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Bug Island
They destroyed the mighty Mayan Empire. What hope for a few shipwrecked survivors? A South American cruise. It should have been a once in a lifetime experience. And it was. But not in the way they imagined. Barely surviving a horrific shipwreck, the remaining passengers have to try and cope with finding food, water, shelter, let alone the constant arguments. And then there are the bugs. Not the sort that you squish and then get on with your day. Oh no. Toe biters, pond skaters, assassin bugs and harvestmen that drop down on top of their victims - all of these could be found in your garden. But on this lost island they are all at least twenty times their normal size. Trapped on an island with a six metre long giant centipede with armoured plates was not on the cruise itinerary. Now all they want is to get off - without being squished! "Anyone pack the bug spray?" BUG ISLAND is suitable for anyone aged 8 years and older.
226 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2010
4 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
R.G. Cordiner
8 books18 followersR.G. Cordiner is a primary teacher and author residing in Australia. Reading the works of Roald Dahl and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were early inspirations for his writing. Treasure Lost was his first book. He has subsequently released Candy Wars: The Tooth Fairies vs The Candy King, Bug Island, Alien Hunters: Discovery, Candy Wars II: Sweet Revenge and Treasure Lost II: Treasure Found. He is currently writing Return of the Elementals. He is married with two step-children, one psychotic cat and a dog. For more information go to cordiner.wordpress.com
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 16, 2011
A mysterious island that shouldn't exist suddenly appears on radar, a cruise ship hits an underwater mine, a group of survivors struggle to remain alive on a deserted island.... SCRNCH... err, wait, what was that? As the survivors come face to face with bizarre bugs that can't possibly be as big as they appear, they'll need every bit of courage and wit to stay alive. What *is* this place, anyway? And is there any way off?
Authored by a teacher, R.G. Cordiner, this story is written in a simplistic style for a younger audience. In all honesty, I'm a little torn on how I feel about the writing. Billed on one site as horror for a "young adult/teen" audience, and on another site as "middle grade novel" the actual writing style seems geared for the younger audience, or teens with much lower reading levels. With very simplistic sentences, short paragraphs, and many "sound effects" built in, I am picturing the writing as a read-aloud for younger children. I feel the actual content of the writing, however, is geared for a slightly older age category. I was so undecided on this issue, I passed the book on to my 10yo son and then asked him some questions when he was done reading. He thought the writing was a little too simple for his grade level (5th), but he was definitely interested in the storyline.
The characterization is also simple, but with enough distinction to differentiate the characters. The character of Zosimo bothered me a bit, however. I felt his speech patterns were inconsistent in the story. At times, he spoke in very broken English, later speaking in fairly fluid sentences, only to speak another broken sentence later. I really liked Fiona's character, and I felt she was the most developed of all of the characters. The characterization was, overall, appropriate for the level of writing. I think older audiences may want more, but it should be enough to satisfy the younger readers.
The ending offered great closure while still giving the reader something to think about for the future of the island. Not everything is tied up in a neat little package throughout the story, which is nice because of the unpredictability. You just don't know who is going to survive, and that lends a nice feeling of adventure and discovery throughout. The events did seem a bit sterile to me, and that may reflect upon the simplistic writing style. Additionally, the transitions between events and settings are sometimes delineated with a break, and sometimes not. Using consistent breaks would help the reader understand that a switch in point of view and setting just happened. Overall, a satisfying story and enjoyable read!
In the end, I asked my son what he would rate this book, as he really is the target audience. He actually gave me the exact number of stars I had already decided upon. Looks like he may follow in my footsteps....
3.5 /5 stars @ MotherLode blog
Authored by a teacher, R.G. Cordiner, this story is written in a simplistic style for a younger audience. In all honesty, I'm a little torn on how I feel about the writing. Billed on one site as horror for a "young adult/teen" audience, and on another site as "middle grade novel" the actual writing style seems geared for the younger audience, or teens with much lower reading levels. With very simplistic sentences, short paragraphs, and many "sound effects" built in, I am picturing the writing as a read-aloud for younger children. I feel the actual content of the writing, however, is geared for a slightly older age category. I was so undecided on this issue, I passed the book on to my 10yo son and then asked him some questions when he was done reading. He thought the writing was a little too simple for his grade level (5th), but he was definitely interested in the storyline.
The characterization is also simple, but with enough distinction to differentiate the characters. The character of Zosimo bothered me a bit, however. I felt his speech patterns were inconsistent in the story. At times, he spoke in very broken English, later speaking in fairly fluid sentences, only to speak another broken sentence later. I really liked Fiona's character, and I felt she was the most developed of all of the characters. The characterization was, overall, appropriate for the level of writing. I think older audiences may want more, but it should be enough to satisfy the younger readers.
The ending offered great closure while still giving the reader something to think about for the future of the island. Not everything is tied up in a neat little package throughout the story, which is nice because of the unpredictability. You just don't know who is going to survive, and that lends a nice feeling of adventure and discovery throughout. The events did seem a bit sterile to me, and that may reflect upon the simplistic writing style. Additionally, the transitions between events and settings are sometimes delineated with a break, and sometimes not. Using consistent breaks would help the reader understand that a switch in point of view and setting just happened. Overall, a satisfying story and enjoyable read!
In the end, I asked my son what he would rate this book, as he really is the target audience. He actually gave me the exact number of stars I had already decided upon. Looks like he may follow in my footsteps....
3.5 /5 stars @ MotherLode blog
July 19, 2011
I really liked this book. I was so intrigued with the concept that I bought and stayed glued reading for two solid hours. Best time I ever let slip away. I will never 'look' at a bug the same again. Just smash and run. That's all I can say...just smash and run. The bug description at the back of the book is a great addition. I recommend this book with a smile and a warning...smash and run.
May 9, 2012
3 1/2 stars
Interesting story, great descriptions of the bugs and how they killed the people. Would have liked to have more story when the fog was there.
Interesting story, great descriptions of the bugs and how they killed the people. Would have liked to have more story when the fog was there.
July 16, 2012
A cruise ship crashes near an island that wasn't there before.
July 17, 2018
Bug Island is a very strange book. Mostly, we (my 10- and 12-year-old sons and I) really did not like it. Often, there were random strings of letters representing sounds. What some of those sounds were supposed to sound like or represent, I have no idea. It was pretty graphic and often gross. Finding out what the bugs were was a bit disturbing and then the end was kind of sudden. The writing, however, was decent. The storytelling jumped between people/groups of people and that was quite effective. Those redeeming qualities just aren’t enough for me to recommend this book. It’s one you’ll probably want to skip.
August 2, 2011
This novel was impossible to take seriously; everything about it was so overdone and campy and ridiculous. And then the ending... Oh goodness it was terrible. And not like in a well-written, unhappy ending type terrible; it was a really dumb, "did that just happen", "really? really?" type terrible.
Apparently this author likes onomatopoeia. A lot. And every time it happened it got it's own paragraph, as if it were really important to the story. There were CRRNKs and CLNKs, RRRRs and ZZZZs, a bunch of AAUGHs, even a TCHBOOM or two. There were rarely more than two pages in a row without at least one such paragraph and most pages had multiple instances. It made the whole story seem over-the-top and (there's probably a better word, but the only one that comes to mind right now is) campy. And then the "She might not have cared so much if she had known that in three minutes she would be no more" and "but that didn't prepare them for what was to come" type writing just reinforced the tone. Were this a movie, the scenery would be thoroughly chewed every scene, the dialogue over dramatic, everything overacted with sickeningly dramatic music to boot.
Were it a movie, it might have been amusing based on how bad it was. For some reason, I don't have the same feeling about books.
Thanks to the writing it was really hard for me to think about the rest of it critically. One thing that I did learn from this book was that Daddy Longlegs are called Harvestmen elsewhere in the world. I'm sure that's a useful thing to know. And they spit acid! Umm, huh? Also, apparently centipedes are usually 30-40cm long (not the ones on the island, of course). Wait. No they're not. The ones around here are like 10cm at most. After a (admittedly brief) bit of research, it appears that the longest that exist max out at about 30cm. Luckily the appendix at the back of the story cites their usual length as being 30cm (still...) so we'll just pretend that I read it wrongly?
I suppose the spitting acid might be attributed to the fact that these bugs are 20 times their 'usual' size, so they're not exactly normal. It all just makes this story feel like a novelization of a bad horror film. Which doesn't work for me as a book, as I found out.
The whole plot was ridiculous. I can't think of a better word for it. The author wasn't very attached to the characters. Speaking of which, they were all super annoying to me. Nothing at all to make them in the least bit sympathetic or rounded. They were all just flat and hard to keep straight if their names weren't mentioned, as they all acted more or less the same by the end. Like what would probably happen if I tried to write a novel, which is indicative of a poorly-written novel, in my opinion.
Then the ending. I'll spoiler it, but I wouldn't recommend this book at all, so go ahead and read it if you want additional examples of how bad the book was.
So, I guess you can't expect to have a novel that can be taken seriously when the whole premise is based on something so very far out in left field, as they say. So perhaps it's my failing that I can't enjoy bad horror books as much as I might bad horror films.
But it's the very ending that takes the cake. The rest of the book wasn't overdone enough so the author needed to put on an ending that was completely expository to more or less explain why people should be worried. The concept of tacking this on to the end is, well, tacky, but then how it was so poorly done completely through the narrators exposition... it's bad. So if you'll excuse me, I'll try to restrain from pointing out all the things that are wrong with it and just close by quoting the last half of the epilogue:
Apparently this author likes onomatopoeia. A lot. And every time it happened it got it's own paragraph, as if it were really important to the story. There were CRRNKs and CLNKs, RRRRs and ZZZZs, a bunch of AAUGHs, even a TCHBOOM or two. There were rarely more than two pages in a row without at least one such paragraph and most pages had multiple instances. It made the whole story seem over-the-top and (there's probably a better word, but the only one that comes to mind right now is) campy. And then the "She might not have cared so much if she had known that in three minutes she would be no more" and "but that didn't prepare them for what was to come" type writing just reinforced the tone. Were this a movie, the scenery would be thoroughly chewed every scene, the dialogue over dramatic, everything overacted with sickeningly dramatic music to boot.
Were it a movie, it might have been amusing based on how bad it was. For some reason, I don't have the same feeling about books.
Thanks to the writing it was really hard for me to think about the rest of it critically. One thing that I did learn from this book was that Daddy Longlegs are called Harvestmen elsewhere in the world. I'm sure that's a useful thing to know. And they spit acid! Umm, huh? Also, apparently centipedes are usually 30-40cm long (not the ones on the island, of course). Wait. No they're not. The ones around here are like 10cm at most. After a (admittedly brief) bit of research, it appears that the longest that exist max out at about 30cm. Luckily the appendix at the back of the story cites their usual length as being 30cm (still...) so we'll just pretend that I read it wrongly?
I suppose the spitting acid might be attributed to the fact that these bugs are 20 times their 'usual' size, so they're not exactly normal. It all just makes this story feel like a novelization of a bad horror film. Which doesn't work for me as a book, as I found out.
The whole plot was ridiculous. I can't think of a better word for it. The author wasn't very attached to the characters. Speaking of which, they were all super annoying to me. Nothing at all to make them in the least bit sympathetic or rounded. They were all just flat and hard to keep straight if their names weren't mentioned, as they all acted more or less the same by the end. Like what would probably happen if I tried to write a novel, which is indicative of a poorly-written novel, in my opinion.
Then the ending. I'll spoiler it, but I wouldn't recommend this book at all, so go ahead and read it if you want additional examples of how bad the book was.
So, I guess you can't expect to have a novel that can be taken seriously when the whole premise is based on something so very far out in left field, as they say. So perhaps it's my failing that I can't enjoy bad horror books as much as I might bad horror films.
But it's the very ending that takes the cake. The rest of the book wasn't overdone enough so the author needed to put on an ending that was completely expository to more or less explain why people should be worried. The concept of tacking this on to the end is, well, tacky, but then how it was so poorly done completely through the narrators exposition... it's bad. So if you'll excuse me, I'll try to restrain from pointing out all the things that are wrong with it and just close by quoting the last half of the epilogue:
July 26, 2016
This was a rather boring book. Very slow. And I know it is a kids' book, but the attempts at onomatopoeia were very distracting. And there wasn't much resolution or explanation. It was a dissatisfying book.
September 29, 2011
Could have been MUCH better.
July 27, 2011
got for free for the kindle, quick read
October 22, 2011
Free Kindle book, probably aimed at tweens. Ridiculous piece of camp but quick and somewhat fun. It is Jurassic Park with bugs but without the plot and character development (ha-ha, I know).
November 4, 2012
Free book from Kindle. Worth just about what I paid for it.
It felt like a transcript of a B movie but with too many characters and very little character development.
It felt like a transcript of a B movie but with too many characters and very little character development.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews