As soon as I saw this I knew that I wanted to read it, and I'm so glad that I got to ,it had my all time favorite topic in it ,which is strangers come together and meet in or at a place that is in the middle of nowhere , and only has one way in or out and stuff happen . It has the vibes of my all time favorite book and then there was none . even though the characters was a bit hard to like , but the atmosphere of the story made up that part of the story .

This was not for me. This was a bunch of people who haven’t really earned anything who are not at all surprised when they are just given an exclusive trip on an island shrouded in mystery. Then someone starts killing them. And you’re like, ok. I get the impulse.

This was definitely a quick read. I was intrigued for a majority of the book. But at times it just became so far fetched I strayed. Each character having their own issues and past and secrets got a little overwhelming and I kept forgetting who was who at times. Overall it was a quick easy teen read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for the ARC of this!

I really enjoyed Babysitter’s Coven, so even though thrillers are hit or miss for me, I was so excited to read this and it didn’t disappoint! The main characters are all of questionable morals, trapped on a private island, and suddenly they start being killed off at a rapid pace. This pacing was exactly what I like in a thriller, but I was a little confused by the ending. Overall I enjoyed it and recommend for fans of And Then There Were None and Hide by Kiersten White.

Never Coming Home was an intense ride all the way through! This story follows ten influencers who are invited to an island resort but their promised vacation is not at all what they expected. When people start dying, the group tries to figure out who is killing them and what is happening to them.

This story pulled me in right away and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. The pacing was really well done and I’m always impressed when an author can write multiple characters extremely well and make you feel like you have a well rounded understanding of each of them.

I also thought that the character arcs were very well done, especially highlighting how each character faces their struggles and how social media has impacted their life and who they are. It was captivating watching each of their journeys and the relationships they form with others in the group.

The ending was great and I really enjoyed trying to piece everything together alongside the characters.

Overall rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Special thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!!

Listen, is this book high literature. Absolutely not? Is it hard to put down and super entertaining? Absolutely yes.

This is a great reimagining of And Then There Were None with a little bit of Fyre Fest mixed in. It follows the format and style of Christie's book, but our characters have been updated to a modern teen society.

I really think teens will eat this one up. It's over the top, full of influencers, and overall, just a really enjoyable read. I truly had no idea who was responsible for what was happening until like the last page of the book.

Ten people received an invitation to a private island, Unknown Island. It is supposed to be an exclusive destination, it is free, and all are under 21. Before long the 10 realize all but one will die but they have no idea who is killing them. They all have secrets and it is the secrets and matching them to the inhabitants that keeps the reader guessing. There are some interesting developments as they all share. This is a YA mystery. I cared enough to finish the book and believe some young adults would find it intriguing. I tired of the angry, manipulative teens and there being no redemption.
Thanks to Netgalley for a free book in exchange for an honest review.

This was just disappointing -- I thought it would be kind of thrilling and a captivating murder mystery but instead it was full of plot holes and just not good. Even the "twist" was just inane. Maybe this was written for the Tik Tok generation and I just failed to get the point but, at the end of the day, the killer's motivation was completely lacking and that's what made this an infuriating read for me. Hope you have better luck!

Never Coming Home comes out next week on June 21, 2022, and you can purchase HERE.

The tropics swarmed in as soon as the plane doors opened. Wet, humid air that turned walking into swimming, and palm trees whipping in the wind like they were trying to lure customers in to buy a used car.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Never Coming Home by Kate Williams is a young adult/teenage contemporary book about young social influencers (under age 21). The ten characters/contestants think they won a week paid in full vacation on a deserted luxurious island resort, Unknown island. They went with intentions to gain more followers and fame. The person that set up the trip has something else in mind.
Upon arrival, each person is handed identical envelopes and copies of everyone’s secrets. Secrets of past victims murdered, suicide, homicide, and accidental death that tie an influencer to each death. All ten received the same copies so they all have read one another’s secrets. A past that the influencer thought was long ago buried and not ready to admit if there’s truth to any of it.
Within the first few hours of arrival the young influencers find themselves alone and the island is deserted. Then one of them dies. . . then another 😳. Are the deaths accidents or is it murder? Is it one of them? Are they being set up? Are they on a reality TV show?
I give the book a 3 1/2 star because it’s written for a younger audience. It is written well. I found I liked the characters, as their personality were well outlined, though some were shady. The book has some twists and drama. I’m just now sure I would have finished it if not an ARC book because of the intended younger audience.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for e-copy for an exchange for honest review. Release June 21,2022

"Clue" meets "And Then There Were None" and "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" in this YA pop culture murder mystery thriller!

When ten young social media influencers are invited to an all-expense-paid trip to the intriguing Unknown Island, marketed as THE place for the elite under-21 crowd, each sees it as an opportunity to further their careers by adding to their followers and building up their brands. But each one of them is hiding a dark secret -- and Unknown Island is just the place to uncover their pasts while threatening their futures. Because Unknown Island turns out to be the opposite of a typical tropical getaway: no staff, no internet, and no escape. Then the murders start. The young entrepreneurs are being picked off, one by one, while their claim to fame - social media - taunts them. Who can they trust, who is behind this sick scavenger hunt, and will any of them making it out alive?

Thoughts: Devoured this in a day! Kate Williams' Never Coming Home is by far my favorite YA book of 2022! A contemporary retelling of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", Williams brings the classic tale of dark pasts, dangerous secrets, and wicked revenge to the pop culture scene with a cast pulled straight from social media -- the "Breakfast Club" of the jock, the princess, the pop star, the politician, and gamer, the beauty blogger, and other stereotypical influencers. It was a lot of characters to keep track of, so I appreciated the cast of characters listed at the beginning of the book (which I had to reference quite a few times). There's a smidge of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer thrown in with the isolated tropical resort, rain storms, and revenge plot, and even a bit of R.L. Stine's Fear Street series-esque gory murder scenes. The rhyming couplets and the finale were all very reminiscent of ATTWN -- Agatha Christie fans are going to love this! I enjoyed every minute of it with the exception of the too-long epilogue, which would've been more powerful if it included about a third of the explanation it provided, but this story really was good through the last line. I highly recommend it to any murdery mystery, thriller, suspense, and horror fans, and I can't wait to add this book to my high school library collection.

**Content Alert: Does include some language and brief drug use. Most murders happen "off screen" and scene depictions are comparable to R.L. Stine's Fear Street horror series.**

**Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

This was an interesting take on Agatha Christie's novel "And Then There Were None." It's updated by using teen/young adult influencers taken to a deserted island. Pretty good read.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

When ten of America's top teenage influencers are invited to be the first guests at the brand new and internet-famous Unknown Island resort, they are all excited for the opportunity to grow their brand, get away, and relax. But they quickly realize that the resort is not at all what was advertised and may be deadly. Someone knows their darkest secrets, and there is no way off the island. I love locked-room mysteries, and this one was so fun! Every character had dark backstories, but it was still so easy to become invested in their safety! I also loved that each chapter was written from multiple characters' perspectives and that all of the characters are unreliable narrators. As much as I wanted them to survive and was rooting for their success, I didn't fully trust any of them. This made it so interesting to read. I am not sure how I feel about the ending, but I very much enjoyed the read! If you are a fan of thrillers or locked-room mysteries, you will love this book!

This is a translated version of my original review published in Spanish on Goodreads.

Score: 3.2 Stars.

First of all, I want to thank Delacorte Press for accepting my request on Netgalley to review this novel.

The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the synopsis: The idea of ​​sending some influencers to a paradise island only to discover that they were going to die one by one is shocking, and as a good Thriller lover, I couldn't pass up the chance to read it.

The novel has a very good start, I was completely hooked from the introduction of the characters until their arrival at the island and begin to discover the mess they are involved in. Although all the guests are influencers, each one belongs to a different niche, so they have completely different goals and ways of thinking. This enriched the novel, since the diversity of thought among the characters prevents the reader from feeling trapped in an infinite reiteration.

Since the first death occurs, the novel takes on a more tense rhythm, which I appreciated at the time. It was without a doubt one of my most anticipated scenes, since it would trigger the action in the book, including the search for clues and signs that would allow us to discover who is behind everything.

Although Kate tells us a little about each influencer, only a handful of them get the spotlight during the novel. This can be good or bad depending on each reader. Good, because the padding is avoided, especially because they are characters that ultimately will not have much prominence. Bad, because knowing a little more about certain characters can help the reader think that they are involved with the terrifying events that occur on the Island.

Now, one element that confused me a little was the ending, and I say this for a couple of reasons. First, it was very rushed. We literally jump from a normal scene between a couple of characters and then: Mystery solved, this is the end. I admit that I felt like I had skipped a couple of pages by mistake and had to go back to see if I could make sense of that change of pace.

On the other hand, the "Solution" to the mystery did not seem very convincing to me. I didn't see it coming at all, and I doubt any reader saw it coming, but that's because it doesn't make sense! I mean yes, but no! This is the reason why the rating is not higher, especially since the author had built everything very well to give us a slightly weak ending.

Never coming home is a perfect thriller if you want to read an entertaining story for a trip or even for reading at home. The narration is engaging, and you can try to guess who is behind all of this mess (Good luck with that). Also, the vocabulary is not complex, so it can also be a good option if you want to read something in English to practice your reading skills.

What could be better than a free vacation to an exclusive, invite-only tropical island? Ten lucky social media influencers are the first recipients to vacation on Unknown Island.

But once they arrive, it's clear that it's not the luxury vacation they were expecting. Bungalows that are barely finished, no staff at the resort, and no Wi-Fi are just a few of the things that Unknown Island hasn't been truthful about. It quickly becomes clear that each of the Ten have something to hide, a secret they have been keeping. But someone knows their dirty secrets, and wants them to pay for them. And then people start dying.

It took me a bit to keep the characters straight, but that is more on me than the story, and once I was able to remember who was who, and their background, I really enjoyed this book. I didn't see the twist coming, and really enjoyed that!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Childrens for the ARC!

Wow, just wow. I don't think I was mentally prepared for this as I just welcomed a baby in early April but I couldn't put it down. I needed to know what happened. Well done by the author.

Super shout out to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. I've never been so grateful to not be internet famous.

I don't know about you all, but when I think of the summer I think of bloody slasher films, gross humidity and being afraid to sit next to the open window at night in the hope of a breeze that might come my way. It's no surprise that Never Coming Home is <i>exactly</i> my brand of summer read. I live for an unreliable narrator, and in this case you can't trust anyone. Imagine the end of Charlie's Angels when Lucy, Drew and Cameron are on the beach talking to Charlie, but instead of celebrating a job well done, Charlie has sent them there to die. And who even is Charlie anyway? They don't know. We don't know. Everyone just goes with it.

Okay, maybe it's slightly different because none of the 10 young influencers who arrive at Unknown Island are there to save anyone, not even after it's clear that they need each other to survive. It's like Reality Kills for the next generation. Were there things I didn't like? Sure. Sometimes I couldn't keep track of who's who, especially with the narrative bouncing between perspectives. I also wish there was a bit more suspense between some of the events, especially with how quickly things happen in the first day there. I also wish I had a bit more of an explanation/perspective of the culprit, because that felt a bit too rushed for me. All in all, though, I had a good time. Summer thrills all around!

This was such a fun play on a typical Agatha Christie story! The characters in the story were so much fun to read about and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out the mystery of who was killing them all off before it was too late. The twist at the end got to me, I was pleasantly surprised!

"Shutting the door on the monsters in the closet doesn't make them disappear. The thing about monsters is that they're patient. They can sit forever, just waiting for someone to open the door again."

Ten social media influencers are invited to a week in the tropics at Unknown Island, a mysterious social media campaign that recently went viral. It's exclusive, invite-only, and entirely free. It's also the soft opening, so there are bound to be some hitches in the execution, but none of the invites can pass up the opportunity to network and grow their follower base. What they aren't expecting is to be completely cut off from the world from the moment they arrive, or for Unknown Island to start revealing some of their darkest secrets. Everyone has something to hide, and someone is going to make sure they pay for it. Spoilers will be clearly marked. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Delacorte Press. Trigger warnings: character death (on-page, graphic), parent/sibling death, suicide, cancer, car accidents, fires, gore, poison, overdose, drug use (on-page, graphic), bug horror, snakes, bullying, homophobia, vomiting.

Much like the influencers traveling to Unknown Island, I feel a little like I was lured here under false pretenses. The blurb promises a beachy murder mystery, which... I guess is what it delivers, in the most basic sense, but the characters might as well have been trapped in a crappy Motel 6 for all the island plays a role in this story, even as a pretty backdrop. It lacks either a dreamy vacation atmosphere or a spooky one, and the only sense I really got from Unknown Island was slightly abandoned desolation, which isn't a very fun vibe for a thriller.

As one might expect, ten is far too many main characters to keep track of. At least half of them are just there for body count, and be warned that this book does have a very high and graphic body count, with brains-on-the-floor style gore. Unfortunately, like watching a Final Destination sequel, creative and increasingly unlikely deaths are about the only thing it has going for it. The narrative hopping among their perspectives doesn't do anything to ground the story or distinguish them from one another. Most of the characters are rather spoiled and self-centered at best, but I don't mind unlikeable characters. What I mind is the way even their own narratives don't offer any real insights into them, either because they lie to themselves about their histories and motivations or because the story skips around too much to go in-depth on any of them.

Despite a slow start in documenting everyone's travel to the island (fairly pointless), the deaths begin quickly and don't slow down. The course of the novel takes maybe two or three days. There's little mystery that someone is targeting them, but other than Emma Jane's interest in true crime (a sadly under-used plot device) no one is very good at unraveling the clues. There's a lot of screaming, a lot of drama and accusations, and a rather silly ending confrontation. Aside from an extremely unsubtle clue about who the killer is that's mentioned not once but twice within the same few pages, there's little opportunity for readers to piece together what's happening on their own.

Books rarely hinge on their endings for me, but the end of this book knocked it down a whole star, not because of what happened (which, whatever), but how. Rather than include it in the narrative, the killer's motivations and methodology are revealed in an excessively long "news article" and some blogging comments that pointlessly rehash everything we just read with some tidbits of new information. It's the ultimate crime in show-don't-tell and reads like an ego-tripping villain speech. Better writing would have included this information in pieces throughout the story, but the novel tries to hang on to its mystery for too long. Understandably, there's a lot of commentary on social media and internet anonymity (which is never really anonymous), but if there's a unified message on it, I'm not sure what it is.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Rather than the silly shootout between Manny and Frankie, where the reader in no way believes one of them is the killer (and can hardly believe that they actually think that), I think some villain perspective chapters would have been more effective from the point where they found Justice's body. It would have given Celia the chance to internally gloat about pulling off her plan and reveal some of the hows of the murders without the tedious news article, and it may have added to the suspense. All things considered though, killing off every character but the villain is a bit of a drag, and I still had some questions. Why are the snakes mentioned half a dozen times and never used as a murder weapon? How was Emma Jane intended to die, because falling off a cliff was awfully convenient?

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Hannah McKinnon is back with another dark thriller that will have you turning the pages late into the night! Lucas the main character is a devious cunning and charming psychopath that will have you laughing out loud at moments! You can't help but like and hate him at the same time! But it makes you wonder about yourself when you find yourself laughing at something a psychopath says. It was a little predictable but I loved the twists in this book! You don't really know who to trust and no one is what or who they seem to be. And the ending when everything finally came together was great! Overall it was a fun and addictive read!

Never Coming Home is an intense, fascinating story that examines our relationships to both social media and Influencers. Inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, ten Influencers are taken to an extremely exclusive mystery resort. Things are not all that they seem, and people start dying pretty quickly. I loved the pace and writing style, and this book was impossible to put down. It was interesting to get a look at the toll being popular on social media can have on a person, and I really enjoyed the exploration of the darker side of things behind the screens and photos that we all see. The Island was beautiful and was the perfect contrast to the horrors that happen there. I highly recommend this novel - it has all the makings of the perfect beach read! Thank you to the author for the Advanced Reader Copy.