Leia lives on the Island, a world in which children leave their parents to take care of themselves when they are ten years old. Across this Island runs a wall that no one has ever crossed. The Fools living behind it are not amenable to reason – they believe in illusions. That’s what The Book says, the only thing left to the Eastern Islanders by their ancestors.
But when a strange man washes ashore and Leia meets a Fool face to face, her life will never be the same. Is what she and her friends believe about the Island really true?
Or is everyone in their world, in fact, a Fool?
On the island there are no parents, only children, their leader is the eldest at twenty one years of age. Before each child becomes a teen, they leave their parents and homes, never to return. Twins Leia and Luc now call the small island home.
In a dictatorship, the child citizens all adhere to the telling of The Book, featuring light sabers, fathers that abandoned their children, and a history of being able to use The Force. Whispers around the camp is that their leader is keeping secrets... And Leia plans to find out.
It isn't until Leia meets Walt, the mysterious boy from the wrong side of the wall that separates the island, that she releases that something is horribly wrong in their world. With talk of men coming across to the island by boat, the children of the island revolt. It seems there is far more beyond the horizon that any of them could have dreamed of.
The island is a quick story of a dystopian world, in which a group of parentless children are learning to survive, guided by an old Star Wars book that they believe as gospel.
Sounds like a strange concept, but as the story unravels, readers will find themselves marveling in this brilliant, but short novella. I honestly hope that Jen Minkman might consider rewriting The Island and turning it into a full length novel, even a series. The concept is entertaining and I'd love to read more.
The Island
Written By Jen Minkman
Published 01 / 07 / 2013
80 Page novella
80 Page novella
Thank you to Jen Minkman and Netgalley for a review copy