The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Published: August 18th 2015 by Corgi Children’s

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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?

This was one of the books that I purchased over the Christmas period – so I am considering it a gift because normally I wouldn’t splurge on that many books in one go… my husband still loves me 😛 I had heard a lot of great things about this book, so I was really looking forward to starting it. However, I didn’t love it. I really struggled to get through the book and it stuck me in a partial reading slump, if I am going to be completely honest. It was ok, but I had no issues putting it down in lieu of Gordon Ramsay instead.

I had real issues connecting with Cara – our MC. I found her to be a really bland kind of character and I wasn’t really fussed about whether or not she got through the Accident Season with bumps and scrapes or not. I struggled to stick with the book because I had such a hard time connecting with Cara – she was boring for me, which is a shame.

I did like Bea and Alice. I definitely found them to be more relatable despite Bea’s weirdness and Alice’s tendency to be closed off at times. As the book went along, I really enjoyed Alice’s growth. She still had her secrets, like all the characters do, but she was someone I cared about in the sense that, I didn’t want anything to happen to her! I also enjoyed the relationship between Bea and Alice and the way that it grew throughout the book.

I saw the plot twist coming from a mile off, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I had already guessed what had happened, so that, by the time all the secrets came out, I knew already. I think this detracted from the book itself because it became predictable and I wanted a book where I had no idea what was going on.

I did like the weird imagery going on at some points. It did add a certain aspect to the book which made it interesting. It tied into Bea’s obsession with card reading and it worked in its own way.

All in all, there were good and bad points to this book, which is a shame because I really wanted to love it. I got bored watching the characters meander around for the most of the book and I enjoyed the ending where things got a little more interesting, despite the predictability of the book. I gave this book 3/5 stars.