Helpful Score: 2
This book pulls out all the stops! Realistically mysterious, it follows a man who is drawn to investigate an island with a mysterious creature sighted on it. What he finds is a religious cult led by a crazed man. The protagonist rescues the daughter, who has a very strange deformity, and just when you think you understand the book - Bam! The whole plot turns inside out. Mo Hayder can make thrills of excitement and suspense merge with awe and fear. This is a psychological masterpiece which will stay with you!
This was a very good thriller with lots of twists and turns. I liked the ways the characters interacted and I definitely did not expect the ending.
* * ½ * Hoax debunker travels to a remote island to investigate the validity of a mysterious videotape, and the disappearance of a rival cult leader.
Begins disturbing and ominous, however the conclusion (billed as the surprise ending), is weak and insulting.
Begins disturbing and ominous, however the conclusion (billed as the surprise ending), is weak and insulting.
I thought this book was a great read. It had an interesting plot with nice action. It was nice to read a horror/suspense that could actually happen.
Wow. This was good but WAY messed up... Mo Hayder is a strange, strange woman. I did enjoy reading this, but part of the mystery was given away by reading the acknowledgments. And there were definite hints to the ending twist... it does seem to beg for a sequel, as there were a few loose ends (particularly how the very end worked out...) but, all in all, I really enjoyed reading this. I am, however, at a total loss as to what to read next, though I will definitely keep an eye for more of this woman's work.
I've read a few other novels by Hayder including a couple in the Jack Caffery series and the stand alone novel The Devil of Nanking. I thought all of these were well written suspense novels and would highly recommend them. PIG ISLAND was also intense and suspenseful but not quite as good as my previous Hayder reads. The story is about a journalist, Oaksey, who debunks a Jim Jones-like faith healer, Malichi Dove, twenty years prior to the narrative of this novel which mainly takes place on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. When an amateur video comes to light showing a mysterious tailed creature on the island, who many think may be the devil incarnate, Oaksey decides to investigate hoping to get a scoop on the story. But he ends up getting caught up in some really bizarre and grisly events. It turns out that Dove now resides on one side of the island and is in conflict with a religious group that resides on the other side. This conflict turns deadly when Oaksey confronts Dove on the island.
There are a lot of twists and surprises in the novel and the secret behind the mysterious video came as quite a shock. Then there was another twist at the end of the novel that was quite surprising. Overall, this one kept my interest but I didn't find it as compelling as the other Hayder novels I have read.
There are a lot of twists and surprises in the novel and the secret behind the mysterious video came as quite a shock. Then there was another twist at the end of the novel that was quite surprising. Overall, this one kept my interest but I didn't find it as compelling as the other Hayder novels I have read.
A professional skeptic goes to Pig Island to verify or not the authenticity of a video capture of a humanoid with a tail... the Devil himself? Some grotesque, mostly psychological.
I couldn't put this book down and don't know why it only has 3 and a half stars. I thought it was the best. Creepy, horrific, and extremely well written.
