A tale of murder, artistic rivalry and literary trickery; a chinese puzzle of a novel where nothing is quite what it seems; a narrator whose agenda is artful and subtle; a narrative that pulls you in and plays an elegant game with you. The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands. The names of the islands are different depending on who you talk to, their very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into vast musical instruments, others are home to lethal creatures, others the playground for high society. Hot winds blow across the archipelago and a war fought between two distant continents is played out across its waters. THE ISLANDERS serves both as an untrustworthy but enticing guide to the islands, an intriguing, multi-layered tale of a murder and the suspect legacy of its appealing but definitely untrustworthy narrator. 

 This is such a weird and wonderful book. A really refreshing perspective of a fiction novel. Each chapter is split into the different islands of the Dream Archipelago, some are short story's focusing on an important or iconic member of the islands. Others are more a travel introduction to each island. Somehow (and very cleverly), these all seem to intertwine and become a fantastic read. 

 The book itself starts slowly and you are a tad confused about where the information is going, but before you know it your sucked right in, you've read more pages than you thought and it is starting to make some sense. Because its not a fiction as we know it, it really doesn't have much of a plot, just many intertwining stories. This does make it feel like it ends abruptly (and to be honest I really didn't like the end chapter).  

However this did not spoil the book for me. Its a hard book to review because its so different, I cant explain it properly. What I do know its compelling, interesting, refreshingly different and a hard book to put down. Its the kind of book thats like a rich box of chocolates, you savour each bit and cant always take it all at once, but you do keep sneaking back for a more and a bit more.