The world has been destroyed by flood. With everyone’s livelihood buried under the dark and fetid water, the world surrenders to death and decay. Those that do survive wrest a meager existence from the “mainland.” Parents have only one hope for their children- X-Isle. This island, controlled by Preacher John Eck and his sons, reportedly has food, fresh water, and an easier life. Sometimes when the Eck brothers come to trade their salvage goods, they take a child or two back with them. Baz’s father buys his passage to X-Isle with two boxes of shotgun shells. A boy named Ray is selected for a box of Cornflakes. When Baz and Ray arrive on the island, they join a group of boys whose existence is anything but idyllic. Subject to cruel overseers, they work all day for the reward of one can of food. When the boys learn of Preacher John’s insane plot to clear the flood waters, they devise a plan to secure their freedom. They all know that the plan could cost them their lives.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com ( )

This is a dark book. Dark enough, in fact, that it's probably the darkest YA dystopian I've read once all of the factors are added up, and there were some moments when I wondered how likely I'd ever be to tell a teenager about it. That said, it's also a good read, and compelling once it gets going.

On one hand, this is a sort of elevated version of Lord of the Flies--though this is a far better book, and much better written, in my opinion. On the other hand, there's some injustice in even saying that because Augarde creates such a complete and horrific world here. Maybe if Charles Dickens had come forward to write a dystopian, having thought of something like Lord of the Flies... that may be the better description. Because as dark as the situation is, as dark as some of the characters and horrors are... it's all sort of frightfully believable, and the descriptions, threats, and twists are turned around in such a way as to feel more adult... just like teens put into this book would feel far more adult and tortured than would be desired.

All told, I'm not sure I'd hand this book to a young reader, although the tone and characters and situations are exactly what one might expect from a YA Dystopian. Instead, I'd say this is more in line for adult fans of the genre, and perhaps mature young adults who'll have the patience for a book that takes as many cues from adult science fiction as from YA. Still, this book unsettled me, and I sometimes didn't want to turn the page to see what was coming, compelling as the read was... and that rarely happens when I read YA anything, so there's something to be said for that.

Recommended, with the above warnings in mind. This is darker than expected for this genre, and sometimes difficult to read. ( )

X Isle is a young adult novel by Steve Augarde first published in 2009. It is set in the future, after floods have destroyed the earth. Baz is a young boy, who lives in the ruins of a city, scrounging for food and supplies. There is an island off the coast that is rumoured to be a place of plenty. There is competition among the people to have their sons chosen to go and Baz becomes one of the lucky ones.

X Isle is run by Preacher John Eck and his adult sons, they have a large boat and diving equipment and are able to go down to the drowned city and bring up cans of food and other supplies. It turns out that the boys on the island are little more than slave labour for the Ecks, they are kept in line by two capos and instead of living a better life, they are worse off than they were before.

The boys are kept on the island until they get too big and could be a threat. They are then taken back to the mainland – or are they? Preacher John is a zealot and as time goes by he appears to be considering using the boys as a living sacrifice. The boys decide that they must fight back in order to save their lives. They construct a bomb by using their own methane gas and plan to blow up the Ecks and take control of the island.

Personally I found X Isle to be silly, tedious and far too simple but then I am not the target audience. I suspect that this book would appeal to young boys about eleven or twelve as there is lots of farting and other bodily functions to chortle over. I would advise most adults to pass this one along to their sons or nephews. ( )

First, let me say that I am not in this book's target demographic - which I imagine to be young teen boys. And I'm only reading it because I needed a book beginning with X and didn't fancy X-men.
It's set a post apocalyptic world that has become badly flooded. Goods are a luxury, power is in short supply and the people are eager to escape to a place called X-isle. this place has become a fable of plenty - three meals a day is the rumour - and a boat arrives on the mainland a couple of times a week with tinned food and fuel to exchange with the people of the mainland for what goods they've scraped together.
Baz gets selected to go to the island, and (surprisingly enough) things aren't quite how rumour has portrayed them. The rest of the book is the tale of how Baz & his new found friends manage to survive, and overthrow the rather strange religious madman who is head of the family that run's X-isle.
I imagine if you were the target audience, this would be quite gripping. But for me it all fell a bit short. And while the story ends after an achievement, the question of what happens from there is left dangling, as that strikes me as being far from certain. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: When it comes to survival, ethics become questionable, and everything comes at a price. Compassion and camaraderie are the only things that give these boys a chance to endure. X-Isle will make you cringe, warm your heart at times while making it race at others, and ultimately leave you to think about what, or really who, is worth surviving for.

Opening Sentence: The steady chug of the diesel engine drew closer, and eventually the salvage boat emerged from the mist, a blank grey shape steering a middle course between the ghostly lines of chimney stacks that rose from the water.

The Review:

As the main character, everything is told from Baz’s point-of-view. This is important because there are a lot of characters but most of the book is about Baz just plain figuring things out. Some of his observations seem to come about much too slowly, and you end up really having to consider his life and what he’s been told his whole life. Much of this does not have to be explained in detail, which is something I really liked about the book. Since the world got flooded and there’s really not much left, a large part of his and the other X-Isle inhabitants’ lives have been spend simply surviving. Everyone has lost everything and they are just clinging to every little shred of hope that they can, including their belief in the X-Isle and what it means. Because why else would people send their barely teen boys over to an island run by a few old men, unless they were totally and completely desperate?

Baz’s father seems to have done his best to shelter his son in any way possible. This makes it much more difficult for Baz in the long run, when he has to take care of himself. He is simply naïve, which not only makes it really hard for him to understand the crazy animalistic world of survival that surrounds him, but goes beyond that to curse him with an immense sense of guilt at every turn as he tries to follow his father’s last advice to him, “You just worry about yourself, son, that’s all. Look out for number one.”

Ray, on the other hand, is the opposite of naïve. One of the first things he says to Baz is, “Try using your loaf instead of asking dumb questions.” It is no surprise that Ray comes up with most of the plans to overcome their plight; he simply has the most to lose from it all. Several times Baz considers returning to the mainland, and Ray doesn’t even consider it, instead doing his best to look at the specific problem and come up with a solution. It is nice to see how the boys are able to give up their competitiveness at points in the book and when we see compassion take over. And that it comes from inside of them and not from the creepy sermons given by Preacher John.

The main thing that I enjoyed about this book is that the villains in this book are quite believable. Maybe because of the survival atmosphere of the book, maybe from just reading the newspaper lately, these guys are simply in it for themselves, the ultimate opportunists. They are just sinister enough, and I like that. The pacing in this book was also pretty good. It was a little long, but right when you start to think about how many pages are left is when you start to not care how many are left because you get so wrapped up in the plot. There was one part where I was practically holding my breath for a couple chapters. It definitely gets pretty good, and that’s where we really can appreciate only seeing through Baz’s mind, cause he can’t quite catch up to how fast things are moving, try as he might.

The ending to this book was a little problematic for me. After living in a world of survival for so long, it seems that those instincts would stay with the boys at least a little longer. The author tries to touch on that, but doesn’t make it quite convincing enough. Also, the main reason the boys even go to X-Isle is because of their families. There isn’t reference to the families they left behind at the end of the book, which seems somewhat unnatural to me. I would recommend this book more for an adult audience than a teen audience. There is actually less mature material than I was expecting, I was expecting it to be a lot more vulgar than it turned out to be, and I appreciated that, but there is some violent themes throughout the book that may not be appropriate for a less mature audience.

Notable Scene:

Baz remembered his own desperate tactics to get food the previous evening. ‘Well…I suppose you sort of have to be, don’t you? Out for yourself, I mean?’

Amit stopped what he was doing. ‘Well, that’s pretty good, coming from a newbie. No, actually, you don’t. You try and look out for your mates, is what you do – that’s if you want any mates. Like we tried to look out for you this morning, yeah? Tried to make it so’s you didn’t have carry any of the really heavy stuff.’ Amit stared at him for a moment longer, then returned his attention to the workbench.

‘And that was after what you did last night,’ he muttered. ‘To Enoch. And to Taps. Don’t think we didn’t notice.’

FTC Advisory: David Fickling Books provided me with a copy of X-Isle. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )