I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
on August 18, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 282
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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A bewitching, dark and beautiful debut novel about a girl living in the shadow of a mysterious curse.
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?

The Accident Season is a strange compelling read as for me the story never seemed as simple as what the blurb suggests. I did like that there was a hint of fantasy wrapped around the story which gave it a bit of an edge.

One thing I didn’t like was that it is ‘Accident Season’ but the characters still do stupid things like climb over gates and sit by train tracks – its almost like they ask for trouble to come to them. But what do I know?

I like how different everyone is – Alice with her turbulent relationship, Sam with his secrets, Bea with her Tarot cards and witch nature and Cara our compelling narrator. While I liked all the characters I did wish that we could get to know them all better, only Alice for me seemed to be ‘fully-rounded’, but perhaps that is just me being picky?

Also may I just talk about the secrets box? This is an amazing idea where people type up their secrets and then put them in a box, later in the term they are strung up and everyone’s secrets can be seen, anomalously of course, but it seems like a great way to get something of the chest.

The Accident Season manages to effortlessly blurs between reality and the fantasy world leaving you wondering how much of the accident season is in their imagination, and leave chilling questions over the implications that it is real. Will their secrets be revealed in time or will the past stay hidden?

Overall this was a fabulous book, that left you questioning the story throughout. And even with all those questions being satisfied with the revelations at the end. This is a teasing read that is perhaps, one of my favourite books of the year!

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