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Primal
Presumed dead, a group of undergraduate students who go missing on a deserted Pacific island emerge one year later in two groups of ragged (and naked) survivors. All but one of the surviving women have conceived, and two students, plus their professor, are said to have died. In the glare of the world's media, every survivor sticks to the same unconvincing version of events. Piece-by-piece the narrator examines the evidence and conducts interviews with the survivors, to work out exactly what happened on the island during that year. Slowly, a disturbing picture emerges of feral humans driven by rivalry and sexual tension—a Lord of the Flies scenario for adults that suspiciously seems to test the dead professor's theory that by nature people are no different from apes in the wild.
- GenresFiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 9, 2020
this book is terrrrrible! it kind of makes me want to roll around on my back in it and savor the yuk of it all. but here's the thing - i was deathly ill yesterday all fever and koff koff and so very weak and i said to myself - what is the most escapist book i have??... and i found this. and i read it all day, drifting in and out of consciousness and it was a good recovery day and i am mostly healed today. i don't think the book healed me, but maybe it does have secret medicinal properties. all i know is that if you like your rape eroticized and decriminalized, this is the book for you. if you hate consistency in characterization and feel it is snobbery to have characters behave in a manner that people would in the real world - this is your book. if you hate to question character's motives or hate to ask "wait - when did that happen?" - this is a great read for you! there are some very interesting things in the book, really, but as a whole i would recommend it only to people roiling in feverhaze. get your flu shots, kids...
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January 29, 2012
The members of a university field-trip – both students and lecturers – find themselves stranded on a remote tropical island, and gradually their most base impulses emerge, So far its ‘The Lord of the Flies’ with a lot more sex (one thing Piggy never had to endure was being taken roughly by one of his fellow castaways).However we shouldn’t hold its debt to William Golding too much against it, as this is an intriguing and clever novel, even if – ultimately – it left me wanting more.
The first half is a vivid concoction of young attractive people, a beautiful exotic island and dramatic events. All mixed in with a narrator who may not be totally reliable. Most books would have just taken that scenario and just run with it right to the end, but ‘Primal’ does something quite interesting with its second half. The character of the author of the book starts to investigate the tale itself. Gradually he pulls apart what he and us have been told by the survivors so far (the survivors now being back in civilisation), to create a deeper and more disturbing version of events.
It’s a clever twist, as it looks hard at what makes a reliable witness and from there what makes a reliable narrator. It also allows the story to emerge in a different way and the secrets to have more impact. Unfortunately I found this second half – although enjoyable – a lot more bitty than what proceeded it. The concept isn’t helped by the fact that the author himself – although integral – never seems to become a fully fledged character (although you could make the argument that that creates an extra level of unreliable narrator). While I thought that the big final secret which emerged was not that big a secret at all. The book always seemed to be heading in that direction.
But, even though it’s flawed, this is a sharp and intelligent read, which will disturb and provoke and will no doubt linger in the memory.
The first half is a vivid concoction of young attractive people, a beautiful exotic island and dramatic events. All mixed in with a narrator who may not be totally reliable. Most books would have just taken that scenario and just run with it right to the end, but ‘Primal’ does something quite interesting with its second half. The character of the author of the book starts to investigate the tale itself. Gradually he pulls apart what he and us have been told by the survivors so far (the survivors now being back in civilisation), to create a deeper and more disturbing version of events.
It’s a clever twist, as it looks hard at what makes a reliable witness and from there what makes a reliable narrator. It also allows the story to emerge in a different way and the secrets to have more impact. Unfortunately I found this second half – although enjoyable – a lot more bitty than what proceeded it. The concept isn’t helped by the fact that the author himself – although integral – never seems to become a fully fledged character (although you could make the argument that that creates an extra level of unreliable narrator). While I thought that the big final secret which emerged was not that big a secret at all. The book always seemed to be heading in that direction.
But, even though it’s flawed, this is a sharp and intelligent read, which will disturb and provoke and will no doubt linger in the memory.
September 19, 2012
People who call this book a porno, probably did not understand this book. You take a bunch of people, in this case young, healthy and good looking and you put everyone on a deserted island. What do think is going to happen? Of course there will be sex and violence (which leads me to the rape parts) - people can go nuts on a deserted island, which can lead them into doing things they wouldn't in their day-to-day life, cause it's considered wrong and unmoral. But on a deserted island, those parts are taken out of the equation and so we are left with humanity's most basic behavior which is absulotly primal.
March 28, 2023
At first, I was fascinated by the idea of the book. Yet it feels like the story was stretched too much and could've been told in a more succinct way.
March 3, 2010
**This review contains spoilers**
According to the front of this book, Robin Baker is an 'International Bestselling Author'. That he may be, but on the inside cover we see that he is the international bestselling author in the field of sexual biology, and whilst I haven't read his factual books, it's crystal clear that his studies have informed on this work and set the tone for the novel as a whole.
The formula is simple: Take a handful of young students, a few staff, and one crazy scientist, and have them stranded on a remote desert island with no clothes for a year. What behaviours are likely to be exhibited? Part Robinson Crusoe, part Lord of the Flies, part Lost, this sheds nothing new on the shipwreck genre; with the ending signposted way in advance, and the writing shallow and too academic at times to be of interest.
Quite a bit of this seems to have been written by a 15-year old boy. And whilst studies might suggest an awful lot of fucking (including rape) might occur, the manner in which it is described is often purile (if not laughable). Told from the perspective of the survivor's biographer, all the content until the end is pieced together second hand, via conversations, bark drawings, and diary entries. As a result, we are not drawn into the characters. None of them, even the narrator, emerge as likeable, and whilst this isn't a problem in itself, because they are one-dimensional I didn't care what happened to them. Basically, they were all irritating.
It is also very contrived. The manner in which their belongings are destroyed, the way we are drip fed the story, and the narrator's own discoveries seem more like plot devices than natural occurances. And there's nothing really 'shocking' about the supposed 'shocking' goings on. Not that any of the survivors found them shocking in any event.
I could go on and on about this, but what's the point. It killed some time, and towards the end I was interested in seeing how it would be resolved even though it was fairly clear what would happen. Did it tell me more about sexual biology? I hope not. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it.
According to the front of this book, Robin Baker is an 'International Bestselling Author'. That he may be, but on the inside cover we see that he is the international bestselling author in the field of sexual biology, and whilst I haven't read his factual books, it's crystal clear that his studies have informed on this work and set the tone for the novel as a whole.
The formula is simple: Take a handful of young students, a few staff, and one crazy scientist, and have them stranded on a remote desert island with no clothes for a year. What behaviours are likely to be exhibited? Part Robinson Crusoe, part Lord of the Flies, part Lost, this sheds nothing new on the shipwreck genre; with the ending signposted way in advance, and the writing shallow and too academic at times to be of interest.
Quite a bit of this seems to have been written by a 15-year old boy. And whilst studies might suggest an awful lot of fucking (including rape) might occur, the manner in which it is described is often purile (if not laughable). Told from the perspective of the survivor's biographer, all the content until the end is pieced together second hand, via conversations, bark drawings, and diary entries. As a result, we are not drawn into the characters. None of them, even the narrator, emerge as likeable, and whilst this isn't a problem in itself, because they are one-dimensional I didn't care what happened to them. Basically, they were all irritating.
It is also very contrived. The manner in which their belongings are destroyed, the way we are drip fed the story, and the narrator's own discoveries seem more like plot devices than natural occurances. And there's nothing really 'shocking' about the supposed 'shocking' goings on. Not that any of the survivors found them shocking in any event.
I could go on and on about this, but what's the point. It killed some time, and towards the end I was interested in seeing how it would be resolved even though it was fairly clear what would happen. Did it tell me more about sexual biology? I hope not. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it.
October 23, 2009
When I bought this book I had no idea it was like a porno horror 70's flick. I had just got done watching all 5 seasons of Lost and I wanted to read something similar. I just saw that it was about some people getting stranded on an island. But as I was reading it took a different turn from being anything like Lost. The characters had no depth. You would think at least a couple of people from the group wouldn't want to go skinny dipping. It wasn't my kind of book. I would have liked it to keep going the way it was in the first half of the book instead of telling the story through Clarabel's drawing and the journals. Anyways it was just a very bad book overall for me but I read the whole thing so it is interesting. haha.
November 17, 2011
Regardless of all the negative attention i have seen in reviews for this book i really enjoyed it. it may seem a little like porn to some people but to me it was a hard look at how people react and adapt to extreme situations when social conventions have been removed from the equation. It took a look at the baser of human needs and instincts. and though the professor seemed out there(as is any who would try this type of experiment and think to get away with it)he also had a very interesting proposal and i think if they wouldnt have been rescued as early as they were his dream of an isolated society without technology of any sort would have come true.
June 14, 2012
Interesting concept. Liked that it didn't shy away from man's darker side. Overall I liked the book but there were some things that bothered me about it.
Spoiler alert:
One being that the one student gets pregnant twice from only having sex a grand total of two times with professor seems beyond far fetched to me.
Also, how forgiving everyone was after they were rescued, come on, really. People were raped and tortured but they helped fight off some chimps so everything's okay?
Spoiler alert:
One being that the one student gets pregnant twice from only having sex a grand total of two times with professor seems beyond far fetched to me.
Also, how forgiving everyone was after they were rescued, come on, really. People were raped and tortured but they helped fight off some chimps so everything's okay?
abandonados
January 3, 2023Pior livro que já "li". Foge da trama e da sinopse, virando uma pornografia sem sentido.
July 28, 2025
Un groupe d'étudiants et de scientifiques "coincés" sur une île déserte... Du vu et revu. Cependant, la lecture est facile et nous tient en haleine. Le style changeant (tantôt narration, tantôt "notes de l'auteur" ou descriptions de dessins) apporte un dynamisme et une tension intéressants.
Même si j'ai trouvé la fin un peu prévisible, j'ai lu cet ouvrage en peu de temps tant je voulais connaître les "réponses".
Même si j'ai trouvé la fin un peu prévisible, j'ai lu cet ouvrage en peu de temps tant je voulais connaître les "réponses".
May 4, 2013
When Humans are liberated...
A group of university students and teachers remain (by accident?) to a Fiji island for almost a year.
Robin Baker who is the author of the colossal book, "Sperm Wars", is approached by the group after their return in order to write the story. Their story... However, Baker doesn't "buy" and, although the group after a time tells him to immediately stop every contact, he decides to look further on this by himself.
The author, having a significant amount of sexual knowledge, is proved to be the appropriate person to find out and describe what really happened... What happens when human instincts are free to be expressed when living outside the societal context and the vast hypocrisy we every day live.
Of course, when making conclusions about our behaviours through theirs, we have to take into account that people grown up in a city environment are not going to behave the same way in the jungle compared to if they had always been living in the island.
The only disadvantage of the book would be that it needed more elaboration in some of the characters.
So, if you like reading beautiful stories with happy endings and cruelty scares you, avoid it like hell. You will be horrified.
If you are interested in wondering about our nature and thus the truth, it's a must read.
A group of university students and teachers remain (by accident?) to a Fiji island for almost a year.
Robin Baker who is the author of the colossal book, "Sperm Wars", is approached by the group after their return in order to write the story. Their story... However, Baker doesn't "buy" and, although the group after a time tells him to immediately stop every contact, he decides to look further on this by himself.
The author, having a significant amount of sexual knowledge, is proved to be the appropriate person to find out and describe what really happened... What happens when human instincts are free to be expressed when living outside the societal context and the vast hypocrisy we every day live.
Of course, when making conclusions about our behaviours through theirs, we have to take into account that people grown up in a city environment are not going to behave the same way in the jungle compared to if they had always been living in the island.
The only disadvantage of the book would be that it needed more elaboration in some of the characters.
So, if you like reading beautiful stories with happy endings and cruelty scares you, avoid it like hell. You will be horrified.
If you are interested in wondering about our nature and thus the truth, it's a must read.
November 21, 2016
While not the most original plot, the premise of the book sounded promising. When I started reading it, what jumped out at first was the incredible amount of sex. Don't get me wrong, using sex in a book is fine, but damm, this was overwhelming.
That being said, I still liked the first half of the book, following the students after they lost everything, including all their clothes (because why not) and then having to survive the harsh reality of living on an uninhabited island.
What really disappointed me was the second half of the book because of the way it was written: like a set of letters and mails of a writer who's trying to make sense of what happened on the island. I kept reading, because I wanted to know whether I was right in what I thought had happened (Which I was). So that's a good thing I guess, I did finish the book. Had the book finished in the way it was written, I would have liked it better.
That being said, I still liked the first half of the book, following the students after they lost everything, including all their clothes (because why not) and then having to survive the harsh reality of living on an uninhabited island.
What really disappointed me was the second half of the book because of the way it was written: like a set of letters and mails of a writer who's trying to make sense of what happened on the island. I kept reading, because I wanted to know whether I was right in what I thought had happened (Which I was). So that's a good thing I guess, I did finish the book. Had the book finished in the way it was written, I would have liked it better.
March 12, 2014
Un très bon livre, l'idée est original, mais avec la prémisse que nous avons, la suite est facile à prédire. Certain personnages sont simplement esquissés alors que nous voudrions tous les connaître plus. Le roman est divisé en deux grandes parties, l'histoire d'Ysan et l'enquête de l'auteur pour savoir ce qui c'est réellement passé. Cette division montre un vouloir de l'auteur de se démarquer, mais parfois la manière traditionnel de raconter reste la meilleure. Malgré tous ces points qui auraient dû être travaillés autrement, ce livre est un excellent divertissement, c'est pourquoi je lui met une note de 4 (si l'on pouvaient mettre des demi étoiles, ce serait un 3½)
Lu en vacance au Mexique, j'ai très apprécié cette lecture qui nous emmènes sur une île déserte où le secret et la discrétion est de mise.
Lu en vacance au Mexique, j'ai très apprécié cette lecture qui nous emmènes sur une île déserte où le secret et la discrétion est de mise.
May 21, 2012
I could not put this book down. It is not a page-turner in the sense of a beach-book read for an easy few hours. It is anything but easy. It is edgy, tense and gives a picture of what the human psyche is all about beneath the trappings and norms and expectations of modern society. The book reveals how easily our carefully constructed society with all its cultural and sexual strata can so easily collapse like a pack of cards when there is no-one to judge, see or punish you for acting on one's instincts and base urges rather than conforming to "accepted" and "civilised" behaviour. These students find themselves stranded outside civilisation and the book offers a chilling insight into what lies potentially within us all. A gripping read and highly recommended.
May 24, 2012
Justed finished this book, and I have never been more mad at a bunch of fictional characters in a while. I'm sorry, but some of the things that happened are really really stupid. I understand mob-mentality, but this is ridicoulus. That said, I did like the book to a certain extent as the story did have a good premise. What can happen when people are stripped to nothing? Sadly there is no emerging leader or protector which is very strange. And the way it starts off is very odd. I know having people stranded on an island is very rare, but for them to go off the way they did is not a good reason, especially at the end. At the end of the book, you will mostly just shake your head out of disbelief at what the writer is putting down. Very dissapointing read, could have been so much more.
February 8, 2014
This is another Lord of the Flies/The Beach type story about a group of research students who head off to a desert island with a bunch of primates to live and study for x amount of time. Needless to say they resort to some primitive behavior...
Its been some time since I read this book but I remember it being quite riveting.
Anyway the story is told in retrospect by a writer given the task of investigating the missing students and and interviewing those who survived to find out what happened on the island.
It is intriguing and a little scary in parts. If you're a fan of The Beach and Lord of the Flies then this is a must read.
Its been some time since I read this book but I remember it being quite riveting.
Anyway the story is told in retrospect by a writer given the task of investigating the missing students and and interviewing those who survived to find out what happened on the island.
It is intriguing and a little scary in parts. If you're a fan of The Beach and Lord of the Flies then this is a must read.
November 1, 2015
Le livre se lit tout seul. Je ne suis pas convaincue par les choix de narration que l'auteur a pourtant du juger nécessaire. L'histoire est prenante et j'aurais préféré une narration de l'intérieur du groupe situé dans le présent de leurs mésaventures. Je reste un peu sur ma faim en imaginant ce que ce livre aurait pu être.
October 4, 2012
it was not at all what I expected and not something I would read again, because it's really weird. But it kept me hooked until the last page and that's important too.
November 1, 2014
looked better than it was
November 3, 2015
Intriguing blurb and promising start but turned out to be a load of granny pants!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews