almost always trope candy for me and this was no exception. I love the juxtaposition of having these tensions arise in a beautiful setting as well as the beauty itself be potentially deadly.
I absolutely loved the setting and the almost horror-movie trope way that our main characters get there. In their initial harbor where they're getting their boat ready to sail, there's one guy that tells them about this island. He's a little annoying and a little creepy, but seemingly harmless. However, the way the scene was written, it really felt like if this was a movie it would have had some eerie music playing under his dialogue while he goes on and on about the beauty of this island - almost trying too hard to convince Virginie and Jake to go there. This is then taken to the next level when they go to get their travel plans approved to visit this island and the official lets them know in no uncertain terms that if they get in trouble there, they are on their own. The island is so far away that they can not radio or call for help and it isn't often that other ships pass by as it isn't on any trade or travel routes. Again, if this was a horror movie, this is the point where the viewer would think the characters are silly for not turning around and visiting some other tropical locale.
The island itself was also a fantastic mix of beautiful and creepy. Of course, an island like this had visitors before and while staying there, Virginie learns about the specifics of this island's past. We get a few old sailor superstitions about the island that also increase the creep factor. I think Bamford does a good job of keeping this creepy undertone throughout the narrative, reminding the reader at just the right intervals that our characters are taking a risk by being here. We also get a few scenes where we see characters come close to experiencing the danger of the island so the reader knows these dangers are real. Of course, these moments are balanced by a lot of rest and relaxation in the sun, surf, and sand. There's beachy bonfires and eating the freshly caught fish each day. The story excellently captures that feeling of time not mattering because you're on vacation and there really isn't a schedule for anything.
I think where the book fell short, for me, was the narrative structure and tension. We know from the description that the book opens with Virginie and Jake being rescued by a Navy ship. We spend a few chapters with that plot line before flashing back and following the events leading up to and on the island for the majority of the book. Then, when the island plot line catches up to the opening of the book, we have about 20% of the book left to go. Because of this structure, we lost some potential tension immediately because we know who gets pick up off the island. So when these characters find themselves in dangerous situations, we know for sure they'll be fine. Also, once they get back to the mainland, there isn't much time left in the story for more things to happen. In fact, it really felt like we were in the downswing of the story, with plot lines and character arcs wrapping up in this final 20%. Then, there was a pretty quick introduction and resolution of a new threat that I didn't really take seriously because it was introduced so late. Looking back, I think Bamford tried to leave breadcrumbs of this threat earlier in the story, but they were so light or so quickly brushed aside by other characters that I didn't give those points much weight. I think the tension inside the island portion was done really well but it was the bookends of the narrative that didn't work well for me.
I really enjoyed the characters and thought the interpersonal conflicts and tension was really well developed. All of the characters had their own distinct personalities so they were easy enough to keep separate in my mind while reading. We do get the typical character archetypes that we see a lot in these isolation thrillers - the grumpy loner, the smooth talker, the aloof one, the nice one, etc - but Bamford does a good job deepening their characters past these initial types. I liked that we got to see a lot of different interactions between all the characters so we could really see the different sides to their personalities. I think one of my favorite parts of an isolation story is that it acts as a sort of pressure cooker for human interactions.
Overall, this was a good read and I enjoyed the trip to the tropical island. I do think the narrative structure choices dampened some of the suspense and tension, but the majority of the book follows the events on the island and that was where the story really shined.
Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC
Expected publication date is May 31, 2022
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