The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by award-winning author Scott Semegran – out now on Audible
Hello again, dear audiobook friends! A few days ago, I finished listening to The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island, award-winning author’s Scott Semegran latest novel, a nicely written coming-of-age story, filled with adventure, colorful characters and vivid descriptions, set in the Summer of 1986 in Texas. The audiobook production is a bit over 8 hours and a half hours in duration and is expertly performed by Tim Sailer (you can check out his website here).
I suggest you take a look at the Publisher’s Summary if you want to learn more about the plot:
The summer of 1986. Central Texas. William and his friends should be having a blast. Instead, they are hounded by the Thousand Oaks Gang and their merciless leader Bloody Billy. William found Billy’s backpack. And because of what it contains, Billy desperately wants it back, and he’ll do anything to get it.
William hatches a plan for his friends to sneak away and hide in an abandoned lake house, except they become stranded on the lake’s desolate island without food or water. Will their time on the island devolve into chaos? Will the friends survive and be rescued?
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King, the inspiration for the classic movie Stand by Me.
A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between the four friends, the middle schoolers face certain death without adults to protect them from the unrelenting natural elements, as well as the wild creatures that lurk in the wilderness around the lake. With a backpack filled with money and marijuana they stole from the merciless gang leader, it’s only a matter of time before the high schoolers come looking for them, too.
From award-winning writer Scott Semegran comes The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island, his eighth book. This novel is Semegran’s response to William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, which was Golding’s response to The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, an adventure novel from 1858. All three novels tackle the premise of boys stranded on an island, with Semegran’s novel taking a decidedly modern view of a group of friends in Central Texas during the summer of 1986 working to survive in a situation filled with danger and desperation with only each other to rely on.
Scott Semegran is an award-winning writer of eight books, so far. His previous novel, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog: An American Novel, was the 2019 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Winner: Silver Medal for Fiction – Humor/Comedy, the 2019 Texas Author Project Winner for Adult Fiction, and the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal Winner for Humor. His book Sammie & Budgie was the first place winner for Fiction in the 2018 Texas Authors Book Awards. His book BOYS was the 2018 IndieReader Discovery Awards winner for Short Stories. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, four kids, two cats, and a dog. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. Check out his website for more info.
Fans of Stephen King’s Stand by Me and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies must give a chance to The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island!
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Victor Dima
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