Review by Suppafreak98 -- Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer

[Suppafreak98]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Island Games" by Caleb J. Boyer.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Island Games: Mystery of the Four Quadrants is an adventurous novel written by twelve year old Caleb J. Boyer. While reading, it reminded me a lot like the Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. I believe it would appeal to all age groups, but particularly young teens. I think it offers a good life lesson of never knowing what will happen tomorrow, and not taking today for granted.

It starts with two best friends, Matthew and Ryan on a deserted island. They have no memory of how they got on the island. Their goal was to find how to get off the island and back home with their families. The boys ended up going through a total of four different quadrants of the island. The jungle, the prairie, the desert, and the highlands. Along the way, they came across different challenges they needed to complete. One that stood out to me the most was the half piranha and half alligator beast they had to fight. They find that going through this process with each other made them realize how important friendship is, and how working together makes the challenges that much easier to complete.

I loved the themes of strong friendship and team work. I thought the message from the author at the end of the book was fantastic as well. At one point in the novel, Ryan said he had always been the goofy one and Matthew the practical one, and it was proving to be a perfect combination on the journey they were on. Boyer wanted to make it known that they met in kindergarten, and they had become more like brothers than simply best friends.

One particular quote I loved, and found hilarious from this novel was when Ryan said, “wow! The whole ground looks like a unicorn farted rainbow flowers all over it. This is so amazing, I almost peed my pants!” I could picture all the young teens reading this laughing out loud at this quote.

Even though this was Boyer’s first novel done at the age of twelve, I did find that there were quite a bit of run on sentences, and a lot of repetitiveness used throughout the novel. That is the reason I rated it 3 out of 4 stars. It was a short adventure and mystery novel that contained no fowl language or sexual content. Definitely a quick fun read if you don't mind the run on sentences. I think it would be a great book for all juvenile children to read in school.

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Island Games
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