Paradise Island: A Sam and Colby Story

Product Information

In addition to the popular Sam and Colby channel, Colby has his own YouTube account. Colby’s own channel, which he created in 2016, features a wide range of prank videos, exploration videos, vlogs, and other content. On the platform, he also features a number of other content creators. When YouTube ghost hunters Sam and Colby head to Kauai for an annual bro trip with two childhood buddies, they’re dying for a break from paranormal investigations—instead, they find themselves at the center of their most horrifying mystery yet.

I’m not sharing no pull-out couch. Fight to the death for the master bed! Colby hopped up the stairs, slamming into Sam, when they stopped short outside the master bedroom and stared inside. There was a nice sense of nostalgia throughout, specifically when they brought up their YouTube channel, their Vine days, them being arrested, wining a Teen Choice Award, and Corey and the Shadowman. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and reminded me of how proud I am for how far they’ve come. The Airbnb was quaint and cozy yellow with bright green shutters that matched the lush vegetation. Flowers in every color of the rainbow surrounded them, and palm trees stretched into blue skies beginning to clear from the rain.HOLY CRAP! This book is amazing! I read it all in one sitting & then had trouble falling asleep after. To the unscrutinizing eye watching their videos, he and Sam looked like two clowns doing anything for a laugh. What few people realized was how hard they worked their asses off. They’d learned business tips that couldn’t be taught in college, could only be experienced firsthand, and look at them now—affording this trip for their friends, winning Teen Choice Awards, going international.

Just how meta the book was. Like, the quote I included at the top? I laughed for way too long when I read that. In Kauai, Colby felt like he was a part of something exponentially bigger. Connected to nature. A tiny part of this infinite universe. This was why he’d insisted they spend their next day hiking different trails, searching for the perfect waterfall, because it wasn’t until they were on those vine-laced paths, underneath a canopy of trees, discovering hidden coves and jumping into green lagoons that he felt like he truly belonged somewhere. If he could, he would move to Kauai in a heartbeat.And there is seriously nothing to do here at night, Colby said. No bars, only restaurants that close early. This is our chill spot for nighttime. Daytime in Hawaii is always out. Gaby Triana writes some pretty scary stuff but took it up a million notches in this book. "Make the benign and beautiful terrifying" is done masterfully in this book. Had never heard of Sam & Colby (not really big on YT) but they have me hooked after this! The characterization of all four of the boys is a bit 2D. Sam’s logical and wants to keep the peace, Colby’s emotional and more of a wildcard, Nate’s focused on his schoolwork and flexing his vocabulary, and Alex? Well, I couldn’t get a good read on Alex until he sells out SNC at the end of the novel and even then, he didn’t feel so much like his own character, more like someone just present to further the plot.

When Vine was discontinued, the founders shifted their focus to their YouTube channel, which was launched in 2014. Their YouTube channel began with a much broader focus: they released vlogs, comedy videos, adventure videos, and other content. However, the duo now focuses nearly entirely on their Overnight and Exploration films. Wooden beams supported tall ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows welcomed in plenty of light, a bed frame looked like it’d been carved out of mahogany, and a fluffy blue-and-white rug reminiscent of an ocean wave spread across the hardwood floor. Plants sprouted from every corner, except one, where a small bar sat with four shot glasses and a bottle of whiskey on the counter.The other big thing I made note of was that there was a lot of “tell, not show” throughout. There’s a heavy focus on dialogue to progress the story rather than seeing into the boys’ inner thoughts and using other means to find out information. (I’m not one to talk, though, since I also focus more on dialogue than description.) It sometimes made it difficult to fully get into the story. I struggled with developing a picture of what the Belle Estate looked like, or what the other characters (beside SNC, Nate, and Alex) looked like. In terms of the boys, it seemed very reliant on us knowing who Sam and Colby are and what they’re all about (which is fair, since probably 99.9% of people who bought the book are fans of them but, if they want success outside of their audience, it could’ve been more descriptive in that regard).