I took this recommendation from a self-proclaimed “King of Thrills” and I’m now questioning his credibility. I truly don’t know how you can take a tropical island and Australians and not deliver, but good lord did this miss the mark! At the halfway mark, I was checking to make sure I was reading the right book, because nothing was happening. It was just a few twenty-somethings vibing on a remote island—which, like, fair play, but where was the mystery? Where was the page-turning everyone was talking about?? It wasn’t here, not on this island. All of the action is compacted into the last 50 pages, when Hawkins suddenly remembers that a vibe is not a plot, and suddenly unloads a dizzying amount of information. It’s a mad dash to the end, which is a problem of insufficient pacing. This felt like a millennial novel, mostly focusing on relationships, that sometimes was thrilling (not as often as you’d hope) but not a thriller. The backdrop of being in the middle of the ocean (a terrifying concept) and on a cursed island (also a terrifying concept) weren’t fully utilised and it’s such a slow burn leading up to an underwhelming yet overstimulating ending. It was a breezy read at least, but man, it hurts to think how good this could’ve been if it had actually been a thriller.