REVIEW: Isle of Night (The Watchers #1) by Veronica Wollf

Author: Veronica Wolff

Pages: 302

Series: The Watchers

Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal

Publisher: NAL Trade

AMAZON: Isle of Night

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.

When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.

Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers...

Isle of Night is the first book in The Watchers series by Veronica Wolff.

I was intrigued by Isle of Night from the moment I first glimpsed the cover but after reading it, I have mixed emotions, I wanted to love this book but unfortunately it fell short for me.

Annelise Drew or Drew as she prefers to be called is a genius, she has worked and saved hard to graduate high-school early in the hopes of moving away from her abusive home life in Christmas, Florida to start afresh and begin her studies at College.

On arrival, things don’t go as planned and she is unable to register, if things weren’t bad enough her car then breaks down in the parking lot. On hand to help her out is Ronan, he is suave and persuasive and helps Drew out of her bind with an offer to travel with him to a remote island which she readily agrees to, we do later find out there is a reason behind her willingness which I initially thought extremely strange.

The remote Isle isn’t as it seems, it is mysterious, dark and run by Vampires. The female arrivals – all possessing beauty will be trained to become Watchers and the males – all handsome will become Vampires, all recruits are outcasts/outsiders in their regular lives and once training is complete will be

partnered with vampires to assist them on their missions.

Drew and her fellow initiates or Acaris as they are known on the Isle of Night are more or less forced into seclusion and made to adapt to new rules and regulations – no questions asked or you face the threat of instant execution or punishment. Drew has gone from one form of abuse straight into another. She has made a number of new enemies, her biggest is her roommate Lilac who instantly disliked her from the moment they first met, she is the typical beautiful, mean girl bully who seemed to have everyone following in her wake.

The way of life for the Watchers in training was brutal and competitive, a lot of blood is shed, there is death and punishment doled out as it seemed fit, to succeed you need to excel in what appears to be a number of challenges and survival becomes a priority, Drew was fortunate to have Ronan who is a Tracer (he recruits for the Isle) guide her, but he was still relentless and unforgiving in his teachings.

The Island itself, I found to be interesting but we don’t know enough about it to know it’s purpose. I thought it was important to know why the females are the Watchers and the males the Vampires - is there a reasoning for the gender based roles? What else resides on the island – who, what & why? Why are the initiates selected? What is special about each of them; I wanted to know so much more.

There was a possible love interest or two but there was no romance as such, there was chemistry between Drew and Ronan and Drew and vampire Alcantara but nothing was acted upon; I would have loved to have seen more interaction between Drew and Ronan outside of the necessary training, I did find him to be a bit of a mystery and quite secretive – his past and reasoning for being of the island has me curious.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t emotionally invested in any of the characters, they weren't memorable for me. I did find Ronan, Emma and Yasuo fascinating enough and hope to see them further developed in the sequel but Drew seemed to be lacking emotion and strength which I love in a main YA heroine.

Ms Wolff has certainly created a unique world with the Vampires/Watchers and despite the flaws has piqued my interest - I really liked the premise of the story, but somehow the execution just fell short.

The groundwork has been set for a fascinating series and I am truly hoping more details will be provided in the sequel, Vampire's Kiss.