Review: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Release Date: August 18th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

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?

My thoughts:
You know I'm not quite sure what to make of this book.  I wasn't really loving it and then the ending happened and wow.   I don't think I've ever read a book that made me want to change my rating as much as this one and I'm left really struggling with what to do.

So I'm going to try and talk this out.  In the beginning we find out that every October Sam, Alice, Cara, and their mother have accidents.  These accidents can be as small as stubbing a toe or as big as being hit by a car.  Sometimes you survive them and sometimes you don't. No one knows why this happens they only know they have to be extra careful every October.  This year Cara's friend Bea predicts this will be a bad season and so Cara starts wondering who and when will become a victim of the accident season.

Okay see this sounded so good and while I did like it okay it just didn't grab me.  The story was too filled up with unrequited love, teenage partying, and tarot card reading.  I wanted more about the accident season and I guess I just wanted something a bit darker.  The whole beginning of the book felt a little too light for what was happening to this family.  There were bits of strangeness and I'll admit I was taken in by a few scenes, but just when I would think the book had finally taken a dark turn things would go fluffy again.  This changed in the last third of the book and that's when the wow happened.

We basically find out what happens when dark secrets are kept.  This book took a total 180 turn for me and I wasn't prepared for the direction the author dove into.  I mean talk about getting whiplash!  When I finally figured out what was going on my mouth dropped and I finally understood why the author chose to include so much fluff.  No one book can handle this much dark, she had to balance it out with something to give the reader hope for her characters.  I think by building them all up it let the us know that things are bad, but you gotta remember the beginning.  I have to say this twist was amazing and something I think will blind side most people. 

See as I am writing this review I am leaning toward a pretty stellar rating because it is all starting to make sense to me. I honestly loved the writing and the character development was pretty amazing as well.  The one thing I didn't like was all the smoking and substance abuse. This has been in quite a few books I've read lately and I am really hoping its not a new trend.  I don't personally like it and especially for certain parts of this book it wasn't needed.

Okay I am going to go with 4 stars.  This 4 stars is for the amazing writing, the brilliant slap you in your face 180, the characters that will stay with me for a long time especially Cara and Sam (who were just too cute), and the hope that was given in the beginning.

4 snowflakes