I enjoyed the plot of this book. It had me hooked from the start and had me waiting to see what was going to happen next. Great twists and an ending I wasn't expecting. I recommend this one.

I genuinely knew nothing prior to reading the book and I'm honestly glad that was the case. I had no expectations and I think that permitted me to enjoy the book more. It gave me an almost nostalgic feeling, reminded me of when I had read Lord of the Flies for school.

The character development and growth that we see within the characters as they trekked through the situation, even though some of them annoyed me at times. I definitely was not expecting the turn the story took and the different kinds of serious undertones the novel took, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Tackling topics that are often not brought up concerning fear and the feminine experience, I think this is a powerful book for the current YA audience, any gender concerned.

When the small plane of seven teenagers crashes on a deserted island, while they fight for survival together, a few accidents that really weren't accidents at all leave each other suspicious of a killer among them. The questions are, who, and what could possibly be the motive? Someone is looking for justice, and the answer lies in a party that happened right before the trip.

Once things started unraveling, this was a pretty gripping read. It approached tough topics respectfully and brought them up in the first place. Shame and rape. Fear in the daily life of a woman. Knowing how to support each other instead of tearing down further. All wrapped up in mystery and survival. Quick and compelling story. Would recommend to any teenager willing to brace hard topics and eager for a mystery.

Seven teenagers are stranded on a remote island after a tiny plane crash, and their priority is survival. They rapidly learn that being the most popular student in high school doesn’t help when you’re struggling to remain alive as resources run out and the threat of being stuck for all time becomes increasingly real. The gang realizes that they are being targeted by someone who was on the plane and that the island isn’t their only threat as bizarre and horrific occurrences begin to occur all around them. They’ve been followed ashore by a horrific secret from a party the night before the trip, and it’s obvious that someone is seeking retribution. Face the facts about that party: who was injured that night, and who let it happen, if you want to survive.

I enjoy reading survival tales, so I found the early emphasis—which stayed on this aspect—to be engaging. They were first occupied with making shelters, trying to obtain food on their own, finding a water supply, and tending to their many wounds. It’s an engrossing and, at times, suspenseful drama with a mystery at its core about who among them is trying to hasten the deaths of their peers and who would stop at nothing to make it happen. I like how the past and present are intertwined so that we can fully understand the dynamics at play without needing a detailed, drawn-out narrative to establish the characters.

I couldn’t stop wondering what was going on and why. It was interesting to watch the many characters and how they were throughout this wild plot, even though I found a couple of them to be a little obnoxious. The second half of this book was a surprise and had a lot to say. I didn’t disagree with the viewpoint, but it came as a surprise and may not have been as effectively integrated into the overall narrative. The latter part of this narrative focuses on women who are assaulted by athletes and others and are unable to come forward with their stories because the elites are more likely to be believed than the women, or because the offenders are not given adequate punishment for their crimes, as in the Brock Turner case. In my opinion, this book deconstructs the problems with consent, unhealthy relationships, and the social hierarchies that are so pervasive in adolescence. It was a masterfully written book that ought to affect its readers in the actual world.

When a plane full of basketball players and cheerleaders crashes on a deserted island, their first problem is how to survive. After a couple of days hoping to be rescued, they realize help may not be coming soon or at all. That’s when someone starts trying to hurt them. If they can’t figure out which one of them it is, they may not survive to be rescued. Through flashbacks to a party the last night of the basketball tour, the group begins to remember what happened. Can they figure out who wants to hurt them so they can be rescued? This was a great YA thriller with a twist. It also touches on rape and the culture that allows comments, unwanted advances, and other things that make it hard for girls to stand up to their attackers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-ARC of No Accident by Laura Bates. If you enjoyed The Wilds TV series, you are bound to enjoy this book. It's a quick read and the ending is not what you expect.

A plane crash leaves seven teens marooned on a Caribbean island. At first, survival seems to be their primary concern and the teens focus on building shelters, gathering food, and finding water. But it soon becomes clear that something else lies under the surface. Hayley, an investigative reporter want-to-be, decides to try to figure out who is responsible for the incidents that keep happening before someone gets permanently injured or killed. A trigger warning about sexual assault at the beginning of the book gives a big clue toward what's happening, but doesn't give away the who or specifics of the why. I found the book pretty compelling in terms of the tension of survival as well as the tense relationships between the characters. Each character does come across as a unique individual with different experiences, personalities, and motives. I could have done without all the bad language, but it's realistic under the circumstances. I was also a bit disappointed at how easy it was to figure out who the guilty party was and why. In terms of themes, there are a number of important issues brought up by the characters including important questions of consent. I appreciate the importance of the issues brought to the surface in this story. While I would have liked to know more about what happened to the characters at the end, things are resolved to a certain extent although, realistically, there is no happy ending here. I think my favorite part of the book relates to the details of the work the teens did that helped them survive, I found those details fascinating. In terms of content, there is swearing and profanity and sexual content, although not gratuitous or graphic. Recommended for those who enjoy thrillers with something to say about the ways of the world.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher of an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was ok, a cute lil horror thriller. Easy to wrapped up in but nothing more than that

This book was entertaining from start to finish.
It's the perfect suspensful ya thriller read.
The only downside for me was that it's a little short and it felt like that maybe a little longer format would've been better. Otherwise it's was a fun read and kept me wondering what was happening.

I’m not usually one to be interested in a survival story such as this, but I selected it to change up my reading. The story follows a group of teens traveling for a cheer competition who are in a plane crash and are trying to survive on a deserted island. There are a lot of characters in this book. Not one is the primary and all are suspicious at some point. I strongly disliked most of them except for Elijah. He was probably my least disliked. The characters were whiney and immature, which is probably how they were suppose to be because these were teenagers. However, even though I didn’t like the characters I found the plot interesting and the guessing game of who was behind the terrible accidents


The story did jump around a bit from points of view, but it flowed nicely. My only complaint was that it wasn’t like a typical mystery where the pieces slowly fell into place. We learn a lot about what is happening but not who it might be. It isn’t until the end when the big reveal happens that we even really have an inkling in the matter. Also, the ending was abrupt. We found out the answer and then the ending was kind of a cliffhanger. We kind of know what is happening, but no real conclusion. I was hoping for a lot more than that.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but just wanted a little bit more satisfaction in the end. I will definitely check out more books by Laura Bates and see how those play out.

Thoughts

This book is set up like Lord of the Flies, but it doesn't capture any of the essence of Lord of the Flies. It doesn't grasp the magic of the island or the darkness of the characters. This is a book that feels like its meant to be profound... but it really isn't.

Pros
Misogynist: In Golding's masterpiece, the crash-landing island is dominated by little boys. There is no element of misogyny. Why would there be? When would division of the sexes ever come up? So I appreciate that Laura Bates includes it here. In a survival situation, all hands might be needed to help, but when wrestling for control, it only makes sense for true colors to show. These cheerleaders might be just as competent as the male athletes they're stranded with, but the obstacles between these girls and success are steep.

Grand Conspiracy: Being stuck on a desert island is hard enough, but... What if you thought someone might have deliberately brought the plane down? Or what if someone brought a grudge from before to the island with them? What if there was a murderer on the loose... that might be one of you? No one can be trusted--and there's no escape.

Tackles Hard Topic: At its core, this book is a "topic" book--a book that tackles a "hot button" type of discussion in its pages. This book tackles a #MeToo story, and I appreciate that. The venue was wrong, I think--this wasn't the right story for the discussion at hand. It could have been handled better in many, many ways. But I appreciate Laura Bates's decision to go there, to talk about it. If we don't talk about these things, nothing will ever change.


Cons
No Survival Instinct: I believe, deep down, that everybody has a survival instinct in them. Not that everyone will execute that well, but in an emergency situation, I think the body's first reaction will be to survive. Not so in this book. There was no sense of emergency. No sense of desperation. No need to seek food and shelter and water after the crash. At some point on that initial day, they should have come together, right? These aren't little kids, resigned to crying on the beach or splashing in the waves. They're teenagers--old enough that in much of human history they would have been on their own already. So it makes no sense to me that they didn't try to help themselves until it was almost too late.

Droning: The paragraphs here are long, long and full of lackluster prose. The pages go on and on, but not in a good way--not in a way that reflects, perhaps, the monotony of the days on this desert island, trying to survive. The story just felt dragged out, unnecessarily long because it wasn't particularly complicated or convoluted, not even with the twist ending.

Not Like Other Girls: The main character, Hayley, well... she isn't like other girls. Sure, she might be a cheerleader, but she's only a cheerleader to boost her college applications. She's not shallow like the others. She's not empty-headed like the others. She's smart, and she's a good investigator, and... She's every terrible stereotype about female YA protagonists, contemporary or otherwise. She's Not Like Other Girls, and it's just annoying to read.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐
3/10

Fans of Goldy Moldavsky's Lord of the Fly Fest will appreciate this new group of modern teens tossed onto a desert island. Those who enjoyed Jennifer Lynn Alvarez's Friends Like These might appreciate the twisty unraveling of this party's aftermath.

I haven't read something like this since I was in high school and I enjoyed it. It was fast paced, a really quick read and was thrilling. That said, I think it's been done before and had a LOST voice.

A group of teens returning from a sports event - A rich parent's private jet - what could go wrong? From the beginning of the flight everyone seems to be off. Add to that heavy turbulence and a plane crash on a deserted island.
Some parts of Hailey's flashbacks got too overwhelming for the story. But I enjoyed reading and anticipating the results of their situation. For teens to be stranded was a difficult venture. Elliott luckily had vast camping/survival know how.
lots of teen attitude and now someone is intentionally hurting them. A stranger on the island? Or is one of them to blame for the injuries .I enjoyed this read.

This was better than lord of the flies, a book I hate, and therefore I think it's great.
Seriously though, I think this was a really interesting survival story, and I liked how honest and real it was about harsh topics. I think it could've been done with a little more nuance, but overall I think it was a strong take on a classic story. It was a fast read, and it was definitely thrilling. Overall a pretty solid read.

When a group of teens are returning home from a sports competition, the small plane they are traveling in crashes and seven of them end up on a remote island along the gulf coast.
Suffering fairly minor injuries, they are able to apply first aid and access their situation.

The story takes an unexpected turn when sinister events start happening on the island to certain individuals and sometimes to a group. The teens decide to hold ‘court’ and find out who the culprit could be.

Through this process, the topics of bullying, sexual abuse and alcohol abuse come into play. There is some very frank discussion about these topics that many young people could benefit from.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review. I am happy to recommend this young adult book to readers.

A suspenseful and timely Co-ed update on "The Lord of the Flies". This adventure novel follows two school outcasts with the seemingly tight-knight popular kids from school who find themselves stranded together, dependent on one another. This book addresses many societal norms and the different “worlds” that women and men can live in at the same moment. In an age of “Me Too” this is a raw truth of how desperately our society needs to change and that it's not an “adult” problem but is affecting and being learned by girls and boys at younger and younger ages.

This was definitely entertaining and fast paced, and I do love a survival story! And, when you mix in a survival story with a whodunit, you have the recipe for a book that is quite unputdownable, which No Accident certainly was.

Obviously, the stakes are going to be high when the characters find themselves washed up on a deserted island. They have few supplies, and as the days pass, their hopes of rescue seem to dwindle. But something else seems to be afoot on the island. Is it a series of bad luck coincidences? Or is something (or someone) more sinister at play? Obviously, you'll need to read for yourself to find out all the answers, which I was flying through the pages to discover.

The book also delves into a lot of relevant social issues, including rape, consent, and bullying, among others. There are a lot of really great discussions that happen during the course of the story, which leads to some equally wonderful character growth.

Bottom Line: Love a sinister survival story, even more when it explores socially relevant topics along the way.

When their plane goes down on a deserted island these teens move into survival mode. They begin to work as a group to try to salvage what they can and to find ways to survive until they are rescued. however, there are secrets that they are all keeping and when strange things start happening on the island they definitely turn on each other to know who’s the culprit. This book was a combination of a classic mystery thriller, and also an interesting discussion around feminism, sexual assault, and the struggles that women often have to deal with every day. I definitely thought I was getting one type of book, but was pleasantly surprised to find that there was an even deeper meaning. Why did enjoy the book I did feel as though the second half of the book I was not well woven into the first half. The women’s issues, and rape discussion, all of which were super important and interesting in their own right really didn’t feel as though they were woven into the rest of the story. It began to feel a bit pedantic, and like a lecture on the topic versus feeling as though it was really melded with the characters.. It will definitely be an interesting addition to my classroom.

Trigger warning: This book and review talk about assault/sexual assault.

Seven highschoolers survive a plane crash, becoming stranded on a deserted island. As things go continuously wrong, it becomes increasingly evident that something happened at a party the night before the crash. One of them is intentionally sabotaging their attempts at survival/rescue.

The crux of the story comes down to something that happened before the crash or even the book began. What parts do we as a society, and individuals, play in the culture and even the nature of sexual assault? How complicit are we in rape culture, whether or not we recognize it? Why do we still blame the victim?

This book opens up an excellent discussion of all of these issues, culminating in an amazingly, thought-provoking scene at the climax. The only problem I had with this book was that though the crash gave the issues at hand an immediacy and urgency, I felt that the setting was wrong. I found it a little hard to accept that someone who had survived a plane crash (and another trauma) would try to sabotage their own chance at getting off the island. Especially, when they actually wanted to be rescued. I’m not sure what other setting would have worked for the idea, but it seemed awfully high stakes to screw around with one’s survival chances.

Honestly, I probably won’t read this book again–because I don’t think I can ever forget the message.

No Accident is a YA thriller surrounding Hayley, her fellow cheerleaders, and their basketball team after they crash on a deserted island.

After the crash and the loss of their coach, Hayley and her peers hold out hope that rescue is on their way. As the food runs out, and the water runs scarce, Hayley begins to panic. Elliot, the underdog in the story who doesn’t seem to fit in with his teammates, is the only one on the island with any set survival skills.

While Elliot attempts to survive, Hayley contemplates what brought her to this moment through flashbacks and delusion.

Alongside the drama and the desire to survive, No Accident deals with heavy topics such as sexual assault and rape. Check trigger warnings before you go to pick up your copy of No Accident tomorrow!

I personally was captivated by this short yet enticing novel told in the third person point of view. Laura Bates, author of The Burning, has a way with words. When mixing YA with such sensitive topics, it’s difficult for me to recommend certain books to actual teenagers, but Laura Bates writes honest, raw and powerful stories that young women across the world should read.

Personally, some of the characters in this book annoyed me. But then again, so did half the people I went to high school with. I think this book perfectly highlights important topics in a fictionalized situation, and I would recommend it to many.

If you’re interested in this spectacular thriller, you can read it anywhere tomorrow, December 6th!

Thanks to @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for this advanced readers copy.