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A review by shieldbearer
Escape by Gordon Korman
4.0
Island: Escape, the last part of Korman's adventure trilogy, may give away the ending with its title, but it manages to maintain the suspense until the end of the novel. Korman has many plot elements going on here- Will's bullet injury, JJ's insistence that their situation has been entirely staged by the company they set to sea with, the discovery of an atomic bomb from World War II on the island, smugglers, and the tension and dynamics within the group.
On nearly every review I have written for Korman's work, if not all of them, I have commented on his strong characterization and dynamics, and it really comes into full force in the last installment of Island. JJ Lane fills the typical "Spoiled rich brat" role, but his psychology is far from stereotypical. At first, JJ Lane can't come to terms with the events that have befallen them- partly because he knows that if all of this is real, then the captain's death was largely his fault and that he cannot deny the responsibility of that death. He and Lyssa were originally thought dead at the end of the first installment, but rather the two of them were in a lifeboat with emergency supplies and food, so they did not experience the hardships of thirst and sunburn like the other characters did. He spends the majority of the story in denial, but when the kids make a hard call to save the life of one of their own, JJ finally has to face reality. He knows that the reform company would not allow the children to proceed on the course they have chosen- if only for liability's sake, and the public firestorm that would ensue- so he finally accepts this is real. And when he does, JJ takes responsibility for his own actions and does what he can to serve everyone else on the island.
Korman's entire trilogy is excellently plotted and his character arcs are full and rich. Korman makes excellent use of the protracted length of the book and packs a lot in without making it feel rushed or overly dramatic. My one complaint is the ending. I believe it was a bit abrupt- there was only two pages worth of a denouement- but overall, this was an engaging, breathless read.
On nearly every review I have written for Korman's work, if not all of them, I have commented on his strong characterization and dynamics, and it really comes into full force in the last installment of Island. JJ Lane fills the typical "Spoiled rich brat" role, but his psychology is far from stereotypical. At first, JJ Lane can't come to terms with the events that have befallen them- partly because he knows that if all of this is real, then the captain's death was largely his fault and that he cannot deny the responsibility of that death. He and Lyssa were originally thought dead at the end of the first installment, but rather the two of them were in a lifeboat with emergency supplies and food, so they did not experience the hardships of thirst and sunburn like the other characters did. He spends the majority of the story in denial, but when the kids make a hard call to save the life of one of their own, JJ finally has to face reality. He knows that the reform company would not allow the children to proceed on the course they have chosen- if only for liability's sake, and the public firestorm that would ensue- so he finally accepts this is real. And when he does, JJ takes responsibility for his own actions and does what he can to serve everyone else on the island.
Korman's entire trilogy is excellently plotted and his character arcs are full and rich. Korman makes excellent use of the protracted length of the book and packs a lot in without making it feel rushed or overly dramatic. My one complaint is the ending. I believe it was a bit abrupt- there was only two pages worth of a denouement- but overall, this was an engaging, breathless read.