Synopsis:It’s the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom. The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara’s life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, foreshadowed by the deaths of many relatives before them, Cara’s family becomes inexplicably accident-prone. They banish knives to locked drawers, cover sharp table edges with padding, switch off electrical items – but injuries follow wherever they go, and the accident season becomes an ever-growing obsession and fear. But why are they so cursed? And how can they break free?
Summary:
A very unique book that focuses on the issues of family, friendship, secrets, romance and the paranormal. An exquisite story filled to the brim with mystery and illusion.
My Thoughts:
I’ll start off by saying that this book is definitely not my usual read, therefore I feel like what I’m about to say will be biased as what works for me, may not work for someone else and vice versa. That being said,
I didn’t enjoy this book but I also didn’t not like it either.
It’s an interesting tale of a family who, once a year, seem to be increasingly prone to accidents of varying degrees, A slight bump to the head swiftly becomes concussion, a paper cut almost results in slicing clean through a finger and so on.
It’s a premise that had a lot of potential and had me vying to read it as soon as I managed to lay my hands on a copy but unfortunately for me, it fell flat. There was so much more it could have been and I feel like the idea wasn’t pushed to its heights.
My favourite thing about the book was the main character’s blurry sense of reality. We, along with the protagonist aren’t entirely sure what’s real and what isn’t. I think It acted as a sort of barrier between her and the real world – a way of her reasoning with what’s happening around her. They are blended into the story alongside the ‘real’ events and I can see why it gets confusing but coming from someone who daydreams all the time, I thought it was good plot device executed perfectly.
However the plot, which appeared certain and steady in the beginning, went slightly off the rails near the ending which could be a way of emphasizing the aftermath of the reveal but I get the feeling was more messy than planned. The beginning was extremely promising and the tension held well throughout as I was constantly anticipating more appearances from Elsie. Unfortunately towards the end, everything got a bit chaotic, with fantasy blurring with reality and despite the reveal it felt slightly anticlimactic to me. Disappointing as the rest of the book was actually very good!
I did like the endless mystery and curious finds but the best past I found was the secrets box. It was a nice insight into other people’s lives whilst also being an obvious plot point for the story. It’s interesting to be reminded that we all have secrets, some bad, some good.
The overall writing was incredibly poetic and made it seem as though I was reading a fairy tale of sorts, there was a definite magical presence always lingering within the words. There were some jarring sections of teenage angst which threw the flow off slightly but for the most part it worked well.
The characters were okay but I didn’t really connect with them or love them, I was more interested in the character Elsie than the characters who we actually follow through the story. The mum’s anxiety and grief was portrayed really well. Alice was the most well-written of them all and her relationship with Nick becomes an intense focus for the latter half of the book which ultimately sets off a chain of events(and metaphors) that bring us full circle.
I particular liked Bea and her strangely twisted tales and tarot cards. She definitely seemed like the more fantastical of the group, I was half expecting her to be a figment of our protagonist’s imagination!
Despite the nature of the book, each character was fairly reckless and careless at times, throwing caution to the wind and doing some crazy stuff when they know it’s The Accident Season and are fully aware that people have died from doing normal every day things because of it. Yet they still ventured out across rivers, near railway lines and into abandoned buildings…
There was some romance but none to take away from the mystery or the tension and in some ways it only added to the allure! We get a glimpse of two very different relationships which open our eyes to different possibilities as well as uncertainty which reflects the nature of the story quite well.
The ending was pretty good and the revelation at the end was no less shocking despite the fact I guessed it before I’d got half way through(damn me and my reader’s/writer’s brain)!
I praise Moira as this is a highly original story which is equally exciting and creepy, I’m sure that there will be a hell of a lot of love for this book! Even if it didn’t tick all my personal boxes!
Final Word:
A strange but captivating book that puts Moira Fowley-Doyle as an author to watch in the future.
Even though the story wasn’t really for me, overall, I liked it but didn’t love it.
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