The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

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?

Accidents happen. Our bones shatter, our skin splits, our hearts break. We burn, we drown, we stay alive.

The Accident Season is an imaginative and whimsical paranormal book that’ll keep you up at night. Just a little tip: you might want to keep a teddy bear close while reading this one, too.

The main thing that turned this into a successfully haunting read was the writing style. Doyle’s writing will make you feel like you’re floating, and maybe even kind of… unsteady, which is perfect to get a good feel of the story’s spooky atmosphere. Although for some (weirdos like me), it might be a bit off-putting. Personally, it made it a bit tougher for me to feel–like I said, I was sort of floating throughout the whole book.

And now, let’s talk about the characters. While I did love the idea of them, I didn’t really love them. Let me elaborate here. See, I love how Doyle seemed to go against some character stereotypes, but I just couldn’t get a good grasp of them. Maybe it was because of the floaty feeling the book gave me. Maybe it’s because I felt like some of them were too all over the place (like everyone kissed everyone without telling each other), or because I wasn’t given enough time to really figure them out.

This book also had romance in it, which may or may not be a good thing. I mean, I didn’t love any of the relationships in particular, but I didn’t mind them being there. They didn’t necessarily add anything to the story, but they didn’t take the spotlight off the mystery, either. Okay, maybe I did sort-of like the main ship, but the side-ship (I deem this a thing now!) was pretty meaningless and had no chemistry.

If there’s one thing I appreciated most about this book, thought, it’s that it was it actually made sense. If I’m being really honest here, a lot of mystery and thriller books have these twists that come out of nowhere. The twist in The Accident Season will make you nod your head along, while still getting these chills that’ll creep up your spine.

Y’all should know that I’m a huge wuss, but for some strange reason still love reading books that’ll creep me out. And did Doyle succeed in doing just that! There were a handful of scenes in this book where I just wanted to call my mom to bring me a blanket and my teddy bear. They weren’t particularly holy-shit scary, but they were definitely spooky and mind-boggling.

Aaand Doyle also included changelings in the book, which I greatly appreciated. I love how she went with the descriptive route with them–I loved picturing these odd creatures in my mind, and it was awesome that each of them were very different and easily distinguishable.

Anyone looking for a magical realism book with a good twist and lovely chills will definitely enjoy The Accident Season. Unless you don’t like getting that floaty feeling when you read.