Accidental Tribes out now from Prospera Books; 202 pages
Content Warning: Cyberbullying, neglect, drugs, death
About the Author: “C.S. Pascoal is an award-winning Tech for Good innovator, bestselling author, and New York City mother who has spent her career working at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and social impact” (Bio from author’s website).
Find C.S. Pascoal on the following platforms:
Eight unlucky students at Mariah Wilson Public School find themselves in detention, which is in Solitaria—a classroom forgotten by everyone in the school except the school’s new director and Dr. Miryam—with a risk of expulsion, being arrested, or both. All of them have done something, from cyberbullying to an addictive game that bypassed the school’s filters as it continuously adapted and improved. However, one of the eight students snitched on the rest, and everyone wants to figure out who. In order not to be expelled or worse, their advisor, Dr. Miryam, proposes Experiment 359 to save them: they must work together to prove that they can change and win over their new director before she decides to expel and/or turn some of the students over to the police. If they want to stay in school and avoid punishment, they must find a way to put aside their differences and play to their strengths.
When reading Accidental Tribes, I found myself drawn to the concept of the eight “unlucky” students having to work together to prove why they should stay. However, I feel like this book could have been expanded. I liked the main characters, but I feel like their backgrounds could have been explored further. Cascoal also chose to have the narrating character as the advisor who proposed the experiment. While this provides some interesting background, I can’t help but wonder how the story would have turned out if the POV stuck more closely to the main eight teenagers. With eight teenagers, I feel like there is a lot that could’ve been depicted, including their pasts before they ended up in Solitaria. Honestly, I just wanted more. Furthermore, with different subplot points like who was the one who ratted the other seven out to the new director—causing them to end up in Solitaria—and which students have complicated histories with each other, I would have liked to have seen more of the teens working it out. I loved the array of unique characters, all grappling with personal struggles on top of the experiment. While I feel like the concept of how teens’ personal lives affect their school lives is one that is expressed in many books, it’s not expressed to this degree.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Prospera Books for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advance copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Natalia Williams, Pine Reads Review Writer