I am a huge fan of Laura Bates and her work on the Everyday Sexism project. As soon as I saw she had written for young adults, I jumped at the chance to see how her ideals translate to the page for a teenage audience. In 'The Trial', a plane crash sees several basketball players and members of the cheerleading squad stranded on a desert island. So far, so 'Lord of the Flies'. We see them adapt to survive whilst also navigating issues of gender, class and sexual politics.

There are certainly interesting elements to this story. The mysterious happenings (Is there a stranger on the island or a traitor within the group?) had me gripped as I was trying to work out the secret of the island. However, this took about half the book to get to - there are only so many descriptions of picking fruit and traversing the dense trees I can cope with before I need some action to happen. The final plot twist, whilst making some pertinent comments on life as a contemporary teenager, did not gel brilliantly with the bulk of the story and felt like an add on right near the end.

Overall, I enjoyed Bates' writing style and found elements of the plot intriguing. The pacing, particularly at the start, could have been better with a more memorable way of making the twist ending stick the landing. Overall, 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Trial mixes a few things - a survival story, a mystery, some revenge and some feminist debate near the end. It's a tribute to Laura's skills that these are almost perfectly balanced and occur naturally in the story.

Unlike most stories of this type, this one focuses heavily on the day to day grind of survival in this kind of situation. Most stories gloss over the need for food and water, for shelter, and there's a ring of truth about this one showing the work that goes into simple eating. The mystery of who's hurting people lies under it all, simmering away and occasionally erupting in violence.

However, I did think everyone was very casual about someone hurting them. The first injury could have been an accident, but by the second one they knew for sure something was happening and they just - kept on as normal. No mention of pairing off to keep safe, no staying on guard, nothing. That part seemed strange to me, but by then they were half starved and tramuatised so maybe it just didn't occur to them. And none of the accidents had been deadly up to then.

I also wish there'd been more at the end, but I always wish for more at the end, so that's not really an indicator! I did love that on the island, some of the character roles were reversed - the jock, used to being in charge, wasn't the best leader, and the queen bee cheerleader wasn't the best anymore either. It's a great illustration that the roles we play in school aren't an indicator of how our lives will go.

Overall I enjoyed this quick, exciting read, and I'm looking out for more from Laura in future.

Giving me mild Lord of the Flies vibes, this dramatic story will be well received around the 13+ age mark as it sits within the dystopian, adventure world really well.

I read a similar YA book earlier this year called The Island, where a group of young people become stranded on a desert island and go through a big mental/physical journey and learn about each other in the traumatic situation. I think I preferred this one, as the addition of modern gender politics and views on sexual assault were a big plot point. I found the ending somewhat rushed, however. I would have liked a longer discussion between the group on their feelings.

The new YA novel from Lauren Bates features a plot that bears some resemblance to the recent TV series 'The Wilds' - a group of teens end up on an isolated beach following an accident. They have to work out what happened, how to survive and whether one of them may be out to get them. The final act of the book is the highlight of the book but doesn't entirely make up for the pedestrian nature of what comes before it.

I’ll start this review by saying The Trial is probably best for readers around 13 years old. I read so, so much YA but it’s typically crossover or older teen YA, and my star rating is based on this. So, for young teens this is a 4 star read, but for everyone else I’d give this a middling 3. (Also, the cover art is reminiscent of covers for adult thrillers, so I think it’s worth saying that this does not reach the heights of a YA thriller.)

For those not in the know, Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, which was huge at one point here in the UK (not sure what it’s traction was like overseas). This is her second book for children and I was interested to see how she’d raise awareness around rape and consent for young readers. Ultimately, it was a so-so attempt – but I say that as someone who didn’t realise the book was for such young readers!! I think a 12 or 13 year old would likely be new to these topics and this gentle approach would be of benefit to them. For everyone else I’d say there are much better books about being stranded on desert islands (Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, for example) or about rape culture (Mindy McGinnis’ The Female of the Species).

After their private plane crashes, a group of teenagers are stranded on a deserted island. To make matters worse, they discover that one of the survivors is out to get them, and they’re now forced to survive the island and each other.

There are some good things about this book, but unfortunately they happen in the last 10% of a book that wraps up very quickly. Part of the problem is that the happenings on the island all revolve around a party the night before the plane crash – a party that the protagonist, Hayley, left early. Everyone else is then under suspicion and Hayley takes on the mantle of the investigator – except not really. She’s quite passive, honestly, and luckily overhears things as she’s walking about. To be fair, she makes sure to ask a vague question about the party to each of the other survivors, but it's a lukewarm investigation, really.

And then, when the perpetrator reveals why they’re seeking justice, the fact that Hayley left the party early and isn’t really involved in what happened feels like a bit of a let-down. There’s some really great discussion about consent, rape, belief, misogyny, etc. but it feels like Hayley is just a bystander to it all. If Hayley could have been more clearly tied in to the events then the final reckoning would have been a judgement on the reader too (since Hayley was our way into the book). But we’re left as bystanders, just observing.

The book starts slowly and ends quickly and honestly this would have been a much more powerful book if the truth about that night had come out earlier and the islanders had been forced to sit with the repercussions of their actions for much longer. (And if we'd actually seen Jessa change her mind instead of just hearing that she did!!) As it is, they fall asleep, wake up the next day, and are finally rescued. It was anti-climactic, even after the perpetrator’s talk with Hayley.

But, again, it’s worth saying that if you’re 13 years old and have never read a book about being stranded on a desert island, and haven’t really engaged with issues around rape/consent/misogyny, then this book will likely be excellent for you!

PS. This is an ARC so things may change, but considering this book was set in America there were still a few Britishisms about. I assume these will be changed by publication.

It’s taken me a few days to collect my thoughts from this due to the ending, but here we go.
This is the second book I’ve read with a stranded on a desert island trope in the last month, so we can safely assume I’m a fan of this trope.

A small private plane transporting a group of cheerleaders and football players home after a party (!) crashes on an island. A couple of days in and strange things start to happen to each of the group. They must work together to find out who’s responsible and why, all while trying to survive. Obviously the official blurb makes it sound way better than I’ve just done, because I was intrigued by it.
I whizzed through the book and couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. It’s very well paced, but a couple things I felt let me down.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the stereotypes used and the conclusion. I’m not going to reveal the spoilers, so this is best read after you’ve read the book, but I feel like everything revealed in the last couple of chapters is too important a topic to be squashed into the end of a book like that. It felt a bit like a lecture - vital points are raised but I’m not sure the target audience for this book (YA and let’s be honest, mainly females will read this) is the target for the message the book sends. It would be ideal if teen boys read it too.
Would the perpetrator of the events on the island really hold everyone responsible for what happened and go to those lengths to teach them individual lessons? The reasoning seemed flimsy to me, and I struggled a lot with this.
Ultimately The Trial felt like two ideas merged together. I’m undecided on whether to recommend or not, because up until the shark, I was really really enjoying it.

I'm a big fan of Laura Bates - i think her non fiction books are fascinating. Therefore I was super intrigued by this YA fiction by Bates.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book. It was very slow paced and one dimensional. I think the ending was great - it had a great message and made you think. However, the lead up to the ending just felt like a waste. I feel like Bates had an idea for a book (eg. the big hard-hitting, thought provoking ending) but how she got to that ending, she didn't really put much thought in to.

I'm not sure if I would read Bate's fiction again - think i'll just stick with her non-fiction.

The Trial, Laura Bates

After a plane crash lands 7 teens on a small remote deserted island they initially focus on survival. But secrets from before the crash start to build and as they each find themselves in danger they realise somebody is on the hunt for justice.

Laura Bates is an important voice and with The Trial she begins a much needed conversation in a unique way. With many brilliant comparisons and some excellent imagery this YA thriller is brimming with lessons and thought provoking points.
A passionate and assertive voice for now, Laura Bates is a must read.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #SimonandSchuster for my copy of this one.

"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.

The Trial tells the story of a basketball team and its cheerleaders who are involved in a plane crash and end up stranded on an island trying to survive while they await rescue. The crash happened the day after an ‘end of tour’ party and it becomes apparent that there are a number of unresolved issues arising from events that happened at the party. This story is clearly targeted at a young YA audience and I think it will do well with that audience. I am not the target age of the reader and I struggled to care about any of the characters - I didn’t feel that I got to know any of them well enough despite them all being stranded on an island together. Bates excels, however, when she uses the party and, the feelings it’s events raise in each of its attendees, to discuss consent, rape, injuries the eye cannot see, coercive control in relationships, class and misogyny in a clever and very useful way that is very important for YA to read and consider.

Intense lord of the flies vibes but with some real gritty issues coming to light - 100% needs a trigger warning on it for sexual assult. In hindsight, with Laura Bates as the author, part of me should have known.

A little bit of a slow burn but that's by no means a critisim. Sometimes it's surprisingly gratifying to take time with a story and focus on characters' interpersonal relationships rather than racing to a conclusion or big events peppered throughout.
The way people behave in extreme or emergency situations can be very telling and often appear polar opposite to what you're used to from a person. Cheerleaders and Jocks are expected to have this self-assured nature and confidence about them - natural born leaders etc etc, but cutting through that veneer is difficult and fleeting for the most part. Bates writes honest and believable characters going through something extremely traumatic.

Unfortunately survival / plane crash type narratives don't have far to go in terms of being able to break out from the crowd. Whilst it's a decent and curious read, I'm not really a fan of that 'Lost' genre so it's not something I'd seek out, had I realised.

Laura Bates is one of my favourite feminist writers writing today. I think she is fantastically uncompromising and rigorous in her analysis of society and unflinching in her conclusions. This is the second of her YA fiction works that I have read and while I am absolutely not the target audience for such works, I am really glad she is writing them.

The Trial is deceptively simple. A kind of mixture of Lord of the Flies, Lost and Fantasy Island, the story follows seven highschoolers; three basketball players and four cheerleaders; whose plane crashes and leaves them stranded on a desert island. At first, the priority is merely survival, how to feed themselves and how to find water, but soon a series of strange events take place. Is someone else on the island? What do they want? How far will they go?

The characters are pretty cookie-cutter generally, and I do think Bates might be too English to write such stereotypically American characters, however, the way she uses the characters once established allows her to make excellent and interesting points in unconventional ways. She uses her character's context (that of being students as a private school) to make points about class as well as feminism and sexism. The karmic incidents on the island, one in particular, really worked for me and I really liked the comparison she was drawing. The class commentary could have been a little deeper but it is aimed for teenagers so I didn't mind some of the hamfisted moments. Initially in the novel I thought Bates was in danger of making one of her male characters a little too perfect, especially as my knowledge of the genre had led me to assume that he would be a love interest for the main character but I am so happy to have been proved wrong. Instead, she uses the character to make a really nuanced and compelling point about the complicity of genuinely nice guys which I thought was well done and an excellent inclusion.

Personally, I would have liked the main character to be a little more complicit herself rather than a complete outsider looking in but generally, the detective/mystery theme was really effective. I mean, I literally read this novel in one day because of it. I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it for YA lovers.

he Trial is another book that I don't really know how I feel about. It has some amazing discussions about sexual assault but generally the whole plot was generic and not particularly well executed.

Hayley joined the cheerleading team for the sole purpose of boosting her ivy league college chances. She's valedictorian, wants to be a journalist, is kinda an outsider on the cheerleading team who only made it because some people got injured and dropped out. So she's incredibly angry when their private plane crashes on a desert island after their last game on a basketball tour. Four basketball players and four cheerleaders survive, and all have to figure out how to prolong their survival.

Awful things start happening to the characters and they start to suspect they're instigated by one of their own. Hayley, puts her investigation skills to the test whilst helping the others forage for food and find ways to collect water. Hayley realises that something happened the last night they were on tour and tries to work out what.

Honestly I hated all the guys in this book, they were horrible and made awful jokes. There were a lot of discussions around the definition of rape and even some of the girls were completely perpetuating ideas that were awful and completely wrong.

Overall, this book was kinda average. It was interesting to read a book that uses a plane crash / desert island plotline to teach lessons about sexual assault, but it all wrapped up a bit too quickly.

A YA mystery with a bunch of unlikeable characters stuck on a mysterious island. Not the first book based on this scenario I've read. This one was the result of a plane crash. A small group of cheerleaders and some sports boys after competing in a competition. Not everyone gets along and they all have to figure out how to survive and ration the food and water and utilise what the island has to offer before rescue. Before long things start going hideously wrong and there's a bunch of strange things happening along with accidents that could have deadly consequences. The heroine is one of the cheerleaders who writes for the school news paper and took up cheerleading to boost her extracurriculars. Not exactly BFFs with the other and sort of on the edge of the group decides it's up to her to figure out what's going on. There's hints that something really bad happened the night before the plane crash.

I've enjoyed the last book I read by the same author and it tackled some important issues with leaked nude pictures and this one takes a turn towards the end and there's a really interesting discussions on rape, underage drinking, consent, responsibility, consequences. There's also some good points made on safety issues faced by teenage girls. So while the characters aren't all that likeable there are some relatable issues dealt with and some good discussion points.

Thank you Netgalley for the review copy.

This is a great YA book. I liked the writing style and the format. This story would be a great introduction into the survivalist genre.