~Review by Jonas Merricksson

I’m terribly behind with this review…

What starts as a game turns deadly in an instant. Olive enters what is supposed to be a simple corn maze. But this maze has a dark past. Olive ends up on a desolate island where a feud rates between two tribes of teens, all who, like Olive, disappeared from various locations around the world. Why have they been kidnapped? And why are these two groups fighting?

With The Castaways, Fleck has merged elements of Survivor, Lord of the Flies, and Maze Runner, and made Survivor seem far more interesting. These kids are from many places, many eras in time. They don’t age, but the threat of violent death is all to real. I found this to be a well-written story, with good pacing. These are characters one can really care about. Fleck doesn’t shirk away from the darker side if humanity. There is violence here, and, touching closer to real life, depictions of extreme bullying. I would go so far as to say the latter is a trigger warning.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for the chance to review this book.