Review: The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Publication Date: August 18, 2015

Synopsis:
For one month out of the year, the accident season affects Cara's family. It's been like this for as long as she can remember, and it doesn't look like it will stop soon.

Broken bones, fractured limbs, and unexplainable accidents have the family questioning why this is happening and if something else is wrong.

Rating: 3 stars

Thoughts:
I think I spent more of this book being confused than anything else. For some reason, I never felt like I understood what was going on, no matter how many times it was reiterated. I just felt really lost while reading the book. Maybe it was the writing style or the characters or the story itself, but I just couldn't connect no matter how hard I tried.

I think my problem here is that I don't feel like the plot was explained very well. Yes, we know that the accident season occurs once a year and everyone in the family inexplicably becomes very accident-prone, gaining injuries that can range from bruises to broken bones. Other than that, we really don't know much about the accident season. The author does go on to explain more about the accident season, but I didn't feel like I understood it by the time the book ended. Part of me still felt like I was missing something that would unlock the mystery of the accident season.

Flowery writing is never something that I object to, unless it feels out of place. In this book, that's what it felt like for me. I kind of understand that the author is trying to use the writing style to convey mystery, intrigue, and also as a device for foreshadowing, but for me, that didn't really work. I found myself more annoyed at the flowery writing and use of metaphors than interested and drawn in. I suppose that not every metaphor makes sense to everyone, they're usually a hit or miss when it comes to literary devices, and I think I'm one of the people who fell into the "miss" category. I appreciated the metaphors, but they didn't really make sense to me. There was one metaphor in particular that kept being used and repeated throughout the book, which ended up annoying me more than anything else. Not only did I feel like it didn't quite make sense, it served to confuse me as to what was metaphorical or real.

The romance in the book confused me (yet again) as I figured out what was happening pretty early on. It felt predictable and yet it didn't really make much sense to me. There was no reasoning for the characters to be attracted to each other, they just were. No backstory, no explanation, not even a hint of why they would have feelings for each other. And with the number of love subplots this book has, I felt like it would have been helpful to have the romances fleshed out a little more.

The conclusion was disappointing because I didn't understand what the big deal was. Some things were explained, but I wasn't satisfied. I still had other unanswered questions that left me thinking I missed something. A few things happened that I didn't think needed to, while other things were left unresolved.

Character(s):
Like several other people have said, these characters can feel very one-dimensional and stagnant. For the most part, they all kind of feel like a single person. There are few distinctions between them and nothing that really makes them stand out. I also had a hard time telling their voices apart when they spoke, even though there was no change in perspective. More than anything else, I was annoyed at they way they were behaving, and at the same time, I didn't really care. It was a weird mix that somehow made sense as I read the book.

Overall:
3 stars. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone. In my opinion, there are better books out there that are equally mysterious. Maybe pick this up only if you're interested in why there are so many mixed reviews and if you don't have particularly high expectations.

Acknowledgements:
Thank you to NetGalley for hosting this on your site. Thank you also to Corgi Childrens for approving my request to read this in exchange for an honest review.