2 out of 4 stars
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Island Games: Mystery of the Four Quadrants is an action and adventure book for middle-grade and young teenage readers. It was written by Caleb J. Boyer when he was just twelve years old. Despite the immaturity of writing style often used by Caleb, I believe he deserves a high commendation for writing and publishing a novel at such a young age. I’m looking forward to following his career and seeing how his writing style evolves as he gets older.
Island Games tells the story of two best friends, Matthew and Ryan, who awaken to find themselves alone on a beach with limited memories and no idea of how they got there. After almost getting eaten by a shark in a failed attempt to escape by boat, the boys trek into the jungle to find food, water, and a way off the island. What follows is an almost non-stop adventure ride as the two boys embark on a journey full of trials, fighting for their lives, and working as a team.
I found the story itself to be compelling, and the themes of friendship and teamwork were presented wonderfully. The action and humour were spot on for the targeted audience, and I found myself giggling a few times while reading. The lessons learned by Matthew on how to deal with challenges in life were also enlightening. The ending of the book, however, was a huge disappointment for me. Nothing was resolved, and I felt that there were huge holes in the story that should have been addressed. I’m hoping that this was just in anticipation of a follow-up book, but the ending felt like a cop-out, and I was left with no closure.
The characters of Matthew and Ryan were initially described rather well, giving you some insight into what kind of people they are. After this, unfortunately, the two boys are often clumped together with their actions and thoughts, they both seemed to do or think the same thing at the same time, which made them feel like interchangeable characters. Although, I felt that Ryan’s impulsiveness throughout the booked helped to flesh out his character a bit more.
What I liked most about the book was the strong friendship between Matthew and Ryan, which strengthened and evolved as the book progressed. Through their adventures, they learned how to work together as a team and take responsibility for their own actions. There are several points throughout the story where Matthew and Ryan get the chance to goof off and relax, and I enjoyed seeing this side of them. I also giggled at some of the humorous exchanges between the boys.
There were several things about the book that I didn't like. The dialogue often felt stilted and forced, and I found it highly unbelievable that teenagers would talk that way. “Let’s sleep inside the crate tonight because at least it will be warm and will shelter us through the night,” is just one of many examples. Also related to dialogue was the overuse of the exclamation mark. While I understand that quite often teenagers will be overly dramatic while talking, almost every piece of dialogue had an exclamation mark in there somewhere. By the end of the book, it had become extremely annoying.
An additional aspect of the book that I didn't like was Matthew and Ryan referring to the island as being split into quadrants. This is something that they would have had absolutely no way of knowing. It may feel like a nitpicking point, but it bothered me every time they mentioned it.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. While I enjoyed reading this book, there were too many factors dragging it down for me to be able to give it a higher rating. In addition to the dialogue and exclamation mark overuse, the author constantly used repetitious language. Quite often one of the boys would repeat something that the narrator had already explained, or the same thing would be explained twice, usually within a short space of the book. There were also several grammar mistakes and missing words. Despite this, I would highly recommend this book to middle-grade and young teenage readers who enjoy adventure books. Young gamers would also enjoy this book as much of it feels like Matthew and Ryan are just playing a realistic game.
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Island Games
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I apologise for taking so long, I somehow managed to miss your comment 
I'm still fairly new to the site, do you get messages when someone posts on one of your reviews or is it something that you have to monitor yourself? I really like how he made it feel like a game, that would definitely appeal to a lot of the younger generation, not to mention many of the older ones too.
