On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves – a Review

On the Island is the debut novel of Tracey Garvis-Graves. It is the story of two people who are stranded on an island, forced to help each other survive.  But this is not your normal survival story. It is more about the two individuals, who must overcome insurmountable odds to survive, and along the way, learn to trust and care for one another.  When I first read the premise of this story, I hesitated, as I knew at some point, the two characters would eventually progress to a relationship that might not sit well with me. But based on the wonderful feedback I went on to read this, and I am glad I did.  I loved On the Island.

We meet Anne Emerson right from start.  Anna is a 30 year old teacher, who is currently in a long relationship that is going nowhere.  She wants commitment, a family, and her boyfriend just wants status quo.  Anna decides to take a job for the summer to join a family on a vacation to a tropical island and tutor their 16 year old son, who is currently recovering from Hodgkin’s disease, and he needs tutoring to catch up.

TJ Callahan wants to spend time with his friend Ben, and gets his family to agree to let him join them on the island a few days later, allowing him to fly with Anna.  Circumstances force them to take a private seaplane that will bring them to where TJ’s family is staying.  Since this is somewhat of a survival story, the pilot of the plane has a heart attack and dies, and the plane crashes.  In their life jackets, TJ manages to help Anna, who is unconscious, to find safety in the treacherous waters to an island….an island that is deserted. 

What follows is an amazing tale of survival.  How each worked together to survive each day, in frightening and at times horrendous situations.  What I loved was watching their realistic adventure; finding food, such has coconuts or breadfruit, eventually fish; each coming up with serious injuries or fevers, and helping one another to recover; meeting and playing with the dolphins; even find the chicken who became their pet, building a small house off the beach; and all the scary storms, shark, rats. 

But what I found so wonderful was how Tracey Garvis-Graves brought these two wonderful characters to life.  At the time of the crash, Anna was the responsible one, and you loved Anna from the start.  TJ was a typical teenager, who would gawk at the beautiful Anna.  He developed a teenage crush, but kept it to himself.   Anna would take it upon herself to avoid any possible situations, making sure TJ knew not to follow her when she would bath.  They started out as teacher and student, then became great friends, and eventually as the years went passed on the island, and TJ grew into a wonderful caring young man, they did become lovers.   But it was done so well, and Anna knew if they were ever to be found, she would have to face the consequences.  But on the island after 4 years of surviving each day, they both came to depend on each other, learn everything about each other,  take care of each other, enjoy the little fun they had together, and they fell in love.  

Just when they figured they would never be found, and each worried something would happen to the other, leaving one of them alone to survive, an occurrence happens that though very scary brings them what they never thought would happen….discovery.

You would think this story ends, but the story continues as they must face the media, their own families, and their love for each other.  This was done so realistically, and I am totally impressed with Tracey Garvis-Graves writing.  She made this story so believable, so beautiful, and even when they did become lovers, Garvis-Graves handled it so well. The possible stigma when they come home, even though TJ was now 20 and not a teenager anymore, Anna’s concern that TJ needed to discover what he may have missed, the meetings of both families.  This added on to the story and it was wonderful.  I recommend this to anyone to read, as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As an added note, Tracey Garvis-Graves had her book rejected 17 times, before she decided to self publish this book.  340,000 ecopies sold later, and entrance on the NY Times bestseller list, Tracey was offered a book deal by Plume/Penquin.  If you read one book this year, you won’t go wrong by choosing On The Island. 

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Barnes & Noble : Link
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Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher