The Castaways

Another Winner for Hilderbrand

The characters in Elin Hilderbrand's newest book, The Castaways, are people you will recognize. Their daily lives involve struggles we all relate to. The way that the author "reveals" the story as you get pulled deeper & deeper into the plot is what makes this book so much fun to read. It's a great book for a trip, or a theraputic mental escape right at home. I have the opportunity to recommend Elin Hilderbrand's books everyday since I work at a bookstore, and The Castaways will be my Staff Recommendation for the summer. Loved it!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

EXCITING, EDGE OF YOUR SEAT READING!

This is an involved story of four couples who are the best of friends, the Wheelers, the Drakes, the Kapenashes and the MacAvoys and their affairs and their deepest, darkest secrets.
Greg and Tess are out on the water celebrating their 12 year anniversary, while Greg was accused of having an affair with a former student and little did they know that Tess was having an affair of her own . with Addison. The boating trip ends tragically, with the two mysteriously drowning. The remaining friends are all left devastated and shocked by their tragic deaths. With each chapter the reader learns more and more about Greg and Tess, their crumbling marriage and their hope to rekindle the flame, and about the relationships of the three remaining couples. Exciting, edge of your seat reading!

3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Review by: The Reading Reviewer (mary gramlich)

Do others see us as we see ourselves - more than likely the answer is probably not. Your family sees you as outgoing, co-workers see you as a mover & shaker, but your friend's well they see you as a part to the whole that makes up the relationship and when there are four couples that are best friends they may see you as the comfort zone.

But do these friends really see you and how you fit into the group. I think only inside do we really expose the truth and let all fears come out to play and try to keep them under some kind of control. But when you have friends they tend to get through those barriers and expose all the deep, dark secrets and when that happens where do you go from there?

On Nantucket there are four such couples and they are as different as they can possibly be yet as close are blood relations. You have a musician, housewife, farmer, real estate agent and everything in between filling a gap here or opening up a untapped resource there. They have feed each other's egos, helped raise one another's children, vacationed in all parts of the globe together and can't see themselves as anything but a group. But then the unexpected occurs and in the blink of an eye everyone's life is forever altered. One of the couples is found drowned and from that day forward no relationship will ever be the same between friends, lovers or spouses. How can you recover from such a loss when the dynamics of the friendships is forever altered and you discover that everything you believed to be true is most likely not and secrets are sometimes best kept as secrets for exposing them only makes things worse not better.

This story takes you from the birth of the individual husband/wife relationship as well as how each couple came to be part of the self-titled Castaways. It is told from beginning to end in each person's point of view and how each one of them copes with the loss, move through the grieving process and wander around in how they feel about each other as well as themselves. No one is predictable, life is chaotic and moving past tragic death is almost impossible regardless of how strong you are.

This book is sad, complicated and absolutely a delight if you stick with it and really absorb what is going on and how no two people ever do what we anticipate or behave as we expect. If your life is novella, your gained experiences a novel than your friendships are a memoir of your existence and one you can be proud of. Read this book and find a little bit of yourself in these characters and realize that we are not alone in any of our fears or responsible for anyone else's actions.

3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Ok for a quick read, not that remarkable.

May appeal to some readers, an easy to read don't have to really concentrate on kind of book. Good for the beach when you still need to keep eyes on the kids. I just don't like the writers style and thought the book was slow and boring at times. Maybe I just couldn't relate to the whole life style of the characters and did not find their world very interesting or redeeming.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

my favorite author/ my least favorite book of hers.

I love elin hilderbrand and have read all of her other books. I was really excited when castaways was released and eager to read. However once i started it, I only continued to read it because i hate to start a book and not finish it. I have no plans to pass this book on to share with anyone. I hate to do it, but i really don't recommend it. The plot is also rather depressing and morbid.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Castaways in A Nutshell

This bittersweet tale is set in Nantucket, MA. I adore books set in New England so this book had promise from the beginning. There was mention of a number of Massachusetts locales, like Friendly's Ice Cream, Attleboro and Nantucket, in general. I really enjoyed the familiar setting of this book.

I found the best part of this book to be the way the story it told using point of view and use of time. The story is told from the point of view of each of the six surviving friends. They tell the reader how they were connected to Greg and Tess, what they knew of Greg and Tess's lives, what they knew about the April Peck incident and where each person was prior to the accident. Although the story flows from right before the accident to the end, you never know what point in time the current character might reveal. The Chief might be telling the reader about what was found at the accident scene and then in the next section Delilah may be rattling on about their trip to Las Vegas before they had kids. Each section reveals another piece of the puzzle building to the ultimate climax and revelations. Through the journey one gets a deep understanding of each character while traveling with them through their grief.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Just didn't love it... but wanted to.

I loved the idea of the book but being told from 6 different POV's made it hard to follow whose head I was in from chapter to chapter.

I did like how intricately everyone's lives overlapped - very true to life - but found that there was maybe a bit too much loving thy neighbor's wife... just my opinion but have enjoyed her other books much much more.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Decent Beach Read

This was my least favorite Hilderbrand book that I've read (Nantucket Nights, Summer Affair, Barefoot). The style that she chose to chronicle the relationships between the different characters felt too 'all over the place'. I never really felt attached to any of the characters, so I didn't find it to be as much of a page-turner as others. However, if you're planning to bring this one to the beach - it'll do for some light summer fun.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Captivating.

The Castaways were a group of 8 friends, 4 couples that live in Nantucket. They have mourned, cried and laughed together. Phoebe and Addison, Tess and Greg, Delilah and Jeffery, and Andrea and Ed care very much for each other. One tragic day Tess and Greg go sailing only to never return. The autopsy report presents questions. Was it an accident?

Elin Hilderband is a master at defining characters. Each of the Castaways had a distinct personality that was fully developed. The plot moves from one character to another allowing the reader to hear the story through his or her eyes. Each characters had a faults making them life like. The setting is quaint and makes me want to visit that area. Hilderbrand allows each character to mourn the loss of their friends. She does not rush it. She allows the since of loss, guilt and anger to fully develop. The Castaways is a delightful read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

LOVED IT!!! COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!

I picked it up on a whim after reading "A Summer Affair" which I loved and was not disappointed and very pleasantly suprised. I actually have to say I liked this one even better. The way it was written was a little hard to follow at first but I was quickly intriqued by everyone and thouroughly enjoyed this fabulous summer read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A WONDERFUL BEACH READ

I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WAS COMING NEXT. I READ THIS STORY IN TWO DAYS. I VACATION ON NANTUCKET EVERY SUMMER SO I ESPECIALLY ENJOY THE STORY. I HAVE READ ALL OF HILDERBRAND'S BOOKS AND THIS IS MY FAVORITE. I HAVE RECOMMENDED THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE I KNOW

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Nice romantic read

good for summer fantasy...

This is a compelling true story I found very enjoyable.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great beach read

Quick and fast read. A great mystery and the ending is so unexpected. I recommend this book as a great beach read.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Less than 1 star for me.

The first Elin Hilderbrand book I have not enjoyed!!! I've read about 5 others and enjoyed all of them. This was disappointing.

Can't Finish

I've tried several times to finish this novel......ONLY cause I want to know what happened, not cause I love or feel anything for these BORING going NOWHERE fast characters. I just can't finish though.....it's like having teeth pulled. I think its the writing style.....to jerky from one characters perspective to another. Just doesn't flow smoothly. I'll probably keep trying to get to end, but will only read between other more interesting novels.

Very good!

Very good, very busy.

Wonderful story

This was the first book I have read by this author. Although it was hard at first to sort out the many characters, I did, and couldn't put this down. Would make a great beach read.

Great read

Great from beginning to end. A story both heartbeaking and beautiful. A must read!

Kind of a let down

This read is not like Elin's other books. 95% of the book is reading the lifes of the other characters and the book honestly isnt very believable. I honestly finished this book only because i have loved all of her other books, but if this would have been the first book of hers that i had read, i wouldnt have have read any other ones. I hate having to only give this book 1 star but it really wasnt my type of story line.

Read in two days....

And i am a very slow reader! Loved all the charcters and adventurs they take