On the Island

By: Tracey Garvis Graves

Narrated by: Heidi Baker

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

When 30-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost 17 and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter.

Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return.

As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

©2011 Tracey Garvis-Graves (P)2012 Tracey Garvis-Graves

Good Story, Bad Narration

As other reviews state, the narration isn't great. She spoke fast and upbeat, even in dire situations. She didn't try changing her voice for different characters and this sometimes made it hard to decipher which character was talking. But, it is a good story and I'm glad I didn't quit listening.

liked the book, not so much the narrator

I can appreciate that I would have loved this book a lot more if it had been voiced by a different narrator or I had read it myself. I still liked it a lot!

story was pretty good

I like the story. I'm big on survival type books. a little unbelievable with all this convenient things that washed up on shore. the age difference didn't bother me at all. he was an adult when they got together. I like the characters, and I liked how there was a huge chunk after they left the island, and tried to function in society again. the worst part for me was the narrator. I've listened to books she read before and she always drives me crazy. it sounds like a valley girl twirling her hair saying oh my god. she literally did at some points.

Loved this book!

I absolutely loved this book and the narrator. I listened to this book in 1 day, I was completely drawn in by the story. You will fall in love with the characters and find yourself rooting for them. The narrator was great, I listen to a lot of audio books and the narrator can really make or break a book. This narrator was perfect!

Leave narrator stranded

What did you like best about On the Island? What did you like least?

Pleasant distraction.
Missed opportunity to explore more social themes. Degenerates into a teenage romance novel.

Has On the Island turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Yes. Annoying voice. Sounded like a 78 rpm replay of a 45 rpm record.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Unexpectedly good

I read this while on a Caribbean vacation; it was a great place to read it. Mixture of adventure, romance and human psyche. Sort of like a "shipwrecked" story but much more. Especially about how young people grow up under unusual circustances and world. I recommend this book.

Not as good as I'd hoped

The story began well but dragged on the island and became a little too unrealistic for me to let my disbelief suspend. The virus and diseases they contracted absolutely would have killed them. And based on how long they were on the island, they would have DEFINITELY began a relationship before they did. However, everything post-island was significantly better and I was happy with the ending.

The "romantic" side of this romantic novel was minimal. There were moments when the writer seemed to want to go for detailed and dirty descriptions, and then stopped short. It seemed unbalanced in that way.

The narration was amateurish. She did well with Anna's chapters, but mostly did nothing to change the tambour of her voice when speaking as TJ, so it became confusing at times. The producer would have done well to have hired a male actor to read TJ's chapters.

Good book, probably a better read than listen..

Where I liked the narrator's voice, this book is told my the male and female perspective. Her voice didn't change at all for TJs chapters and I had a hard time telling them apart. I did like the story but I think I would have liked it much more if I had read it.

Favorite

One of my all time favs! I absolutely love the story, so unique! The narration takes a bit of getting used too. It's not awful but the narrator speaks super fast.

Just ok

What did you like best about On the Island? What did you like least?

It was a nice, cheesy love story.

How could the performance have been better?

It was extremely unrealistic.

Any additional comments?

I found the narrator's voice to be slightly irritating