The Book of Accidents: A Novel

by Chuck Wendig

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A family returns to their hometown—and to the dark past that haunts them still—in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers

LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • “The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns—I haven’t felt all this so intensely since The Shining.”—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Public Library, Library Journal

Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there.

Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures.

Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania.

Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver.
 
And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy who becomes his best friend, a boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic.

This dark magic puts them at the heart of a battle of good versus evil and a fight for the soul of the family—and perhaps for all of the world. But the Graves family has a secret weapon in this battle: their love for one another.

• ISBN10: 0399182136
• ISBN13: 9780399182136
• Publish Date: 20 July 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 544
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780399182136

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Chuck Wendig is here with another paranormal thriller, and I am all sorts of here for it. The Book of Accidents is one of those books that I had been counting down the days for, and I am glad to have finally found the time to sit down and read it.

The past sets the tone for the present, even when we're unaware of it happening. For example, Nathan lived in a country house, where he witnessed a secret he'll never speak of. Meanwhile, Maddie used to be a little girl who likewise was witness to a dark secret.

Now, these two people have found one another, and the result is their son, Oliver. Only, the shared horrors they've witnessed are rising back up, reaching into the present, and going straight towards Oliver.

“Books were usually a way for her to power her own brain down and borrow someone else’s for a while.”

What makes The Book of Accidents a standout novel is the way Chuck Wendig tackles different types of horror. There is no single 'big bad' in this book, but rather several disturbing and horrifying sequences that merge together into one tale.

To say that it was spine-tingling wouldn't do it justice. Here the mundane and the paranormal combine into one, and somehow that in combination with Wendig's writing makes it feel almost too real. Too horrible.

While many different elements are dancing throughout this book, overall, there's a more gothic vibe to the story at hand. It makes The Book of Accidents feel more cohesive, which I very much appreciated.

I should probably mention that this book may not be for the faint of heart, especially not as it delves into the horrors that can spring from the human mind. These are the parts that frequently feel too real, all while blurring the lines between truth and fiction.

The Book of Accidents is absolutely a novel that horror fans will love, as will many thriller fans, I believe. Yet it is also a novel that is very different from both, and I kept help but appreciate that more than anything else.

Thanks to Del Rey Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks