REVIEW - MONSTER ISLAND: THE NOOSE - MONSTER ISLAND SERIES BY KATIE FRENCH

Title: Monster Island: The Noose

Series: Monster Island

Author: Katie French

Genre: YA, Action, Adventure, Thriller

Release Date: 12th November 2016

BLURB from Goodreads
My name is Kat Voss. 
I was kidnapped, along with other teenagers like me, and dropped on an island where creatures stalk us in the night. 
Then someone hung my twelve-year-old baby sister from a tree like bait. 
The voice on the other end of the camera tells us we have one hour to find her. 
What if I’m too late? 

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REVIEW

I received a free copy of this book directly from the author in exchange for my honest review.

I was certainly eager to read this one, wanting to know more about Kat, Lucca and Dev. As well as being super curious about the reasons why the teens were where they are and who had kidnapped them and taken them to this island. I had so many other questions after finishing reading Monster Island: Taken.

The cover of this book is very similar to Monster Island: Taken other than obviously the title "The Noose". This time we have a brown hue for the background colour. The trees are still there and this time though the title font has remained the same the colour is blue. Could this be suggesting the teens situation is improving? Is more light being shed on their situation?

I think specified genres of YA, mystery, thriller are still right but personally I feel it also has a bit of a dystopian, and horror edge to it aswell, maybe thats just me or because I have read other books by Katie French that are dystopian. I'll be interested to read what other readers would say on this. 

Monster Island: The Noose instantly picks up where Monster Island: Taken had left us and a certain character quite literally hanging! I felt immediately pulled back into the mystery, intrigue, and horror of the book as well as the characters dragging my back into their feelings of confusion and disbelief that they are in this situation at all. So we know that one of the younger characters is dangerously suspended from a tree in the forest somewhere. Kat and Lucca watch in horror as she is lowered towards whatever monsters are circling below her. Obviously petrified of being mauled by the animals she does as she is instructed to do, which is to look straight into the camera and scream hers sisters name whilst crying.  The electronic voice informas the teens they have on hour before the girl is lowered to the forest floor and the awaiting beasts!! Kat's reaction is naturally to run right out into the dark wilderness they are in, to attempt to find her sister. Lucca tries to use a more reserved common sense approach, that they need weapons, warm clothes etc.

We also get some flash back scenes from Lucca in The Noose. We learn he and his mother have recently been forced to leave and sell their beautiful home and most of their treasured possessions because "things have gone bad" for Lucca's father where he works. Lucca is annoyed as the move has of course upset his mum, whom he loves dearly and as his father is away for the majority of the time feels very protective towards. Lucca's relationship with his father is what at best I would call poor. 

In this book we have chapters from the point of view of four out the five characters featured in it. Five chapters of the story are told from Lucca's point of view so it makes sense we learn more about him, his interests, his family and begin to see he may have had a small clue or two that can explain just a little of clues that are being left around for the teens to find. We, the reader, also have two chapters from Kat, one from her sister Joslyn and a rather disturbing chapter from the perspective of Dev as he is tricked by a new character the teens meet on their search for weapons to defend themselves. Dev finds himself in the postition of meeting one of the teens captors, though not discovering their identity as they are masked. We do leave Dev in a really precarious situation, so we now have two characters lives "hanging" in the balance and their fates in the hands for the prople who kidnapped them. 

Again I found my favourite characters to be Kat, who continues to be a strong teenaged girl even in the face of the horror of seeing her sister being dangled above strange beasts in the forest. The other character I have taken most to is Lucca, you really do feel his emotions during his flashbacks. As we meet Lucca's family in the flashbacks, it also makes you think about what his mother may be going through, has she realised he is missing yet? Or because Lucca was allowed to leave school early, is his mother still oblivious to the danger her son is in?

Some of the questions I had from bk one, Monster Island Taken were answered, some of the answers are still fascinatingly obscure. I think for ever little clue to an answer the reader is given there are maybe another five questions that arise. So yes aspects in Monster Island: The Noose are still shrouded in mystery and secrecy.

I read this book in just one sitting and as I came to the end have to admit to shouting (silently in my head) "You cannot be serious! You can't be leaving this book here, now?" So to say Monster Island: The Noose left me wanting more is an understatement!! 

What else can I say about this series other than I am enthusiastically, though a little impatiently awaiting more! I certainly recommend this series so far!