Review: Super-Stunner YA: Cutting-Edge Science-Paranormal-Adventure
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 15, 2012
Review of EightMile Island by Tony Talbot5 StarsA new super-stunner from prolific and excellent YA author Tony Talbot, "Eight Mile Island" kept me on the edge throughout, with its intricate interweaving of cutting-edge scientific experimentation and paranormal elements, realistic characters, isolated (even spooky) locale, beautiful setting, and 1000-mile-an-hour plotting. I could not put this novel down until I'd finished it, and once I'd reach the denouement and thought, "Well-so it's over," I had more surprises. Absolutely loved this story.Genius-level intellect Dylan James possesses some useful skills: hacking computer databases, an eidetic memory, and escaping boarding schools. He won't find escaping so easy now, on Eight Mile Island, an isolated locale off the Oregon coast, with an abandoned lighthouse at one end, and an equally abandoned former nuclear-era bunker underneath the surface. Advanced placement courses aren't sufficient to keep Dylan's interest, nor assuage his continuing rage over the death of his father-and the nightmares and other bizarre events, in the forest and in his own mind, as well as the mysteries of the other students, the administration and faculty, and whoever lurks in those woods.I highly recommend this exciting story, for both YA readers and adults.Reviewed for Goodreads Group Making Connections YA Edition, copy received from the author Tony Talbot, in return for my fair and impartial review.