Book Review: The Island of Lost Girls, by Alex Marwood
A gritty novel about terrible rich people turning a Mediterranean island into their personal kink dungeon.
Sphere, 2022, 400 pages
Sun-drenched glamour and obscene wealth hide the darkest of secrets and lost girls in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.
1985
For 12-year-old Mercedes, La Kastellana is the place she calls home. It is an island untouched by the modern world, with deep-rooted traditions-though that is all about to change with the arrival of multimillionaire Matthew Meade and his spoiled young daughter, Tatiana. The Meades bring with them unimaginable wealth, but the price they will all pay is far darker than Mercedes and the islanders could ever have imagined.
2016
Robin is desperately searching for her 17-year-old daughter Gemma, who has been missing for over a year. Finding herself on La Kastellana, the island playground of the international jet set, Robin is out of her depth. Nobody wants to help and Robin fears she is running out of time to find her child.
But someone has been watching, silently waiting for their moment to expose the dark truth and reveal to the world what really happens on the island of lost girls.
Alex Marwood writes gritty British crime thrillers, going places JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith won't. All of her novels focus on female characters and the very seamy sides of class, crime, poverty, and abuse. While they usually end with a measure of justice for the victims, they are not feel-good cozies.
Most of her books are loosely based on real-life events, and this one was definitely written with Jeffrey Epstein very much in the news, though certain other events also come to mind.
The Island of Lost Girls takes place on the fictional Mediterranean island of La Kastellana, a little microstate ruled by a Duca. It's a very traditional, patriarchal society, where the people still celebrate driving off Moorish invaders 600 years ago, and also have an annual slut-shaming party where they pick a woman who was a little too uppity that year and publicly flog the pretty out of her.
Mercedes is a 12-year-old La Kastellana girl in the 1980s, when a gang of wealthy Europeans descend upon it, promising to transform it with money and jobs. Mercedes strikes up a brief friendship with Tatiana Meade, the spoiled daughter of Matthew Meade, the super-rich investor who has entranced the Duke and soon practically owns the island.
Their friendship is brief because Tatiana is an amoral little entitlement monster, and Mercedes soon realizes that she and her father will bring nothing good to the island. But she has no idea just how terrible things will get. Mercedes has a beautiful older sister, and even if you didn't find out in the prologue that she's going to die, you could see where this is going.
The story skips back and forth between 2016, where Mercedes still works as a virtual indentured servant for the horrible Meades, and the 1980s, where we find out exactly what happened with Mercedes, her family, and the Meades. Meanwhile, in 2016, a divorced working class mother named Robin has a 17-year-old daughter named Gemma who's running wild. Gemma is tired of being poor and stuck in a nowhere small town in England. When she is approached on the street to join a modeling agency, she thinks it's her ticket to the jet set life. She gets taken to ritzy locations, parties with rich men, and is a bit slow on the uptake but eventually realizes what this is about. Initially she thinks she can play the game, but then she winds up with three other barely-legal teens on the island of La Kastellana.
This is a book full of dread and grim scenes where you always know things are about to get worse. Along the way, we get thick Robin and her thick daughter Gemma bumbling their way through situations that are way over their heads, and Mercedes, beaten down but not broken, finally given a chance to do something. Tatiana is an absolute villainess who you will want to see strangled as badly as her monstrous father.
Also by Alex Marwood: My reviews of The Wicked Girls, The Killer Next Door, The Darkest Secret, and The Poison Garden.
My complete list of book reviews.
Sphere, 2022, 400 pages
Sun-drenched glamour and obscene wealth hide the darkest of secrets and lost girls in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.
1985
For 12-year-old Mercedes, La Kastellana is the place she calls home. It is an island untouched by the modern world, with deep-rooted traditions-though that is all about to change with the arrival of multimillionaire Matthew Meade and his spoiled young daughter, Tatiana. The Meades bring with them unimaginable wealth, but the price they will all pay is far darker than Mercedes and the islanders could ever have imagined.
2016
Robin is desperately searching for her 17-year-old daughter Gemma, who has been missing for over a year. Finding herself on La Kastellana, the island playground of the international jet set, Robin is out of her depth. Nobody wants to help and Robin fears she is running out of time to find her child.
But someone has been watching, silently waiting for their moment to expose the dark truth and reveal to the world what really happens on the island of lost girls.
Alex Marwood writes gritty British crime thrillers, going places JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith won't. All of her novels focus on female characters and the very seamy sides of class, crime, poverty, and abuse. While they usually end with a measure of justice for the victims, they are not feel-good cozies.
Most of her books are loosely based on real-life events, and this one was definitely written with Jeffrey Epstein very much in the news, though certain other events also come to mind.
The Island of Lost Girls takes place on the fictional Mediterranean island of La Kastellana, a little microstate ruled by a Duca. It's a very traditional, patriarchal society, where the people still celebrate driving off Moorish invaders 600 years ago, and also have an annual slut-shaming party where they pick a woman who was a little too uppity that year and publicly flog the pretty out of her.
Mercedes is a 12-year-old La Kastellana girl in the 1980s, when a gang of wealthy Europeans descend upon it, promising to transform it with money and jobs. Mercedes strikes up a brief friendship with Tatiana Meade, the spoiled daughter of Matthew Meade, the super-rich investor who has entranced the Duke and soon practically owns the island.
Their friendship is brief because Tatiana is an amoral little entitlement monster, and Mercedes soon realizes that she and her father will bring nothing good to the island. But she has no idea just how terrible things will get. Mercedes has a beautiful older sister, and even if you didn't find out in the prologue that she's going to die, you could see where this is going.
The story skips back and forth between 2016, where Mercedes still works as a virtual indentured servant for the horrible Meades, and the 1980s, where we find out exactly what happened with Mercedes, her family, and the Meades. Meanwhile, in 2016, a divorced working class mother named Robin has a 17-year-old daughter named Gemma who's running wild. Gemma is tired of being poor and stuck in a nowhere small town in England. When she is approached on the street to join a modeling agency, she thinks it's her ticket to the jet set life. She gets taken to ritzy locations, parties with rich men, and is a bit slow on the uptake but eventually realizes what this is about. Initially she thinks she can play the game, but then she winds up with three other barely-legal teens on the island of La Kastellana.
This is a book full of dread and grim scenes where you always know things are about to get worse. Along the way, we get thick Robin and her thick daughter Gemma bumbling their way through situations that are way over their heads, and Mercedes, beaten down but not broken, finally given a chance to do something. Tatiana is an absolute villainess who you will want to see strangled as badly as her monstrous father.
Also by Alex Marwood: My reviews of The Wicked Girls, The Killer Next Door, The Darkest Secret, and The Poison Garden.
My complete list of book reviews.