The Book of Accidents

by Chuck Wendig

'Move over King, Chuck Wendig is the new voice of modern American horror' Adam Christopher

'A rich, rewarding tale' The Guardian
____________________________________________________________________________

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

When Nate's father dies, he leaves behind a final gift for his son: his childhood home. Married now, Nate decides to move in with his wife, Maddie, and their son, Oliver, seeking peace from the chaos of the city.

But it doesn't take long before things get strange in the night and even stranger by day.

Because Nate was a child being abused by his father, and has never told his family. Because Maddie was a little girl who saw something she shouldn't have. Because something sinister, something hungry, walks in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of this town in rural Pennsylvania...

And now, what happened all those years ago is happening again, and this time, it is happening to Oliver. When he meets a strange boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic, he has no idea that what comes next will put his family at the heart of a battle of good versus evil.
____________________________________________________________________________

'The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns-I haven't felt all this so intensely since The Shining' - Stephen Graham Jones

'Universally horrifying and viscerally intimate, Wendig brilliantly uses The Book of Accidents to explore a painful truth: in the end, we all haunt ourselves' - Kiersten White

• ISBN10: 1529101077
• ISBN13: 9781529101072
• Publish Date: 20 July 2021
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 2 August 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: Del Rey
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 544
• Language: English

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