The Island

Contents Cover Other Titles Title Page Copyright Contents Dedication Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Acknowledgments Excerpt from The Fear Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List ii iii iv v 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 305 307 325 
 
 
 
 
 ALSO BY NATASHA PRESTON
 The Cellar
 Awake
 The Cabin
 You Will Be Mine
 The Lost
 The Twin
 The Lake
 The Fear
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 Text copyright © 2023 by Natasha Preston
 Cover art copyright © 2023 by Silas Manhood / Trevillion Images
 Flower image used under license from Shutterstock.com
 The Fear excerpt text copyright © 2022 by Natasha Preston. Cover art by Chekalin Nikolai/Shutterstock.
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
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 Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
 ISBN 9780593481493 (pbk.) — ebook ISBN 9780593481509
 Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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 ep_prh_6.0_142549205_c0_r0
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Also by Natasha Preston
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 
 
 Prologue
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Chapter 16
 
 
 Chapter 17
 
 
 Chapter 18
 
 
 Chapter 19
 
 
 Chapter 20
 
 
 Chapter 21
 
 
 Chapter 22
 
 
 Chapter 23
 
 
 Chapter 24
 
 
 Chapter 25
 
 
 Chapter 26
 
 
 Chapter 27
 
 
 Chapter 28
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 Excerpt from The Fear
 
 
 _142549205_
 
 
 
 For Ash. Love you, buddy.
 
 
 
 
 
 Prologue
 I upload my latest trailer to TikTok advertising my new YouTube video, Killer in the Family, and I sit back. Within seconds the numbers under the little heart start climbing as if Jeff Bezos were watching a livestream of his bank balance.
 He’s building rockets. Malcolm Wyatt, a rich dude who invited me to his amusement park, is building islands.
 Tearing open a packet of Hershey’s Kisses with my teeth, I wait. Chocolate passes the time. I get a bunch of comments telling me how awesome it is that I’ve posted, but it’ll take about thirty minutes for people to head over to my YouTube channel to watch the full video, then come back to TikTok to let me know what they think.
 My hard-core followers comment on both. Then on Insta too.
 I can wait. If I go downstairs right now, I’ll just hear my parents arguing over Malcolm’s invitation.
 That invitation might just be the single coolest thing that has ever happened to me, without exception, and they’re not certain they’re going to let me go.
 Not. Going. To. Let. Me. Go.
 When Dad initially