The Accident Season

by Moira Fowley-Doyle

For fans of We Were Liars and The Ocean at the End of the Lane comes a haunting magically realistic debut about a family caught between a violent history, a taboo romance, and the mysteries lurking in their own backyard.


Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it's bad, and some years it's just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season--when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17--is going to be a bad one. Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There's a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she'll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she'll uncover the dark origins of the accident season--whether she's ready or not.



* "Fowley-Doyle's stunning debut novel weaves the temporal and the spiritual into a seamless reality, rich in emotional impact . . . This thought-provoking narrative will cast its spell over older teens and adults alike."--School Library Journal, starred review

* "Ghosts, secrets, and magic collide in this Irish author's astonishing debut . . . a moving portrait of a fractured family, knitting itself back together with courage and love. A powerful novel from an exciting new talent."--Kirkus, starred review

• ISBN10: 014751732X
• ISBN13: 9780147517326
• Publish Date: 2 August 2016 (first published 2 July 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Speak
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780147517326

Reviews

"It's the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom."

A few of my scattered thoughts about a book that scattered my thoughts:

★ Interesting premise, poor execution.
★ The best aspects in The Accident Season - the eerie atmosphere, whimsical tone and a sense that something just isn't right. 
★ The mystery aspect is extremely confusing.
★ This is a perfect October or Autumn read.  
★ I love found families, quirky and unique characters and close bonds, but I felt indifferent towards the characters in The Accident Season. They felt so distant. 
★ The writing is beautiful. 
★ I've been looking for a magical realism book to love, but maybe the genre just isn't my cup of tea.
★ It's not The Accident Season, it's me. 

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

 

[jeannamichel]

Not at all what I expected.

Every October, Cara’s family struggles through the accident season. The world becomes more dangerous. Their bones become more breakable. And sometimes there are deaths. Can this all be just accidents? In this mysterious debut, The Accident Season by Moria Fowley Doyle will have you turning pages like never before.

UNEXPECTED STORY

The book wasn't what I was expected. I thought I was going into a story about witches or ghosts and we didn't get much of either.

The Accident Season is set in Ireland, a fact I wouldn’t have noticed unless I looked up some of the town names dropped. In settings such as Ireland, I expect to be wowed by descriptions of gorgeous scenery and beautiful backdrops but besides the random mention of towns, readers would never know. It is a missed opportunity, to be sure.

The Accident Season was strange. I didn’t love it but the fast pacing drew me in to the story. And the farther I got into the story, the more original and unique it got which made it difficult to put my thoughts in order for this review.

PECULIAR CHARACTERS

Cara, the protagonist, was a fantastic character. I enjoyed getting inside her head, seeing things from her perspective. Despite the spooky factor of the book, Cara remained levelheaded—looking at things from multiple angles. It allowed readers to come to conclusions on their own.

The relationship that Cara had with her ex-stepbrother was most evident from the start. There didn't seem to be any build to the romance since they were so close to begin with. It would have been nice to get a little more scenes where their relationship started to develop from the start through a series of flashbacks, perhaps. This is most definitely falling prey to the falling in love with your best friend cliché. However, quite frankly, I thought the relationship was very peculiar. On the one hand, you had Cara who insisted that they were definitely not brother and sister. But then you had Sam who made sure everyone knew Cara was his sister, despite having feelings for her. It made it really strange to see them as anything other than brother-sister especially since they seemed to have such a close, platonic relationship to begin with.

TOO MANY QUESTIONS

In The Accident Season, there are way more questions than there are answers. While reading, several things were left unexplained. It was a bit infuriating; especially since the big reveal, the accident season itself isn’t fully understood. While the end wraps everything up, it sure is one very messy wrap-job. The execution seems unorganized with so many elements going on. The book concludes with "everything's connected, so there" which seems like a cop out. Please, give me more answers than that.

It’s one of those books that would be difficult to explain to people because there are so many elements to the story. I wouldn’t know where to start first. The Accident Season came across as unorganized as if there wasn't a true main goal. What were these characters working towards anyway?

The Accident Season by Moria Fowley Doyle is a fast paced mystery with a disorganized structure and an unexpected story. The protagonist’s narrative is superb and the spooky theming is absolutely perfect for autumn. However, The Accident Season was just not the book for me, leaving me with several unanswered questions.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

Review to come. ♣︎

[Sam@WLABB]

This book was not what I expected at all, and I mean this in the best way possible. It was so many things, but most of all, it was engrossing. I read it in one day, because every time I thought I had it figured out, something happened. Fowey-Doyle's writing is quite beautiful, and she artfully told this story of this family and their most unfortunate season. She crafted these beautifully broken characters, who were very complex and I was totally absorbed into their lives. This book has made a short list of my favorite reads of 2015, and its place on my list is well deserved.

[Heather]

I loved the central mystery in this book.  Why is October accident season for this family?  Looking for that answer kept me reading through this book.

The mystery deepens when Cara is looking through pictures and realizes that a girl from her school named Elsie is in all of her pictures - even the ones taken outside the country.  When she goes to ask her about it at school, Elsie can't be found and no one remembers her.

I liked the idea that there is a typewriter in the library where people type confessions and put them in a box.  They are used in an art installation at the end of each year.

But this book also hit one of my personal pet peeves.  I hate stories that center around teenage drinking.  I think that kids arranging their lives around opportunities to drink is so amazingly stupid that it takes a lot of the enjoyment out of the story.  The kids in this book can't seem to do anything if they aren't drinking at the same time.  It isn't just that I'm an old fogey.  I thought it was incredibly stupid and boring when I was a teenager too.  I would have DNFed this one for that if I wasn't intrigued about who Elsie was and the origins of the accident season.

 This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[kimbacaffeinate]

Five reasons to listen to The Accident Season

• The premise: Every October Cara and her family have unexplained accidents. Some years they escape with cuts, bruises and broken bones  but other years are dark like the season their father died. Fowley-Doyle shares this season and takes us on one heck of a ride where accidents are not the only problems facing this family. Besides the mystery of the accident season, this is a tale of secrets, forbidden love, friendship, sisters, family and coming of age.


• The writing/language: The writing was delightful; if I read the Accident Season, I would have highlighted everything. Fowley-Doyle has this magical way of describing feelings and painting scenery. As Colby Minifie read, I found myself slipping into the story as the lyrical, often-haunting words flowed. I can hardly believe this is a début novel.


• The characters: Colorful and quirky from Mom’s purple hair to their different personalities. Each of the siblings intrigued me. The siblings, Cara, her sister Alice, and their ex-stepbrother Sam are incredibly close; in part because of the accident season. Their friend Bea is a tad eccentric from her tarot cards to her vividly witchy imagination. I easily connected with all of them and their actions and personalities felt realistic. The bond between this family and group of friends felt genuine and the way they came together during the accident season endeared me to them.


• The story: The story comes to us from Cara and at times, she was an unreliable narrator. This added to the overall suspense and creepiness as the story unfolded. Was the accident season real? Moreover, what was causing it? Bea and her incredible gift at spinning tales gave us a  haunting atmosphere. The author takes us through their mundane lives and the  complications created by the season from school to parties. She skillful shows the risks youth take even with the threat of danger. We see the believers and the naysayers of the family and wonder ourselves even as the hair on the back of our neck rises. We experience love, heartache, jealously friendship and their fears.


• A standalone: We get a fully developed story that was fast paced, and wholly original. I loved the blending of paranormal and magical realism. As the story progressed, it became more complex with twists and turns that kept me listening. I found the story delightful from its creepy mystery to the sweet romance. The climatic ending was action-packed and had me holding my breath. I worried that we would be left with questions, but the author tied up threads and delivered an ending that satisfied me.

Audio provided by publisher. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Initial Thoughts: This book has some strengths, but I'm really not the right audience for it. At times it was weird seemingly just because it could be weird, and a lot was inconclusive. Like, half of the stuff was because magic and half the stuff was ordinary being mistaken for magic.

[Kim Deister]

The Accident Season This was a strange, but intriguing book.  There were moments when it was like reading through an altered state, as if Cara isn't always 100% in the present.  In places, there was prose that reminded me a bit of Sarah McCarry's All Our Pretty Songs.  The lines of between reality and that which is imagined or dreamed are blurred.
 
The characters were fascinating, full of the flaws and contradictions that are a part of humanity.  Cara is the narrator of the story that focuses around herself, her sister Alice, their stepbrother Sam, as well as their mutual best friend Bea.  They are all such different people but they love each other unconditionally.  Each of them is flawed in their own way and they have almost a bit of a feral quality to them.  Except for this one month, they run a bit wild.  But when the month begins, their mother covers everything in padding and watches them all like a hawk.
 
And that is the center of the mystery... the month in which they all are suddenly accident-prone.  Bad things happen that month and no one really knows why.  And this year, there is an added bit of mystery in the form of Elsie, a mysterious girl that appears in all of Cara's photos.  Yet somehow, no one seems to know much about her, or even who she is,  
 
And yes, there is romance.  Romance that is found in unexpected places, but romance that is real and founded in love.
 
The twists are incredible, the revelations emotionally intense, and the story is caprivatingly mind-boggling.  The lyrical, magical quality to the prose keeps you guessing, wondering what is real and what isn't.  And when those revelations come... MIND BLOWN.  
 
My Recommendation
 
Love, love, LOVE this novel!  I loved the unusual quality to the story, the twists, the turns.  Such a great read!

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

A number of months ago, when discussing upcoming LGBTQ YA,  Charlie Morris highly recommended The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle, so I requested a review copy. I resisted reading it until recently due to not being able to discuss it for months if I read it sooner, but I kind of wish I had! It's SO good!

Every October is the accident season for the Morris family. They will bump, they will slip, they will trip, they will fall, and there will be torn skin, blood, and broken bones. Every October. No-one knows why this happens, but Cara and Alice, and their ex-stepbrother, Sam, must put up with the extra layers, the the padding around the house and the removal of certain electronic devices like the kettle their mother/guardian insists on. Because the accident season is no joke; family members have died. October is a time when everyone is on edge. So when Cara discovers that someone, Elsie, s girl from school, is in every single one of her photos - an elbow, the back of her head, a shoe - Cara starts to worry. Why is Elsie in every photo? Is she following her? And why has she suddenly stopped coming to school? It looks like she's disappeared, but Cara is determined to find her and get her answers, along with the help of Sam and her best friend Bea. Secrets abound, but during the accident season, it might be safer if secrets stat undiscovered.

The Accident Season is incredible! It's atmospheric, haunting, and completely mesmerising! There is so much intrigue to the mystery behind the accident season and what's going on with Elsie. I couldn't stop turning the pages, desperate to know what was happening, what was behind everything. It's not a horror story, but it has such a creepy vibe, an eerie feeling that something is watching Cara, Alice, Sam and their mother/Melanie, causing these accidents at the precise moment. With every scrape, cut, bruise, broken bone and near-miss, it felt like watching a Final Destination movie. You read in a constant state of trepidation, with a sense of foreboding, knowing something terrible could happen at any moment.

I loved how I was never completely sure what was real and what wasn't, continually guessing. There was the accident season, there was Elsie's disappearance, yet still turning up in the photos, the changeling siblings - Fae creatures that Cara dreams about, whose looks and lives have similarities to Cara, Alice, Sam and Bea. Then small things, like a shop that can't be found a second time, or a frozen river when it's so hot out. Plus there's Bea's interest in tarot and her mystical stories, and strange things turning up in a wooded clearing. It's absolutely gripping, and I have no idea what to class this book as! Contemporary fantasy? Magic realism? Paranormal? Something else altogether? Either way, it's brilliant!

The various romances in The Accident Season are subplots, which was nice. The focus was firmly on the weird and the strange, and the romance aspects happened alongside all that. There is an LGBTQ element to the story, but it's not explicitly stated. Sexuality isn't discussed*, what is discussed is a character's feelings for another character, but nothing more than that, nothing about identities. It's about the romance, not sexuality. Some might argue that this should be developed further, but I feel the romance in the book is treated just as romance, rather than straight romance or LGBTQ romance. It's all the same, and I think this is great.

This review hasn't done The Accident Season justice. I don't know if I can. It's delightfully suspenseful, deliciously ominous, and incredibly exciting! I absolutely adored The Accident Season, it's an unbelievably good debut novel! I just wish it was longer! There is no doubt I'll be reading whatever Fowley-Doyle writes next. She's going to be one to watch.

*Although sexuality isn't discussed, I know it's important to see yourself represented in the books you read, so, although it's not actually printed, from what I've read, I would say the characters would identify as bisexual. But I'm not the author, so I could be wrong here.

Thank you to Corgi Children's Books for the proof.