Contemporary Authors

An interview with Olivia Levez debut author of The Island

Thanks to Vivienne Dacosta @Serendipity_Viv for allowing us to repost this lovely interview with Olivia about the writing and publishing process of her debut novel The Island. You can follow Olivia on twitter @livilev

…………………………………..
Day 5 already of the Debuts of 2016! Where is the time flying to? I am really enjoying hearing about the hopes and fears of our forthcoming debuts. Today I am pleased to welcome Olivia Levez as one of our featured authors of 2016.

Olivia’s book The Island is published in March by One World Publications.
***

What did you do when you found out you were going to be published?
I was at school, teaching 11YMI or 9XJU or 8YLE, all the while secretly listening for my phone buzzing from the drawer where I keep controlled assessments. My agent Clare was due to text me about book offers after an exciting day visiting publishers in London. Impossible to concentrate on Of Mice and Men or Macbeth or poetry analysis or learning objectives or success criteria or differentiation or where the heck I’d put the carrier bag containing that class’s exercise books. ‘Miss’ did her best, and kept darting back to her drawer if the class was one of those that could be trusted to get on without someone kicking off or falling off their chair accidentally-on-purpose.
My TA kept whispering, ‘have you heard yet?’ and other teachers I rarely spoke to kept coming up to me: ‘Have you heard yet?’
‘No,’ I kept saying. ‘Not yet.’ All the time in the back of my mind wondering if the offer/advance would be significant enough to a) pay my mortgage off and b) get George Clarke from Amazing Spaces to come and build me a writing shed at the bottom of my garden.
My phone buzzed.
A text from Clare.
Okay, so I wasn’t going to be getting George in to build me a treehouse/gypsy caravan/hobbit hole any time soon, but here it was: a Real. Live. Offer.
And then another. And another. Three from which to choose!
This is where an agent comes in. Clare held out and negotiated to get me a little more money, and set a deadline for the final offers to come in. Definitely not skills I possess.
My own children listened very nicely when I told them, and showed polite interest. After all, I’d had near misses with being published before, so it was more of a, ‘so, is it actually real this time, Mum?’ response. My friends at a theatre visit that evening bought me surprise prosecco when I told them, and I did feel fairly starry until a friend who arrived late thought I must be celebrating being pregnant!
And then a wonderful weekend in London, having lunch with Clare whilst we decided which publisher to go with, and I stayed with my husband in a hotel opposite Fortnum and Mason, looking all over London and rereading the letters and offers.
A text from Sarah Odedina, looking forward to working with me.
And so it began.
How has your life changed since getting a book deal?
Mostly, life stays the same: it’s still you, alone at your laptop, tapping away.
Life continues as before. Work. Home. Writing. Work. Home. Writing.
But there are occasional lovely perks: meeting bloggers at my publishers, Oneworld, in their gorgeous Georgian townhouse offices on Bloomsbury Street. (Even the word Bloomsbury always seems wonderfully literary and evocative.) Being given the opportunity to talk about my book to fellow book addicts, and listening to Sarah Odedina pitch my book so thoughtfully and skilfully, and thinking, there’s someone I am really glad is on my side. Lunch with Sarah O, discussing book Two, full of ideas and passion and enthusiasm. ‘This is my favourite part of working in publishing,’ she told me, stabbing at her egg with her fork.
Increased Twitter action, when proofs are sent out, when the cover is revealed. An exciting photo from Frankfurt, seeing an enormous poster of my book placed next to other Oneworld books: Behavioural Economics Saved my Dog and the Booker Prize winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James.
And in between, lots of hard work: the many layers that build a book – restructuring, more restructuring, line edits, copy edits, proof reading, more proof reading. And publicity stuff: writing press releases, blog posts for bloggers (thank you, Vivienne), Words and Pictures magazine, message in a bottle to go with early proofs, author videos, more visits to Oneworld offices to meet journos…
I have realised that copy edits give me nausea if I stare at them too long (I think I am actually allergic to them.) So every two hours, my little dog, Basil, is taken on yet another walk, much to his delight (he really likes copy edits).
The other thing that has changed is what to answer to that favourite question of hairdressers: what job do you do? Which to choose: teacher or writer? It still feels incredibly pretentious to say, ‘Oh, I’m an author.’ The reaction is always the same. Students (politely impressed): ‘So will you be really rich then, Miss?’ Others: ‘Are they going to make a film of it?’ and ‘Will you give me a (free) signed copy?’
But mostly, life goes on as before. The buzz of reaching your ‘ultimate goal’ of being published soon settles into another goal of actually selling books.
And so it continues.
What is your biggest fear about publication?
I always thought standing in front of thirty students and having an Ofsted inspector walk in with a clipboard and settle herself down in your classroom was pretty fearful, but there are more subtle horrors associated with being an author. Here’s my current list:
Bad reviews. Being tempted to obsessively trawl the internet, comparing myself with other authors. Not selling any books. Getting brain freeze with second book. School visits. (Even though I’ve been a teacher for twenty years, talking to pupils about your own book instead of other people’s is like ripping your heart and guts out and leaving them out in the sun for birds to peck.) Assembled rows of sardonic eyes, coolly appraising, then stifling a yawn and nudging friends. Nobody coming to my launch party. Pressing ‘send’ and then finding a glaring error. Being too pushy. Not being pushy enough. Being invisible. Not being liked.
But the worst fear of all is doing nothing about your dreams. Statis. Stagnation. Creative vortex. Stultification. Death without creation. The worst fear, in the words of T S Eliot, is ‘to measure out your life with coffee spoons.’
How to combat fear
‘Always do what you’re afraid to do.’ I copied this motto from the wonderful book, We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart. I have a signed poster of it on my classroom wall, and it’s a great maxim for life.
Richard Branson: ‘If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say yes and learn how to do it later.’ Another great maxim.
Read Quiet, by Susan Cain. Feel the power of thoughtfulness, observation, listening skills, empathy, persistence, planning, patience. Lose the label ‘shy’ and reinvent yourself as a Quiet. Nearly all writers are secret Quiets. Even the ones who entertain children effortlessly, whilst dressed up as pirates, space crusaders, sea dwellers. Find your niche. Take Candy Gourlay’s advice and ‘be shiny’.
Advice: Survival tips for pre-published writers
Always act like an author. At SCBWI, you are not unpublished, you are prepublished. There is a difference. It’s all in the mindset. How do you act like an author? Have authorly habits. Write 1000 words a day, like Stephen King, or keep a dream diary like Will Self, or start a crit group (you only need one other person to make it successful, but 5 is ideal). If you are a teacher, start a writing club and give assemblies to ‘sell’ it to students, cunningly weaving in your own journey so far. Teachers, you are lucky; you are surrounded by your demographic.
Keep all those rejection letters. Print them out and put on a nail (and later, a spike – see Stephen King again) because you will need those to refer to when you are rich and famous. To fail is part of every learning journey. Share your failures with kids at schools and with crit friends. Learn from feedback. If you get a personal response in an agent rejection, give yourself an air-punch.
Remember that the slushpile is not a lottery. Despite its slithering layers that are 14000 high (or something), 70 % (I’m just making up figures here) will be from writers who are not SCBWI members/are not part of a crit group/are trying their luck/can’t write/wrong genre/age group/haven’t read the submission guidelines properly/are mad.
Most people claim they want to write a novel. But only 5% actually do this. So, by being in that 5%, you have already proved yourself to have authorly skills of persistence, tenacity, resilience, stamina, patience, ambition, drive, willpower, and being completely anti-social for sustained periods.
Keep going. Get beaten down. Pick yourself up. Keep going. And repeat. There is no time limit. You have all of your life. Be patient. Keep going. It will happen.
Have you seen the book cover, and how did it make you feel?
Nathan Burton, who designed The Island’s book jacket, used to work with Sarah O at Bloomsbury, and he did the iconic cover of Holes by Louis Sacher – the one with the lizard and the blue sky and the desert. He’s also designed covers for Patricia Highsmith’s novels, which is very exciting, as I adore her Ripley books.
Sarah O showed me the jacket, and it was a really strange feeling, looking at another person’s vision and concept of your book. A sort of out of body experience. It has a fresh, naïve style and I think will really stand out on the shelves. It reminds me of contemporary YA books like Jandy Nelson’s I Give You the Sun or Non Pratt’s Trouble or Annabel Pitcher’s Ketchup Clouds.
Everyone was adamant about it not having a girl’s photograph on the cover, to keep a more abstract feel. I like the simplicity of it, the artist’s mark-making and pared back style. The loneliness experienced by my castaway character, Fran, is represented by the scribbled-in mountains, and the framing of the island itself.
The only thing we changed was the figure of the girl, to make her more edgy, and Sarah managed to add a little dog on the spine, which is adorable. My own Jack Russell, Basil, agreed to model for this drawing, so I sent some photos of him (he’s seriously photogenic.) Oh, and I have a name with lots of Ls and Vs, which weren’t very clear in cursive script, so I asked if they could be separated a little, and changed to a darker colour, to make my name stand out. What a diva!

My real little dog, and constant writing companion, Basil.
***
Thank you Olivia for a most encouraging post. Good luck with your debut year.

OLIVIA LEVEZ
Hello and welcome to my website. I'm Olivia Levez, the author of 'The Island' and the soon-to-be-released 'The Circus', which are both published by Rock the Boat at Oneworld.
My books for teens have been described as contemporary, page-turning and a little bit heart-breaking.
My first novel, The Island, has been nominated for the Worcestershire Teen Book Award 2016 (WTBA).
It is the castaway story of Fran, who finds herself fighting to survive on a desert island. Emotionally charged and suspense-filled, if you like survival books like Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins, then this one's for you.
Authors whose books I love are Sarah Crossan, Tanya Byrne, E. Lockhart, Sally Nicholls and Lisa Heathfield.

ABOUT
I'm an English teacher with over twenty years' experience.
I binge write in school holidays in my caravan by the sea.
I am interested in characters that transform, characters that survive and characters that escape.
​I like dogs, yoga and real ale.
I like to 'method write'. When writing The Island, I foraged like my main character, and lived mainly on coconut water, porridge and Cuppa Soup. I found many weird and wonderful survival tips when researching this book.

The Island by Olivia Levez – review
‘It’s strong, raw, harsh and filled with the kind of uncut emotion that will leave you stunned and feeling it all’

XoXo, BOOK WORM_98
Saturday 14 May 2016 04.00 EDT Last modified on Monday 6 February 2017 09.22 EST

“I feel kind of wild and free. Blood, hair, teeth. I am all animal.”

Frances Stanton isn’t your average girl. Not that she’s extraordinary; she’s different. If people really looked at her, she could have been extraordinary, but nobody did. She was just written off as different; strange.

But how do we really know what someone is like, and what they’re going through? Her mum is an alcoholic prostitute, her dad ran away before the stick turned blue, her mum’s boyfriend/client is an asshole and the one person she thought she could trust called in social services and got her brother – who now thinks she’s a monster – taken away.

So she did something terrible, for retaliation, for revenge. To make the world hurt and to make it all burn. And now she’s being shipped off to a remote island to improve her Team Skills and make herself a better person.

the island by olivia levez
Until the plane crashes, and instead of making it to the island she was supposed to, she’s stranded on another with no food, water or shelter. Oh, and no people.

The Island is about what you’re willing to do, how far you’re willing to go and how much of yourself you’re willing to sacrifice to survive. It’s strong, raw, harsh and filled with the kind of uncut emotion that will leave you stunned and feeling it all.

Extremely well detailed, Olivia Levez’s novel manages to capture the stages of survival; how modesty or proper food becomes a thing of the past when you don’t know if you’ll be alive to see the sun rise tomorrow. I loved the transition; it scared me, but it was beautifully written.

I suppose the only thing I didn’t really understand was (not that I’ve done any research on it) was why delinquents are getting shipped to a remote island in Indonesia, with instructors only a year or two above eighteen? It didn’t make any sense that a rehabilitation and nurturing method of correction would take place in a harsh, isolated environment.

I give this book 4 stars. If you’re looking for haunting writing, then Olivia Levez’s book is one you should pick up.

The Island

Olivia Levez. Rock the Boat (PGW, dist.), $9.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-78074-859-7

Levez’s debut captures the emotional journey of 16-year-old Frances Stanton, one of a plane full of British juvenile delinquents and camp staffers headed to a skills-based intervention on an Indonesian island. When the plane crashes, Frances reaches a deserted island with few supplies, where she struggles to find food, water, and shelter among sharks and poisonous plants. With a dog as her only companion, Frances faces painful memories of her family back home, including her ill mother, her half-brother, and her mother’s lecherous boyfriend. Through short chapters, Levez effortlessly balances Frances’s past, present, and imagined future, including vivid flashbacks of her home life and acts of retaliation against a well-meaning teacher. After a storm hits, Frances meets another survivor, Rufus, whose prescriptive habits cause friction. Their relationship moves from rocky to companionable, but when food runs low and Rufus lands in a dire situation, Frances must find a way off the island to save her newfound friend. Echoing O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, Levez’s story will keep readers riveted as determined, hard-edged Frances fights to survive. Ages 13–up. Agent: Clare Wallace, Darley Anderson Literary. (Sept.)

THE ISLAND
by Olivia Levez
Age Range: 13 - 16
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KIRKUS REVIEW

A teen struggles against both nature and her own past experiences in a reflective survival tale.

Sixteen-year-old Frances Stanton considers herself a monster. She likens herself to the gorgon Medusa, longs to be as emotionless as a rock, and drops dark hints about the crime that landed her on an airplane bound for a rehabilitative adventure experience. When that plane crashes into the Indian Ocean en route to Indonesia, Frances climbs aboard a life raft, floating to a small island. Levez keeps the stakes agonizingly high as Fran fights for her life, making incremental gains, trying to prevent catastrophic losses, and slowly forging a deep bond with another castaway, Rufus. (Both characters seem to be white.) Events on the island alternate with Fran’s memories of what led up to her current situation: she set fire to a wing of her London school, seriously (though accidentally) injuring a young teacher who, intending to help, was responsible for the removal into protective custody of Fran’s biracial younger brother, Johnny. Fran is intensely protective of Johnny against both their mother, Cassie—a rather pathetic figure dependent on pot and alcohol—and Cassie’s predatory boyfriend and quasi-pimp. Readers will quickly see that conditions on the island are more physically dangerous than in Fran’s squalid apartment—but much less emotionally treacherous.

Not all readers will embrace this novel’s haunting, open-ended conclusion, but those who do will find much to appreciate and discuss. (Adventure. 13-16)

Pub Date: Sept. 13th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78074-859-7
Page count: 288pp
Publisher: Rock the Boat/Oneworld
Review Posted Online: June 22nd, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1st, 2016

Review: The Island by Olivia Levez
April 8th, 2016 in Review - 2 comments
I received this book for free from the publisher. This did not affect my opinion or the content of this review.
The Island by Olivia Levez
The Island

by Olivia Levez
Published:
March 03, 2016
Genre:
Contemporary
Summary

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.
My thoughts

I don’t read Contemporaries very often but I do like survival stories and after I read the synopsis of The Island, I just had the read the novel and find out why a girl would call herself a monster.
And I wasn’t disappointed. While reading, I constantly caught myself thinking that I was about to run into a cliché but every time I was surprised by the turn of events that was so different to what I expected.

It wasn’t easy to get into the story to be honest, but I didn’t necessarily think that was a bad thing. It’s not easy to read from the point of view of a character like Frances, who I wouldn’t call likeable. It’s not that the author did a bad job at making me sympathize with her but that the character is just really authentic as she doesn’t like herself very much.

That made it all the more interesting to get to know Frances, both in the present as well as through past events that lead to her calling herself a monster. I like that this was told in alternating chapters and I got to know both sides of her in parallel.
The most interesting aspect of this is that you get to read about two completely different situations but it all comes down to just one thing: having to cope with difficult situations. I loved seeing a change in Frances in how she dealt with difficult situations, seeing how she changed as a person.

What surprised me the most was definitely the ending. To be honest, I feared that the survival on the island would be too easy and end in an even more easy and sudden way. The ending of The Island was everything but that though. Instead I found a kind of ending that is rather rare and that I like a lot.

The Island is more than the survival on a deserted island. It’s also the story of a girl who felt betrayed by the people in her life. It’s definitely a story worth reading.
Why only 3 stars from me then? As much as I liked almost everything about The Island, this was just not a Me book. I felt like I didn’t care enough about the characters, no matter how heartbreaking their stories were. That doesn’t mean that this isn’t a good book though and I’m sure many people will enjoy it.

Katie Brown
Thursday, 3 March 2016
REVIEW: The Island by Olivia Levez
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Rock The Boat
Release Date: March 3rd 2016
Buy The Book: Amazon UK

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.

The Island is a gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didn’t ask to be the person she is but is also determined to make herself the person she wants to be.

My Thoughts:
This book is everything I’ve been searching for in a story. It truly is. I could not stop reading. Already I’m finding it difficult to put my thoughts into a review because I JUST WANT TO WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS, THAT’S HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT THIS BOOK.

The Island starts with Frances on a plane journey to work abroad as part of a scheme she is required to take part in after committing a crime. When the journey goes terribly wrong, Frances never reaches her intended destination. Instead she ends up deserted on an island and struggling to survive.

I’ll be totally honest; at first, I wasn’t too sure whether this book was for me. The writing style was quite different to what I’m used to, and I wasn’t really connecting with Frances. But that quickly changed. Before I knew it, I couldn’t put it down. This book is seriously addictive.

It didn't take long for me to start adoring Frances. She’s feisty, she has an attitude, and she’s at war with her own past. The book tells her story by switching from present day to the events that already have happened, showing us what led to Fran being in her current situation. The author is wonderful at writing from the perspective of a troubled teenager, and it allowed me to sympathise with Fran’s difficulties, to understand why she took the actions that she did.

The details of Fran’s home life were heart-breaking to read, especially the relationship between her and her younger brother, Johnny. I loved how the book let us know that these characters had faced troubled times, but slowly revealed it little by little as Fran had to deal with her memories whilst alone on the island.

What I especially love about this book is that it doesn’t romanticise being trapped on a desert island. This is about real survival skills and a genuine fight for life. Fran’s journey throughout this book is a tremendously difficult one, and it’s not cute. The author brilliantly demonstrates exactly how rough and dangerous life on the island is. I loved Fran getting stronger and learning to do more to help her chances of survival. At first, she wallowed in self-pity and wasted resources, so seeing her change and start to fight for herself was empowering.

Now I’m not going to name the other plane survivor (because spoilers), but they were utterly perfect. When they were introduced, the story took a little more of a light-hearted turn, which I felt was a much needed breather from Fran’s constantly desperate struggle. Obviously, it’s not all easy-living from there. It’s still two people trapped on a desert island and fighting to survive, but there is more humour and some exceptionally touching scenes, and I adored every moment that the two of them shared. From initially disliking each other, their bond of friendship grows beautifully strong, and it was great to see them finally open up to each other about their lives back home.

The ending of this book, THE ENDING. Gosh, I’m still not over it. It’s an ending that leaves you wondering beyond that final page. Whilst in a perfect world, I’d be handed a firm conclusion about the fate of the characters and I’d get some closure, but the actual ending forces you to think about possible outcomes for yourself.

Seriously, I can’t praise this book enough. It truly was a breath of fresh air. The Island is so different to a lot of the books I usually read and I’m thrilled that I got the chance to read it. This is a YA book that doesn’t rely on romance and typical teen clichés. This is a book about strength, determination, about finding courage when all hope is lost and facing up to the past. This is a truly beautiful debut from Olivia Levez, and it’s made me extremely excited for whatever she shares with us next.

Royal Rating:

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The Island- Olivia Levez
Posted at 11:37 pm by jemima, on December 20, 2015

The Island

I was kindly sent a copy of The Island by Olivia Levez via Cailin from
Rocktheboat in exchange for an honest review and before I start I must say, Olivia Levez is an author to keep an eye on- she’s amazing!

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.

The Island is a gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didn’t ask to be the person she is but is also determined to make herself the person she wants to be.

————————————————————-

Fast paced, incredibly written, The Island tells the story of a girl called
Frances not Fran, only her friends call her Fran who finds herself stranded on an island after a plane crash with only Dog/Virgil for company.

Although at first I was confused by the way it is set out, with chapters
often going back to past events I soon found it enchanting and urged me
to read on to find out more as to why Frances was even on the plane.

Knowing this is written by a teacher I was sceptical about the voices and I was worried Olivia would have the teenager voice wrong as I’ve read books by teachers in the past and they just haven’t captured the voices in the right way- but I was wrong. Olivia has perfectly captured the voice of a troubled teenager, angry at the world.

Soon enough I found myself well over half way into the book when Frances comes across another survivor of the plane crash (no spoilers as to who it is).

The setting is written perfectly too! I immediately was able to see every detail through Frances eyes, feel her pain for losing Johnny and her frustration at Miss for ratting her out to social services.

Throughout the book I was captivated and soon found myself turning the final page desperate for more!

Especially with how it ends I mean I just need more!

————————————————————-

The Island is Olivia Levez debut novel and she is currently working on another due for publication in 2017. I loved her writing style and cannot wait for her next book as I can already foresee her being one of my favourite authors.

I’m giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Book reviews · Good
Book Review: The Island by Olivia Levez
March 2, 2016 Alice's List of Good and Bad

Click through to pre-order now! —>

The Island by Olivia Levez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Won on Goodreads

Two Goodreads books in a row that I really enjoyed? Unheard of! But I did!

The Island is about troubled teen Fran told through flashbacks and present day narrative from Fran’s point of view. Quite a lot of the new books I’ve read recently are in this style and it does work well in many cases (including this one) but perhaps is becoming a little tired… just saying contemporary writers, there are other techniques!

Fran’s past centers on her younger brother Jonny, mum Cassie and evil step-father Wayne. Her only escape is in the classroom with Miss who helps her to channel her feelings in to writing fiction.

In the present Fran has been sent to a new kind of boot camp for juvenile criminals to help them to rehabilitate, learn some skills and pull their socks up generally. On the way the plane crashes and, after seeing the bodies of her fellow passengers, Fran finds herself on an island alone. She does find a survivor and this is mentioned in the blurb. People seem upset about when the survivor is found but I wasn’t because she does find someone very quickly and this character appears to be overlooked.

The writing style feels refreshing for a book aimed at older teens/adults with its use of slang language and the tone it sets. Very blunt, very honest, very painful. I also loved that it didn’t follow cliches normally followed when there’s a female protagonist. She is stupid at times but also resourceful in her own way and there are no silly girly romances to detract from the very real problems she has at home in England and on her island.

Overall a great read. A quick read at only 300 odd pages (lots of white space per page). Excellent for a beach/park read in the summer or for a cosy weekend in.

Book Review: The Island (Olivia Levez)
February 25, 2016 Article

* I have been given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *

Publisher: Oneworld Publication

Pages: 288

Release Date: March 2016

Summary (from Goodreads):

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.

The Island is a gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didn’t ask to be the person she is but is also determined to make herself the person she wants to be.

Review:

I received a very early proof of this book and was very excited to read it. Olivia Levez and I have been following each other on Twitter for a while and we met at the Birmingham UKYAExtravaganza event, so when she asked if I would be interested in reading her book I was also a little nervous. I’m always really worried I won’t like it and then things will be awkward…

Luckily I loved this book so no awkward situations here! It’s told in very short chapters – in the A4 paper copy I read a lot of them were just a page long, which made it easy to dip in and out of it, and I never struggled to find a good place to put it down (not that I wanted to, because it was brill). The story flits between Frances’ current predicament, trapped alone on a deserted island, and flashes of her past as she cares for her younger brother and we learn the crime that led her to the island in the first place.

I struggled to connect with Frances a bit at first. She’s very prickly, and it’s not as easy to understand at first when you don’t know her background. When the plane first crashes and Frances floats to the island in a raft, I struggled to understand her behaviour – I know she’d been drinking, but surely you wouldn’t want to waste your precious few supplies.

I soon warmed up to Frances though and became really enthralled with her story of survival. For someone who has no skills in this area, she does pretty well for herself (but not in an unbelievable way either). It really is the ultimate survival story and I kept wondering what I would do in the same situation, how well I would cope and how long I would last.

The ending was frustrating but also perfect. I was worried that everything would get tied off too neatly: Frances would be rescued and reunited with her brother and everyone would live happily ever after. While I did want that for her, (she truly deserves it after everything!) it just didn’t feel right for the story. I prefer the bittersweet or not-quite-concluded endings, and that’s what you get here.

I really loved reading this book and I can’t wait for it to come out so everyone else can read it too (I’m writing this in November and the March publication date feels forever away!) I really hope the book gets the praise and readership it deserves.

4

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The Island by Olivia Levez: Book Review
The Island by Olivia Levez (London: Rock the Boat, 2016).

The Island by Olivia Levez (London: Rock the Boat, 2016).

The Island is a Young Adult début novel by Olivia Levez, due for publication in March 2016. The story is about a troubled teenaged girl, Frances Stanton, or Fran, as she sometimes allows herself to be called. Fran is a complicated person, one who is often not seen beyond the trouble she creates around her. Nobody seems to see that creating trouble might be a cry for help. Nobody seems to see that her home life is a daily struggle for survival. Teachers, social workers, the adults around her all appear to fail her.

Or is that the way Fran chooses to see it? Is it because while she’s busy reacting to being a victim, she doesn’t have to find a way out? Is it because she doesn’t want to take the steps she needs to take to protect herself? Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t want to see the good in the people around her? Could it be all of those things together, and Fran can’t trust her own actions, never mind the actions of the others around her?

Then one day, Fran is given another choice. One that puts her in a situation she could never have imagined, not even in her worst nightmares. As she struggles for survival, Fran discovers the meaning of loneliness. As she remembers her life from before, she sees herself as an impenetrable rock, marooned on an island with no means of escape.
Author of The Island.

Author of The Island.

Levez expertly unpeels memories in layers spread along the way as Fran remembers her painful past. But there were good times too, as she remembers her little brother and what happened to him. By the time Fran begins to realise that sometimes, you need to accept help in order to move forward, things start to fall apart all over again.

The Island is an excellent read, at times painful and at others, uplifting, right up to the end. Levez has created characters and situations the reader will care about long after they finish reading the novel. This book does not feel like a first novel in the writer’s expert hands – it’s a compulsive read, difficult to put down right until the end and I do hope there’s a sequel! Oliva Levez is a talented new writer and voice to look out for.

Oh, and if there are any film producers out there, this story would make a great movie…

Olivia Levez, The Island (London: Rock the Boat, 2016). Publication date: March 2016.

For more information about Oliva Levez or The Island, please follow the links below.

The Island Featured

4.3

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The Island
Author(s)
Olivia Levez
Publisher
OneWorld Publications
Genre(s)

Survival
Realistic Fiction
Growing Up
Family Relationships

Age Range
14+
Release Date
September 13, 2016
ISBN
1780748590
Buy This Book

"With a huge debt to Robinson Crusoe and the film Cast Away, this ambitious story stars troubled teenager Frances, whose nurturing love for her younger brother drives her to imagine escaping their abusive, dysfunctional home." —The Daily Mail As part of an “Outward Bound” style treatment for young people who’ve committed crimes, Frances finds herself on a plane to a remote village where she will do community service in exchange for staying out of juvenile detention. But an accident leaves her alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also has to think about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest with herself. So when she discovers another survivor on the island, will it bring out the worst in her again? Or will it finally help her to see that her future is worth fighting for? A gripping and thoughtful story about a girl determined to survive against all odds and find the courage to become the person she wants to be.
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Editor reviews
1 reviews
Overall rating

4.3
Plot

4.0 (1)
Characters

4.0 (1)
Writing Style

5.0 (1)
June 23, 2016
Joanne Mumley, Twitter Manager Joanne Mumley, Twitter Manager
Top 50 Reviewer
View all my reviews (193)
Overall rating

4.3
Plot

4.0
Characters

4.0
Writing Style

5.0
Quote Worthy

The Island is just a book you can’t put down. The book consists of short chapters that flip between the past and the present. While reading, it gave me very Lost TV feel.

What I liked best: The reader has to piece together the events in Fran’s life that forced her to get on that ill-fated plane. Fran isn’t the easiest person to get to know- and that is the point. You don’t want to root for her at first. What makes this story great is that you constantly have the desire to turn the page. I needed to know- How will Fran get out of this one? Or What horrible thing did Fran do?

Olivia Levez weaves in facts and tidbits about survival skills and the brutality of Mother Nature. The writing style is very easy to read and she hooks you into the story quickly.

While hopefully, we never find ourselves stranded on an island after a plan crash, Fran’s story is one that is relatable. She has a depth; she isn’t perfect. Due to the harshness of life she has built a wall and become “a rock.” But once she reveals all the intricate pieces of herself- she is a character worth loving.

This is one book that should be on everyone’s radar. Fast-paced and incredibly written, readers will be captivated by Fran and her desire to just survive.
Good Points
Fast-Paced
Engaging