Book Review: Dark of the Island

The cover says it well: "Two islands, two experiences," both enjoyable and well-written stories, both leaving the reader, at least this reader, with a different feeling at their end.

The first story, Island 6-17, the shorter of the two, is full of Joan's trademark twists and turns. She has created in a relatively brief fictional piece, several viable, believable characters and keeps us in suspense about what will happen to them, I must now say, right past the end.  It seems to me that there is potential for a sequel to this story, perhaps in the form of a spin-off, about what happens to one of the main characters who settles into life on the island. I didn't want to think of that person actually having the fate we are led to anticipate.  The individual does say that he or she is "on a mission" there. I want to know what that is!

The penal colony solution was highly intriguing to me, and while I have read Golding's classic Lord of the Flies, I suspect that Joan is very capable of thinking up several alternate ways to make a great story out of how people relegated to a life sentence on a remote, secluded island would manage their affairs. For one thing, in this story they are adults....and have much more life experience than the boys in Golding's novel...not that they would necessarily come to a better end, of course!  I hope Joan does write another story which will explore those possibilities.

The longer story is Honeymoon Island, so rich in botanical detail, which is essential to the tightly-crafted plot. The book's setting and mood are better developed than the two vacationing couples, who owing to my own flawed point of view, perhaps, seem a bit naive and could perhaps gain a bit more credibility from a few ...let's call them... personality glitches. That said, I did enjoy the casting together of a young and a mature couple, the latter who ended up being as vulnerable as the former despite their longer life experience.

 All throughout  this book,  Joan's deft and ample use of foreshadowing prepares the reader for the less than perfect adventure, all the while delaying and getting us to hope that the disaster looming at the book's end, whose nature was not only surprising but also quite ironic, is not really going to happen. The suspense begins right in the first chapter and never quits. Living so far from the tropics, one can easily see how  people would be beguiled by the island's aura of mystery. What's not to like out there in the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean?  Plenty, but you'll have to read the book to find out!

In both stories, Joan's especial talent lies in great dialogue and she also concocts plots that keep the reader wanting more. (Hear that, Joan?) I bet anything she will be happy to provide us with more great reading material...in her short stories, flash fiction, novels and yes, even an occasional poem, and you'll read them, or about them, right here.

Two thumbs up!

Dark of the Island is available for electronic reading devices here:

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Island-6-17-Honeymoon-ebook/dp/B00NGSTS2E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428754568&sr=1-1&keywords=dark+of+the+island+by+joan+scharf

For more from Joan, click on these links:

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Joan%20Scharf  (great stories!)

http://whitesboropoetrywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Joan%20O.%20Scharf (3 poems!)