Cover Image: No Accident

No Accident

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Member Reviews

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The message of this book is so forceful that it touches your heart.

I was quite surprised while reading. I was expecting a dark and desperate thriller. And although there was a lot of this, the subplot or the true message that the author wanted to make known was not really expected, but how well received it was.

Apart from the anguish you feel for each of the characters, seeing how they must survive on this island, with all its dangers and discomforts. When you know the reality of them, especially one of them. Anguish turns into indignation and a desire for justice.

A book that should be read carefully.

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TW: sexual assault, violence, gore, body horror briefly, rape, use of alcohol and drugs

I enjoyed the first half of this book! It was a survival story and had a thriller aspect to it. Then we got to the reveal and it got very preachy very fast. It made almost no sense why the character would do this in a situation where people would literally die because they messed around with stuff. It felt like I was watching The Breakfast Club but on a deserted island. Overall, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have wanted to.

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TW: rape

Hmm, mixed feelings on this one. The first 3/4 of the book was excellent. The writing is strong and descriptive, the characters each have their own personalities and back stories and motivations, and the plot pulls you right in. It was fast-enough paced but not breakneck, and you’re always wondering what the next sketchy thing that’s going to happen is, and trying to figure out along with the MC who the culprit is! However, the story then took a swerve and became extremely preachy - about a very important topic (sexual assault) - but it completely changed the tone of the book. It became political, and suddenly the way that all the characters’ personalities had been developed was clearly just a way to present different opinions on rape (what constitutes rape, victim blaming, how ruining a man’s life is valued more than taking a woman’s claim seriously, etc.) in a trial-like format. The author takes a very strong stance and it reads like a barely-disguised rant. She literally includes statistics provided by the “investigative reporter” who happened to research the topic recently enough to quote percentages on men who are convicted and sent to prison. Obviously I agree with the author’s intent - it’s important to have these discussions and yes, the way that sexual assault is viewed and handled in our country is terrible, but this FICTIONAL novel felt extremely disjointed as a result of how strongly she came on and I think the points she was making would’ve been better served by a less overbearing delivery. Also just the fact that the last quarter of the novel became about something entirely different and then the original plot of the book just gets neatly wrapped up on the last page. Like what? Nah. It just wasn’t handled that well to me. It’s a shame because I think this could’ve been really excellent.

3.5 rounded up to 4/5 stars because the majority of the book was great.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Seven teens, a plane crash, and a fight for survival.
When seven teens are stranded on an island after their plane crashes, their first thought is survival. With the fear of never being found, supplies dwindling, and people not pulling their weight, tension is at an all time high. As if their situation wasn't bad enough already, strange things start happening to each of them. The group quickly realizes they are being targeted and that it has to be someone who was on the plane. A horrible secret from the party that happened the night prior surfaces and it becomes clear someone is seeking justice. In order to survive, they must find the answers. Who was hurt that night and who allowed it to happen?
I was really looking forward to this one and unfortunately, it wasn't what I'd hoped for. I'm not a big fan of third person narration and feel that it can be tricky to pull off; I didn't feel like the third person POV was executed well with this story. I felt bored through the bulk of this novel, with most of the action happening in the second half/last quarter of the book. Some of the transitions seemed to happen at odd moments and the ending felt kind of rushed. The narrator, Justis Bolding, did a great job voicing the characters. This one just wasn't for me.
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and Edelweiss. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

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I received a free e-arc through Netgalley, this in no way affected this review.

This book felt like waiting for something to happen and it never happened. A big chunk of the book felt like setting the scene, but this could have been done a lot faster.

The characters felt a bit too two-dimensional for my taste, especially in the beginning where it was really hard to tell them apart. This changed a little bit towards the end, but still left me wanting more.

I did like the writing style, which made the book a decent, fast read. But it also made the ending seem a bit rushed, like all of this build-up was for nothing.

I liked the mystery aspect of the book and didn’t find out who did it until it was revealed, so that was fun.

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