Summary from GoodReads
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?
Thoughts on the Book
This is a BEA book, I had grabbed it because the cover looks pretty cool and concept was unique and I couldn't wait to read it.
My Review
This book is about a family who seem to have awful things happen to them during the month of October, which they dub the 'accident season'. Near the end of October Cara realizes that a classmate, Elsie, appears in every one of her pictures. The next day Elsie isn't at school and Cara makes it her mission to find Elsie.
I mostly liked this book. I liked Sam/Cara dynamic, and I loved Alice. Bea didn't come off as unique and awesome as Cara felt she was. I think the main thing that bothered me with them is the constant drinking and smoking. Are kids really like that in Ireland? Or was I just a goody-two-shoes growing up and didn't do anything that I wasn't supposed to? I also didn't like how the constant drinking and smoking was glorified, it sets a bad example for kids. Smoking is not cool, it's awful for you and disgusting to boot. There should have been some horrible accident involving a cigarette, rather than Sam blowing smoke rings and everybody loving it.
The story also seemed to focus more on the drinking and partying than on the accident season or the characters themselves. I would have loved to see Bea being super witchy, instead of just pulling out her Tarot cards whenever she wasn't imbibing. Or more of Cara and Sam clowning around together with the underlying awkwardness, there were only a couple parts with that, but then it stopped so abruptly. A little more on the Alice/Nick front would have been nice too, something to make the end a little more powerful.
Speaking of the end, it left me confused. I don't get it, which I usually don't mind if it's written that way, like obviously left ambiguous to make your own conclusions. This ended left one thing obviously ambiguous (which was cool, I liked that part) but the other stuff it explained away, but not fully, so it still doesn't make sense, there's no deliberate ambiguity. The explanation doesn't make sense for everything, only certain things so if all the other things are just coincidences, not cool.
As awesome as this story was, it could have been so much better. I'm expecting great things from Moïra in the future. It's a solid debut, and a lot of authors start a little shakey before they really hone their writing and become amazing best selling authors. I really hope she is one of these authors.
Overall I give this a 7.5/10. I loved the concept and the characters, I wasn't a fan of the entire resolution and the focus on drinking really bothered me.
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