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No Accident

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No matter how you try to hide it, the truth will always come out . . .

After a plane crash sees a group of seven teens washed up on a desert island, their first thought is survival. But a terrible secret from a party the night before has followed them ashore. Facing deadly threats and the fear of being stranded forever, they quickly discover that being the most popular kid in High School doesn’t help when you’re fighting to stay alive. As the island deals each of them a dangerous blow, it’s clear that someone is looking for justice. Now survival depends on facing the truth about that party: who was hurt that night, and who let it happen?

Audiobook

First published September 16, 2021

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About the author

Laura Bates

21 books2,307 followers
Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 100,000 testimonies of gender inequality, with branches in 25 countries worldwide. She works closely with politicians, businesses, schools, police forces and organisations from the Council of Europe to the United Nations to tackle gender inequality. She was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to gender equality in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2015 and has been named a woman of the year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine.

Laura is the author of Everyday Sexism, the Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up, and Misogynation. Her first novel, The Burning, was published in 2019. She co-wrote Letters to the Future with Owen Sheers. Laura writes regularly for the Guardian, New York Times and others and won a British Press Award in 2015. She has been a judge for the Women's Prize, the YA Book Prize and the BBC Young Writers Award and part of the committee selecting the 2020 Children's Laureate. In 2019 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Laura is a contributor at Women Under Siege, a New York-based project tackling rape in conflict worldwide and she is patron of SARSAS, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support. She is the recipient of two honorary degrees and was awarded the Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 420 reviews
Profile Image for Maditales.
625 reviews32.9k followers
September 5, 2023
Idk what to rate this book.

Firstly, I LOVE the premise of the story. I mean come on a plane crash and now you have to survive by yourself AND THERE’S A MYSTERY????
It’s like Yellowjackets and lost combined (aka it’s amazing).

Yet the mystery fell flat. It was pretty obvious who did it right away and that obviously ruined the entire surprise for me.

With that comes another thing that I hated:
This book handles very dark and triggering subjects and addresses what society often thinks and how these victims have to deal with everything, yet it was (in my opinion) not done in the best way.

!!!!SPOILER WARNING FOR BELOW!!!!
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Over the course of the book you very obviously start getting mad at the person who is doing all of this. Why? Well because it seems like they are just hurting (and putting innocent people) into danger.
So then, when it turns out that the person who did it, is actually a victim, it feels wrong to think of them that way and get mad.
But then again… they hurt an innocent people for no reason?

It’s very hard in the end, in my opinion to know what to do which fucking sucks.

I don’t understand why this book chose such a dark message as the reason for such a weird revenge plot line.
I think this could have been executed way better and the revenge could have been also done way better.

Also wtf??? This book did not focus long enough on what some of the people in this book did.
Profile Image for Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays).
5,150 reviews3,118 followers
December 2, 2022
Astute and surprising book that has more to say than it initially seems on the surface.

A small private plane heading home from a basketball tournament carrying some of the team members and cheerleaders crashes onto a small island. As the days pass, they start to run out of food and water and worry if they will ever be rescued. They explore their surroundings and are able to find meager supplies to survive, but soon strange things start happening to them. Are they being targeted, and if so, who among them is causing these things to happen and why?

Although there are some clunky parts to the story flow, the overall message here is timely and important. I got a little teary towards the end because the statements are so impactful. I hesitate to go too much into depth about the themes in the book because they give away the twists in the story, but suffice it to say that there are some meaningful themes here that should resonate, particularly with the YA audience.

I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator does a fantastic job. The book is told from Hayley's point of view, so the narration mostly comes from her perspective and the mystery uncovered by her investigating. The characters overall aren't as well developed as they could have been, but in the end it didn't matter too much with the broader message.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Dannii Elle.
2,331 reviews1,831 followers
September 10, 2021
"We should take the scars we don't see as seriously as the ones we do."

Seven teens were the only surviving members of a plane crash that delivered them to a deserted island, far removed from any other land mass. As they attempt to survive, both the harsh island terrain and in the close proximity of each other, details about their lives prior to the crash started to emerge.

I love survival stories and so found the early focus, which remained on this aspect, very intriguing. Crafting shelters, attempting to feed themselves, finding a water source, and healing their many wounds were what kept them initially busy. As the days passed and help seemed increasingly unlikely to come their focus turned on each other instead.

The individuals they were before the crash seemed very different to the people they became after it. Strengths were found in overlooked places and the strongest or loudest members of the group did not also prove themselves to be the best leaders, like they were at school.

Details of what occurred before the crash slowly started to take a primary focus. The author, Laura Bates, is a gender equality activist and so elements that feature throughout her non-fiction publications also dominated here. It made this a story that was both harrowing and powerful, feminist and important.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Laura Bates, and the publisher, Simon & Schuster Children's UK, for this opportunity.
1,035 reviews88 followers
December 11, 2022
2.5-2.75 Stars
This was a tough novel to rate. I'm glad the novel tackles sexual assaults and abusive relationships, but I wasn't too happy with how it was handled. I do not condone violence, especially not out of revenge. Putting someone's life in danger is a big NO. This novel made it seem like it was okay to harm someone else because of what happened.



***I would like to thank NetGalley, Laura Bates (the author), and RB Media for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.*
Profile Image for Melany.
1,290 reviews153 followers
December 2, 2022
I enjoyed this read, super short book. It kept me wondering what was happening and why. I found a few characters a bit annoying but other than that it was interesting to see the different characters and how they were during this crazy storyline. I loved how the story built along the way. The ending shocked me!

I received this book from NetGalley and the publishers to read and review. All of the statements above are my true opinion after fully reading this book.
Profile Image for ᒪᗴᗩᕼ .
2,079 reviews190 followers
April 16, 2023
3¾⭐

…the bullet points

- survival thriller
- a “closed island” mystery
- #metoo & gender inequality
- is someone looking for justice or is the island out to get them
- has a much deeper message than what the blurb and cover suggest

This story was much different than what I thought it was going to be. Am I upset that it turned out to be much deeper than the cover suggests it to be…no, not really. But I’m not 100% on board with it either. Overall, it’s a quick listen with great narration, and for the most part a worthwhile endeavor.

…about the narration
🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️/5
- Justis Bolding
…she’s everywhere when it comes to narrators for YA books lately…and I’m not at all upset about that since she is really fantastic.

...the score
➨ 7.36/10 | Opening-8 | Characters-7 | Plot-7.3 | Atmosphere-7 | Writing Style-7.5 | Ending-6.7 | Overall Enjoyment- 7.8
Profile Image for AndiReads.
1,372 reviews168 followers
September 1, 2022
Seven teens wash up on an island when a private plane crashes on return from a game. A few male player and female cheerleaders have to decide how to get along and survive until help arrives. However a series of accidents occur that make the group wonder if someone is out to get them, and this makes them question whether they will ever even be rescued... This novel had a lot to say and the second part really was a surprise. I didn't disagree with the point of view, but it was a surprise and maybe not woven in as well to the whole story. If you like YA, survival stories, islands getaways gone bad, or just want a story with a bigger theme and purpose underneath, No Accident is for you! #sourcebooks #sourcebooksfire
Profile Image for 8stitches 9lives.
2,853 reviews1,723 followers
September 29, 2021
The Trial is a young adult contemporary thriller with substantial Lord of the Flies vibes where a group of semi-obnoxious teenagers must try to survive in the depths of the jungle after a series of unfortunate events. But as well as the survival of the entirety of the group, there are personal battles raging and being fought, too, stemming from a truly harrowing set of perfectly aligned circumstances. Travelling via private plane, the story follows three basketball players and four cheerleaders from a high school sports centre as they attend basketball playoffs with the girls being there to support and encourage the guys to win. But the last day of the tournament has just passed, and the two teams are on their way back to their school when they decide to throw a raucous party on board to celebrate their freedom. Unfortunately, the plane ends up experiencing problems mid-air causing it to crash and land on a remote, seemingly uninhabited exotic island.

With supplies onboard looking starkly finite and already running out, the group realises they have zero survival skills to keep them alive until those back home discover they did not land back safely. Main character and amateur sleuth Hayley is massively regretting applying to be a cheerleader as her only reason for doing so was to boost her chances of being accepted at an Ivy League University by showing her interest in extra-curricular activities. Now, their lives have been reduced to the mundane, repetitive tasks of finding the basic elements: food, water, warmth and shelter, but little do they realise, the nightmare is only just beginning... spending so much time alone together, tempers fray and anger rises, but they have no one else to rely on but each other. Who will survive this hell on Earth and make it home to their family alive? This is a compelling and heart-pounding thriller with the isolated setting really making it a cracker of a book. The thought that the place could be harbouring a merciless killer and someone who delights in wreaking havoc at a time of such hardship is horrifying, and the tension and nail-biting twists throughout only add to the sheer terror you feel for them all as a reader.

It keeps you guessing until the end, and the fast-paced narrative combined with the idea of a group of casual acquaintances who have to depend on and trust each other implicitly and a cinematic yet oppressive atmosphere, and I struggled to put it down. The Trial really puts the word trial into trials and tribulations as the adversity of both the collective and individual members of those stranded reaches fever pitch, and an unsettling, sinister energy begins to overtake everything. It is an absorbing and, at times, nail-biting thriller with a mystery at its centre over who among them is out to hurry along their peers' demise and who it is that will try anything to attempt to bring it about. As well as the issues they face in relation to survival, Bates touches on topics she's known for exploring in her nonfiction, namely sexual consent, assault, rape, privilege, toxic masculinity, misogyny, class, gender identity and equality which I feel are important subjects to introduce in YA books, and she does so in a subtle, non-preachy manner. A thrilling and thoroughly entertaining read. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Victoria.
50 reviews23 followers
December 9, 2022
This book is a YA thriller. A group of high school students ( a team and cheerleaders) are on a small plane that crashes on a small deserted island. Aside from trying to survive, strange things start happening to each of the teens. No one knows whose responsible for these things happening.
There is much more to this book than is seems at first - and I was surprised as it took a turn.

I listened to this book as an audiobook and I did find it hard to track the multiple characters at first. Who is dating who and the relationship between them. Although this was an issue it didn't affect the enjoyment of the book. It's still easy to follow the overall story without knowing all the details of each character.

I would like to thank NetGalley and RB Media for the opportunity to review this book.
Profile Image for Ashley.
851 reviews634 followers
December 16, 2022
Star Rating: —> 4.5 Stars

Thank you to netgalley & RB Media for the Audio ARC! All opinions are my own

First off, Justis Bolding was an absolutely FANTASTIC narrator for this story! I couldn’t get enough !!!
I also def will be looking out for more from the author, Laura Bates. This ya mystery/thriller was filled with intriguing narrative, and a freakish set of events that sets our big cast of characters stuck in a dangerous, mysterious situation.

A group of star jocks & cheerleaders on tour are on a plane that strangely crashes on a deserted island. The accident has everyone reeling…. Or is it an accident?!

As the teens attempt to survive, to make matters worse, someone or someTHING is toying with them, “playing some nasty pranks” increasing in intensity as the novel progresses. This leaves them feeling even more helpless & traumatized… and sows seeds of intense mistrust between this group of “friends.”

It seems as if the island is hiding one doozy of a secret. Is the mysterious prankster one of their own? Is it a stranger? Or is it… the island itself… that seems to be trying to prove a HUGE, potentially deadly point?

A YA survival story with a thrilling twist, and an underlying, 100% relevant, at this point in time, for a long time now, issue between teens & even adults!
Profile Image for Tiphaine.
666 reviews7 followers
December 19, 2022
|| Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review ! ||

That's a very extremely big no for me.

The message could have been done better with a more contemporary drama in high school without all the plane crash and survival on deserted island, with a side of thriller. The "someone is here for revenge" happens only at the 46% mark, that's too long. The story is dragged on, the characters are one dimensional as much as I thought they all were pretty much the same, we got the whoddunit with a big message that basically happens out of nowhere because it suddenly change the book's plot. And I just finished the book and I don't even recall them being actually rescued at the end?? It's so blurry.

And yeah it's a big nope: I completely disagree with how the message of this book was done. I'm going to explain better in a spoiler-y way but to be quick and non-spoilery: acts against the crash's survivors are NOT justified AT ALL, and the person who done it had NO REASONS to do all of this, it's sick and they need mental help. Also as it doesn't says in th blurb: BIG TW for rape, sexual assault and harassment.



I'm sorry but no, this book is almost saying that vengence is justified, that the attempted murders (because they are) are justified, we don't talk at all that the rape victim needs help for their mental state, they could have snapped because of being on the island and need help, we don't even know what happens to them at the end (or it's said but it's too blurry to be noticed).
I think it's extremely toxic specially comming from an author who are known to be a gender equality activist...
Profile Image for Richard Dominguez.
958 reviews125 followers
July 31, 2023
WOW, what a great read!!

It comes across to me as a mix of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, William Golding's Lord of the Flies and the TV series Lost.
From the very first Ms Bates (the author) had me hooked and sitting on the edge of my seat (no kidding) waiting for whatever was going to happen next. The story reads easy, smoothly and beautifully paced and at the same time the reader is tense against the next POP of the jack-in-the-box (figuratively speaking).
7 teens (4 females & 3 males) stranded on a deserted (?) with the pilot and coach missing (?) all the characters feel real enough and with real depth, giving them a feel of authenticity. Dealing with trying to survive long enough to be rescued, a mysterious attacker is among them bent to do them all harm.

This one was a complete surprise to me and I loved every moment of this well, well written story. The ending is beautifully plotted and suddenly the reader is no longer reading a book but looking at an article in their local newspaper. The author does a wonderful job of revealing the story is a very topical issue and most importantly reminding us all of a complicity we are a part of, one we have ignored for so long we no looking realize we are being complicit.

This is one everyone I know is going to read because I won't stop talking about it, easily 5 out of 5.
Profile Image for Paula  Phillips.
5,665 reviews340 followers
February 7, 2022
I am so loving the Libby Library App as I am getting to read some amazing library books. This YA read captured my attention as I love survival stories that include deserted islands. In this book The Trial by Laura Bates, a private plane carrying football players and cheerleaders and their coaches are on their way to a tournament when turbulence strikes and the plane ends up crashing on a desert island. Only a few of them end up surviving and the rest are dead. On the island survived is Football players - Brian, Jason, and Elliott and Cheerleaders - Shannon, Hayley, Jessa, and May. Can the survivors work together to survive the environment until they are rescued or when strange things start happening that threaten their survival, is someone on the island trying to kill them off one by one? Hayley who is the outsider and only joined the cheerleader team to pad up her college application knows something happened at the party the night before they crashed and with the accidents happening - she just knows it is connected. When Brian almost dies and everyone starts to turn on each other, Hayley decides the only way to settle things is to hold a trial and hear an account of everybody's stories about what happened at the party. During this latter part of the book when the trial happens, the book turns more from a YA survival story to a #MeToo tale as it turns out one of them was sexually assaulted at the party. The latter part of this story focuses on women being assaulted by athletes etc and not being able, to tell the truth, as the elites tend to be the ones believed rather than the females, or the guilty parties are not punished adequately for the crime like The Brock Turner case. The author of this book is also famous for her views on Feminism and Female Empowerment.
Profile Image for Evelyn Bella (there WILL be spoilers) .
864 reviews174 followers
Read
November 10, 2025
"Justice is not available. It doesn't exist. Not for me. Not for this."

I have massive issues with this book. I have not come across this degree of authorial intrusion. It's too much, it's almost comical.

And YET. It's about a topic I feel very strongly about, and I agree with much of what's being said, that I know there's no way I can be objective in assigning a rating to this.

So. No rating. But a review nonetheless.

While I love the premise and the twists, I feel like a lot of the theories they came up with on the island were more 'author led intervention', for lack of a better word, than reasonable conclusions the characters would naturally come to, based on available information.

We're a group made up of every single necessary skillset to survive on this uninhabited island therefore.....this crash may not have been an accident.

You're a group of high school kids that don't know shit about fuck and this isn't Lost or Yellowjackets. Nobody is TRYING to kill you/experiment on you.

Though —to be fair, you can never know till you know. Still. Pretty wild conclusion to jump to less than 5 days in.

We were all jumping around pretty close to one another and Elliot said he was pushed but we all say we didn't do it therefore.....there may be another person on the island.

One of us drank approximately 14 shots of vodka and says it wasn't intentional.....therefore one of us must have spiked her coconut water and she didn't realize. Um. Do you know how aggressively MEH coconut water tastes? There's no way you miss FOURTEEN shots of vodka in it. At that concentration that's straight up vodka with hints of coconut, sorry.

We fell asleep next to a stream and woke up with leeches feeding off us therefore....one of us probably intentionally placed them on us.

These are the kinds of leaps in logic that get people labeled paranoid.

*some of these were accurate💀

Which, imo, didn't really help matters. It somehow felt like the author was trying to push a specific storyline that wasn't really backed by the narrative.

The journalist-in-waiting MC channels her inner Chloe Sullivan through all this, connecting dots that no sane person should connect (but somehow a story starts to become clear), seeing things that are just too fortuitous for her of all people to see, hearing conversations that you'd assume people would go out of their way to ensure maximum privacy for and the kind of plot armor that is usually only reserved for characters with superhuman abilities.

But.

BUT.

This isn't a story about a group of 7 teenagers trying to survive a plane crash off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a story about rape.

And the immediate aftermath. And a young, overwhelmed victim whose coping mechanisms aren't pretty(or legal, or sane) but the motivations behind why are easy to understand, in a warped way.

Made me a bit uncomfortable(this was a plus, btw), because by the time you get to know why all this over the top crazy stuff has been happening, you're primed to hate the perpetrator and then you realize they were a victim acting out.

And like I said at the start. I can not be objective about rape.

So a large part of me was secretly thinking - burn it all to the ground, baby.

Except - there's a very good reason why most of the 'justice' meted out wasn't just.

It doesn't help that the small group of 7 was a damningly perfect microcosm of society's general response to and attitude towards rape.

Basically even while cut off from the world, the victim gets a speedrun through what would actually happen in the real world should they speak up about it.

So do I blame them for becoming judge, jury and executioner?

Honestly? No. In an objective world, I'd want to say there was a better way to go about it. But is there, really?

Do I blame the other 6 for struggling with empathy vs outrage? Again. No.

It's a complicated situation.

Still. Can you generally like a story while being deeply opposed to the writing? That's how I feel about this. A lot of it felt like an op-ed.

Nothing implied. No subtext. Nothing submissive about what the author needed to say. This was domtext.
Profile Image for Danielle.
823 reviews283 followers
December 6, 2022
I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this! I finished it in one night and afternoon. It was a quick but meaningful read.

After a plane crash, several student athletes are stuck on an island. They’re high school age so we have a little “Lord of the Flies” going on. They’re somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico and the more privileged among them assume they’ll be found immediately but the more humble kids know they need to conserve resources.

By day 3, even the most optimistic are accepting that their fate is to be on that island for a while. Then weird things start to happen. They could be mistaken for accidents but it appears that someone is angry and making them pay but who and why?

I am partial to “stuck on an island” stories. I’m a Big Brother and Survivor fan so I love social experiments and anytime they’re stuck on an island, you have to wonder if they’ve been put there on purpose or even if not, was it an accident or attempted murder? The title says No Accident but I don’t think that fully covers the depth of the situation.

At its core, it’s a story about the vulnerability of being a girl. Being stuck with these guys, even though they’re friends, is risky. How well do they really know them? It's about power imbalances, especially in a place without any authority.

With flashbacks to the past woven in with the present, we get the full scope of the dynamics at play without a long, drawn-out backstory to build the characters, which I appreciate. It did remind me a lot of The Wilds, which I really enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen and review! The narration was great and I’ll be looking for more from this author, fiction and nonfiction.
Profile Image for Lauren.
Author 5 books114 followers
May 2, 2022
Trigger warning for sexual assault.

‘The Trial’ is set up in the usual ‘Lord of the Flies’ homage, where a group of teens are washed up on a desert island following a plane crash. Although this YA novel felt a little different from the beginning, which made me want to read past the initial premise of a group of privileged kids with zero survival skills attempting to navigate their current situation.
I really enjoyed the pacing and the slow rise of tensions that Bates builds up in her writing. Although the roles of cheerleader and jock characters felt a little stereotypical at times, it didn’t take away from the mystery that leads you through as a reader but more importantly it never detracted from the real point of the story, which is revealed at the end.
I love that the YA genre allows for conversations to be had that are difficult and often uncomfortable to approach but Bates handles this really well. The use of the desert island and the lack of rules felt like the perfect setting for this concept of justice being served after something previously happened at a party. The ‘accidents’ and punishments that occur to the teens as the story progresses adds to the thriller genre of this book but also adds to the conversation as to who is to blame and what actions, or lack of, led to their involvement that night.
Personally for me, this book breaks down the issues surrounding consent, toxic relationships and also the social hierarchies that are so prevalent in teenage life. It really was a brilliantly crafted novel that should have a real world impact for its readers.
Profile Image for Gemma.
834 reviews67 followers
December 26, 2022
Really enjoyed reading this. I was gripped through the entire book wondering what was going to happen next. I am a total fan of stranded booked, and this one was right there at the top of its game.
The authors fight for gender equality really shone through, especially towards the end of the book. The feminist message is clear and powerful and added importance the the message the author is portraying.
Profile Image for dominika🪸.
61 reviews
February 19, 2022
okay don't rlly know why goodreads says it has 350 pages bro no it only has 250😭😭 but anyways it's a nice quick read i loved it :) basically it's a feminist book but in a fiction context ? if thats even the correct word💀the author is a gender equality activist so like if ur a snowflake (❄️🥶👨) this book will educate you, but you will probably rip it up so. trigger warning for rape and SA btw but yea good book
Profile Image for Mia.
2,873 reviews1,049 followers
May 21, 2022
Synopsis reminded me of TV series The Wilds, a private plane carrying some high school basketball players and cheerleaders crashes on a tropical island. Sadly book itself just wasn't all that for me. The writing wasn’t my favourite, and again, it was probably to do with the fact that the characters just so one dimensional.
I can see why other people might love this book but it just wasn’t my thing.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
27 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2023
This book started out about a plane crash but the entire ending was about sexual assault and the ways men treat women. I did not care of the shift in topic.
Profile Image for SueCanaan.
567 reviews41 followers
December 7, 2022

From the publisher's Goodreads and Netgalley description:
"The Wilds meets One of Us is Lying in this survivalist YA thriller about seven teens who are
stranded on a desert island, and the one who is out for revenge."

Honestly, to me, No Accident initially had me expecting a modern day Lord of the Flies, but it fizzled and felt more like a wannabe adventure/revenge/me too book written for young adults, but as a mom and former homeschool teacher, I am unsure I would ever have used this with my teenagers. There are plenty of triggers, including sexual assault, and the motivation behind the mystery fell flat.

The premise that wealthy students, given access to a private plane for basketball tournaments, a crash, the adults dying (go missing?), and 7 young people surviving could have been interesting, but the author wanted the book to have a message which altered the book for me. I cannot speak too much to the reason why because it would spoil the plot, but I was clearly not the author's intended reader.

As an audio book the narration was well done.

I received this book in advance of the 12/6/22 publication date in exchange for an honest opinion.
Profile Image for Stephanie ((Strazzybooks)).
1,428 reviews112 followers
April 29, 2023
“‘It’s funny, isn’t it?’ [She] sounds pensive. ‘The things that scare us are so very different from the things that scare them.’”

I love desert island books. One of my favorite settings, in almost any genre, and almost always an auto-buy for me. So when I found this randomly at the bookstore, I had to get it.

Seven teens are traveling for a basketball game and their small plane crashes killing the pilot and their coach, leaving them alone. This book tracks their attempt to survive on the island, while also dealing with all the drama of their group.

I liked the desert island vibes, though some of it felt a little too neat and convenient.
The real issues lied within the group itself and whatever happened at a party the night before a crash.
This book tackles some important and heavy topics in a way that felt timely and relevant. Though it was a little too straightforward/a long tirade at the end, I appreciated what the author (with a background in working with students re:sexual harassment, etc) was teaching readers.

Overall, I’m not sure that the two parts of the book really combined for me to be the perfect read, but it did keep my interest throughout and left me thinking about important things.
Profile Image for Aly.
3,181 reviews
December 8, 2022
This seems like a thriller about a group of teenagers surviving on a deserted island, but it's really more of a social commentary and the survival part kind of takes a backseat about halfway through. I did like the author's message, I just wanted the plot to be more intense and scary.

Hayley is the outsider of the group, not really popular and not friends with the others. She sees things a bit differently because of this and when things start to go wrong, she's suspicious of everyone. I liked the way she observed and put clues together to figure out what was going on. She also stayed strong in her beliefs that if there isn't explicit consent, it's assault. I admired her for sticking up for other girls and fighting back against the guys' sexist remarks.

The ending was kind of lackluster after we found out what was going on and it's too bad the survival aspect was lost.
Profile Image for PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps .
2,738 reviews251 followers
December 5, 2022
***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary audio copy of NO ACCIDENT by Laura Bates in exchange for my honest review.***

An airplane crashes on an empty island marooning high school basketball players and cheerleaders. They must figure out how to stay alive and get along until they’re saved.

NO ACCIDENT is part Lord of the Flies, part a contemporary look at gender disparity and sexual assault. I’m a strong believer than we need to tell stories in different ways to talk about consent, assault and the responsibilities of bystanders. Standing kids on an island is a unique way to add a survival story to survivor story and possibly attract an audience who wouldn’t necessarily seek out a book about dating violence.

I love the way Bates constructed the story and will look for more books from her in the future.

The narration was also very good.
Profile Image for Angela Y (yangelareads) ♡.
674 reviews154 followers
December 16, 2022
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Copy provided by RB Media.

No matter how you try to hide it, the truth will always come out. When a small plane crash ends with a group of seven teens washed up on a deserted island, their first thought is survival. With supplies dwindling and the fear of being stranded forever becoming more of a reality, they quickly discover that being the most popular kid in high school does not help when you are fighting to stay alive.

And when strange and terrifying accidents start to occur all around them, the group realizes that they are being targeted by someone who was on the plane, and that the island isn't their only danger. A terrible secret from a party the night before the flight has followed them ashore and it is clear that someone is looking for justice. Now survival depends on facing the truth about that party: who was hurt that night, and who let it happen?

This seems like a thriller about a group of teenagers surviving on a deserted island, but it is really more of a social commentary and the survival part kind of takes a backseat. I just wanted the plot to be more intense and scary. Another downfall is the lack of characterization and a little bit of a rushed ending. None of the characters in this novel feel fully fleshed out. Some of them feel very stereotypical of the role they play in high school social hierarchy. In addition the ending felt a little too open. Several key parts of the initial conflict of this story suddenly seem to not be important any more or are brushed aside entirely. I did not need the ending to be tied up with a neat bow, that would have defeated basically the moral of the story, but I did need a little more closure for this to feel satisfying. I still think this is a good book to recommend to teens that enjoy mysteries, and the wrap up does include some really good thoughts, but it's definitely not going to be the first book I recommend out for them.
Profile Image for Ellie.
16 reviews2 followers
July 11, 2023
I don’t think I’ve read a book that felt this performative. There’s a time and place for a book to discuss sexual assault and this setting was not it.

None of the characters were likeable. I don’t know what camping Elliot had done prior to being in a plane crash but there’s NO way it would’ve been that survivalist. All of the characters felt like they were picked from an elementary kid’a brain.
Profile Image for Moon Storm.
21 reviews
December 16, 2023
I can always tell when nonfiction authors write fiction. It’s just…lacking.

Hayley is such a bland, forgettable character you forget she’s even there most of the time, despite being written in third person.

The sexual assault message felt artificially injected into a survival story. It just didn’t work or mix well.
Profile Image for Sanna G. Ståhl.
Author 1 book46 followers
February 25, 2022
Actual rating: 4.5 ⭐️

When I picked this book up I actually didn’t have much expectations for it at all. I haven’t many surviving books so it for sure peaked my interest but as I said, I didn’t exactly hope for anything in particular.

But this book really surprised me! From the first page I was sucked into the story and I wanted to find out what was going on alongside with Hayley and her ‘friends’. As the story unravels I tried to figure out who was the one who messed with the group but I couldn’t figure it out, I had two (or well three) guesses but I was wrong. Which is always fun in books.

The plot to me was very interesting and the twists and turns in this book really kept the reader on their toes.

Definitely a book I will think about every now and then and that I will recommend to all sorts of readers.

A huge plus was the feminism in this book. The author made some very important points that made my heart ache.
Profile Image for Bec.
1,351 reviews22 followers
October 2, 2021
“No matter how you try to hide it, the truth will always come out.”

When a group of teens are on their way home from a competition their private flight turns to chaos when they crash and wind up on a desert island. The group of teens are comprised of wealthy spoilt kids who don’t know a thing about survival.

There was a party the night before they left and a secret hangs over them and plagues the island. The fear of not surviving divides the group. Popularity doesn’t count when your fighting to stay alive.

When one of the kids is hurt suddenly it’s clean someone’s looking for justice and they begin to piece together what happened and who’s in trouble. The group put each of the seven teens on trial and in the end one of them desires revenge.
 
What a wild ride. I was certain someone was on the island messing with them.
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