NO ACCIDENT

Members of a basketball team and their cheerleaders experience a plane crash that leaves few survivors on an island in this Lord of the Flies–esque survival thriller originally published in the U.K. as The Trial (2021).

What happens on tour, stays on tour—until a horrific plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico leaves only seven teens still alive and secrets come spilling out. Basketball players Jason, Brian, and Elliot and cheerleaders May, Jessa, Shannon, and Hayley must quickly learn to work together, foraging for food and water and securing shelter in their new environment. Popularity and social hierarchies don’t matter when you’re struggling for survival. The plot intensifies as someone falls (or is pushed) and the crash survivors contend with incidents involving leeches and a terrifying shark attack that are clearly not accidental. Is there someone else on the island who is trying to hurt them, or is it one of their own? Hayley takes charge, holding a trial to get to the bottom of things during which multiple events from the party the night before the plane went down are revealed. Themes of consent, toxic masculinity, elitism, misogyny, feminism, and the meaning of justice emerge as Bates creates conversations among the group members that are sobering and thought-provoking. Most characters default to White; May is Japanese American, and Jessa is Black.

An engaging, fast-paced narrative with real-world implications.