Nerds That Geek Book Review: ‘Terminal Island’

Written by Scott Edwards

Welcome to Catalina Island, home of solitude, wine mixers and missing persons. On Labor Day, Henry Cadmus, his wife Ruby and their daughter Moxie are on their way to visit his mother who has recently moved back to the island. Henry and his mother, although not being well off monetarily lived on the island for a short spell during his youth. After the two moved off of the island, Henry still tried to keep in correspondence with his mother. Although the two drifted apart and the letters were few and far between, his mother flat out just stopped responding to her only son.

Returning to the island is not something that Henry wants to do thanks to all of the bad memories he has from his short stay during his youth, but with his new family along with him now, he figures that all of the bad things that happened were all in his head. Stopping to get something to eat at the local diner, Henry keeps his eyes and ears open for familiar faces and problems. One local woman that enters the diner is a real estate broker and when Henry hears her voice, he recognizes her as a girl that tormented him when he was a child. When they arrive at their hotel, they hear a private investigator named Arbuthnot asking about a missing person. Not really putting the pieces together yet, Henry is able to obtain directions to the Shady Isle Retirement Community to go and find his mother, just to make sure she is okay.

That afternoon, Henry and Ruby take a hike out to Shady Isle. Finding a large gate in their way, Henry hits the button to get someone out of the buildings to come let them in. When no response comes, Henry and Ruby begin to make the long trek back to the hotel, but Henry is not done yet with his search for his mother. Stopping at the local police department, Henry is able to voice his distrust about Shady Isle, but it seems as if the officer that is taking the complaint is not interested. ‘People move out here for the solitude and quiet. If your mother wanted to talk to you, she would. Please be on your way.’ This does more than infuriate Henry, it motivates him to take action on his own, and what he will find will be far from what he expected.

Terminal Island puts you into the eyes of Henry Cadmus as he tries to find out what has happened to his mother, along with battling his memories of what the island had done to him in his youth. Private Investigator Arbuthnot fills in not only as an advisor on Henry’s quest but assures the young man that everything that did happen to him on the island was real, and that Henry would never believe in any of it until seeing it with his own eyes. Ruby, Henry’s wife, tries her best to keep a handle on the situation with her husband, but she reaches a point where she thinks that he has completely lost it and needs some sort of medical attention.

This is an interesting read to say the least. Most of the crucial parts of this book are written in flashbacks, and while I usually don't like those, they flow well with the story, so you understand what is going on and why it is happening. If you keep your eyes open, you will be able to see the ending coming, although they try to take a clever twist on it. If you are open to some disturbing imagery, a new god, Zagreus, along with a new religion that just seems flat out crazy, this book is for you.

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