Trapped by Jack Kilborn

Cannonball Read III: Book #8/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 323
Genre: Horror

This is my third Jack Kilborn book. I really liked the first one I read (Endurance) and wasn't crazy about the second (Afraid). I have to say I'm glad I gave Kilborn one more chance because Trapped was definitely my favorite. One of the sickest books I've ever read too. Definitely not one to read before bed.

The book follows a group of juvenile delinquents, who are in some sort of remedial program, and their adult chaperones as they camp out on an island. Unfortunately for them, the island is full of cannibals. Even more unfortunately, the cannibals aren't the worst things on the island.

The Kindle edition that I bought had two copies of the book. The first, was an edited draft and the second was the first, uncut draft of the novel. They were very similar, but I liked the first one better. It trimmed out a few unnecessary parts that didn't add much to the story. The only thing I didn't like better about the first one was the fact that Sara had an infant strapped to her chest who didn't make a sound the entire time she was running around the woods away from cannibals. Why even introduce the baby if you're not going to use it to add some suspense? Like having the baby cry at inopportune times.

Also, in both versions, some of the kids were almost comically stereotypical. I don't know if I could handle one more black kid from a gang using the phrase "hells yeah!". The white kid with ADD of course just said "frickin'" between every other word. The teen lingo Kilborn tried to use was atrocious. However, this wasn't quite as bad in the first, cleaned up version of the novel. By the time I read the second edition, it was just starting to grate my nerves.

Overall, I loved the book. The characters were great, despite the attempts at "hip" lingo. I loved the twist at the end. Definitely didn't see that coming. There were some smaller twists along the way too. I really couldn't put this book down.