By Ekta R. Garg
June 22, 2022
Genre: YA thriller
Release date: June 21, 2022
Rated: Bypass it / 2 stars
Ten social media influencers find themselves on a remote desert island, lured by false promises of a dream vacation. When the influencers start dying one at a time, they realize that someone is out for murder. Author Kate M. Williams gives a modern twist to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None but doesn’t offer compelling characters or much of a plot in the dismal book Never Coming Home.
Everyone in the world has heard about the amazing offer. An anonymous person or maybe an organization has set up Unknown Island, a remote destination in the middle of the ocean, for luxury vacations. To launch the resort and all of its fabulous amenities, ten invitations have gone out to social media influencers. Not all of them are well-known, but they’re all rising stars and all under the age of 21.
They also fit in separate, distinct niches: a beauty blogger; a young prodigy chef; a rising political star; an environmentalist; and more. All of the participants have two things in common: social media made them who they are, and they’re all responsible, in some way, for someone’s death. They don’t discover the last fact until they’ve all arrived on the island, however.
When the last of the ten gets to the resort, they’re dismayed to find out that the slick videos of happy people playing in the sand with a backdrop of the most luxurious amenities is nothing but a huge lie. The accommodations are barely more than shacks, there’s some food but a bizarre mix of it, and there are no employees or staff to take care of anyone. What kind of place is this?
The visitors start to find out as they receive letters detailing the fact that they’re all connected to murder in some way. Then the first one of them dies, and their annoyance at their secrets being revealed turns into fear. When the second influencer dies, that fear turns into downright terror.
As the visitors start dropping one after another, the remaining influencers try to work out who is targeting them. Other than their social media presence and their dark secrets, they have absolutely nothing in common. Who wants them dead and why?
Author Kate M. Williams tries to take the premise behind And Then There Were None and give it a 21st-century upgrade, but the translation doesn’t work. With ten influencers to keep track of and everyone getting time and space on the page to share their thoughts and feelings, readers will soon stop trying to figure out or remember who is who and what they each did wrong. This lack of connection with any one visitor to the island—and absolutely no insight into who the murderer is—might make readers impatient to get to the end just to find out who is killing everyone.
The book opens just before the first influencer reaches the island, so without much buildup or emotional attachment readers may find themselves only mildly interested in why each person is dying. The deaths of the island visitors are gruesome and come fast and furious. By the end of their first day of on the island, nearly half of the group is dead.
Readers may wonder what the point of it all is. A “twist” at the end reveals the killer’s identity, but not much is shared about the motivation. Instead of an “aha” moment, readers might experience more of a “huh?” at the end.
Those wanting something fast and easy to read that doesn’t require much reader involvement might want to check this out. Otherwise, I recommend readers Bypass Never Coming Home.