Review: A treat for fans of On the Island!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 15, 2013
Uncharted is a sweet treat for fans of Tracey Garvis-Graves's On the Island. It really needs to be read after that book to fully be appreciated, so if you haven't read that book ... do it! It is a great survival/love story. I adored it!In this story we get to find out exactly who "Bones" is. Bones is what TJ and Anna named the skeleton found in the tiny cave on their deserted island. As On the Island ended it seemed as if the belongings and the skeleton might belong to a somewhat reclusive dot.com millionaire, Owen. That's all we learned. After all, that wasn't really the focus of that story. Well, in this story we get to find out exactly what happened to Owen ... from Owen himself. After years of secluding himself and avoiding most media, Owen comes across a story about TJ and Anna and their ordeal on the island ... an island that he had spent more than a year, not as a castaway, but as a fairly high end tourist. Unlike TJ and Anna who had no choice in their situation, Owen had decided to go to the island to get away from all of the modern life that was slowly choking him to death. He had a luxury that TJ and Anna did not have, regular deliveries from the mainland. Once Owen discovers TJ and Anna's story he travels to meet the two who are now married with three children, living a fairly normal life. The reason for this visit is that he feels like he needs to explain who Bones really was and how he came to end up in that cave. Owen feels tremendous guilt for how this happens, but he also feels a need to share the events that occur that kept him away from the island, events that will have had a great effect on TJ and Anna. That's the story. And it is a good one.This is only a novella, and usually novella's have a tendency to feel almost rushed or unfinished, telling stories that maybe deserved a little more time if they are worth telling at all. This story didn't feel that way at all. It had exactly the right pace, and it ended perfectly. We get the chance to meet TJ and Anna again, which is great, but their story doesn't really dominate this one. This is Owen's story, a story that begins with a man who just wanted to get away from it all, but eventually learns that he needs human interaction and love more than anything the island offers for him to find peace.What I liked:I loved getting the chance to go back to the island, this time in a more ideal situation. Comparing Owen's situation to the horrible situations that TJ and Anna were thrown into was fascinating. All of the sudden, things that seemed so daunting and terrifying in On the Island seemed more like a fun adventure when Owen was going through them.I also enjoyed seeing TJ and Anna again and feeling the strength that they still were for each other. "Reunion" stories can sometimes come across as horribly hokey, but this one seemed just right. I think that was because this was not a story about them, just a story about something that could have taken their lives in a totally different direction if things had gone differently. It is interesting to think about how one little decision can keep us from what seems like the best path in life, but instead take us in a new, more difficult direction. But sometimes the blessings that come from the harder path make the journey totally worth it. That is what TJ and Anna's story shows.So, like I say, this is a great companion novella for those of us who are already On the Island fans. I highly recommend it for those who need a little more time "on the island." Four stars.