2 out of 4 stars
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The Island Games: The Mystery of the Four Quadrants by Caleb J. Boyer is a story of two teenage boys who are tried and true best friends, Matthew and Ryan. They wake up to find themselves on a sand beach, no memory of how they got there. Quickly Matthew and Ryan realized they have nothing, no food, no water, and no shelter. The only thing they both can recall is that they are best friends and have been for a long time. Matthew is the practical one, he tries to form plans and find solutions with his head. Ryan is a goofball and the kind of person who jumps first and asks questions later.
As the story progresses they begin to understand this is not a normal deserted island, and unforeseen dangers lurk around every corner. Yet, staying stagnate or hiding away is not an option as they have to continuously search for water, food and shelter. The course of the story is the boys learning how to trust each other in ways they had not dreamed, and how to work together in order to overcome the challenges presented by the island in their quest for survival.
I rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars. I wanted to give the book 3 stars because I really liked the plot, however some of the “unfolding of the story” was odd to me and at times felt awkward. I really enjoyed the idea of the story, the mystery of why the boys did not remember things before the island, best friends thrown into life or death situations thus learning new depths of their relationship. I also thought that the lessons learned by Matthew and Ryan are good for younger impressionable readers, as well as the noteworthy meaning to the end of the book. Another thing I appreciated about the book was that it was “clean.” The violence was minimal, for survival purposes and there was not an overarching sexual component that is so often seen in books and movies today. In a world that seems to make sex and sexuality the focus of life, it was refreshing.
The internal thoughts of both characters were a nice idea. It tried to add some depth and development to Matthew and Ryan. I also enjoyed that the boys always fell back to trusting each other. They squabbled at times which is completely understandable. Nevertheless, they did not fight or even resort to tearing each other down. This was another element that I felt was refreshing compared to many of the “reality Tv shows,” and books that are based purely on people tearing each down or betraying one another.
Still, the issues I had with the book brought the rating down, due to how it caused me to waver from being absorbed in the story to “wait, what?” To explain let’s start with the narration: at first it is dominated by Matthew’s perspective and then at times it switches to Ryan’s. That is fine and can even be good and add a lot of depth to a story, but the transitions from Matthew to Ryan and back were odd and unclear. For me this meant needing to reread a section of the story again for it to make sense. My other major issue was the dialogue between Matthew and Ryan. The conversations always ended with some kind of joke or poking fun at each other which seemed way to casual for two teenage boys stranded on a remote island with no food or water. The dialogue also felt forced or awkward and did not add depth to the characters as I would have wanted. In addition, the conversations seemed to always follow the, “one talks, the other responses someone is offend, and then someone apologies,” pattern, which detracts for the story by making it feel “formulated” rather than inspired. All of this is what lead to the 2-star rating.
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Island Games
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