A razor-sharp, wickedly clever mystery for the always-on generation.
Pascoal’s inventive mystery takes readers on a lively ride through digital-age trouble, hidden secrets, and unlikely friendships. At an underfunded New York City public school, eight teenagers find themselves facing expulsion—or potentially more serious consequences—after a disastrous week of technology-fueled misconduct. Hacked academic records, AI-generated humiliation, anonymous social media accounts, unauthorized systems, and other digital misadventures have made Jamie, Dev, Antoni, Patty, Nia, Sami, David, and Leo in serious trouble. Their final chance is Experiment 359, a thirty-day program that places them together in a forgotten classroom and requires something none of them is particularly prepared to offer: cooperation.
Pascoal has considerable fun with the setup. The students arrive suspicious, defensive, competitive, and determined to discover who betrayed them. They are not an instantly lovable band of outsiders, and that is precisely what makes their developing dynamic engaging. Each possesses talents that take on remarkably different meanings depending on how they are used: coding becomes hacking, leadership becomes control, creativity becomes humiliation, and social influence becomes cruelty. Pascoal smartly avoids treating technology itself as the villain. Instead, the novel examines what happens when teenage ingenuity develops faster than judgment—and when the adults responsible for setting boundaries barely understand the tools involved.
The novel’s emotional weight emerges beneath its humor and digital-age energy. Questions of grief, parental expectations, loneliness, ambition, identity, and the desire to belong gradually complicate first impressions. An early assignment asking the students to imagine who they want to be five years from now becomes an effective thread through the narrative, revealing the uneasy gap between the identities they project and the lives they actually want. Pascoal’s lively, conversational prose keeps these heavier concerns accessible without stripping them of significance.
Dr. Miryam, the adviser behind Experiment 359, adds an appealingly imperfect adult perspective, while the formidable Director brings tension to a school environment where institutional interests prove nearly as complicated as students’ behavior. As secrets accumulate and the experiment becomes increasingly unpredictable, the mystery gains momentum without losing sight of the characters at its center. Witty illustrations scattered throughout add charm and visual punch to the fast-moving narrative. Readers who loved Karen M. McManus’s One of Us Is Lying and Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious will find much to enjoy in this witty, emotionally layered tale of secrets and second chances.
A spirited exploration of accountability, digital identity, and the unexpected people who become family when carefully constructed lives begin falling apart.
***
Pub date September 22, 2026
Prospera Books
ISBN 979-8995829805
Reading age 13-17 years
Print length 201 pages
Price $34.99 Hardcover, $19.99 Paperback, $3.99 Kindle edition
