The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doley

Description from Goodreads

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? 

♡

I'm going to have a hard time reviewing this book. The Accident Season has an addictive quality to it - I read the whole book in one sit. It was eerie and melancholy, borderline magical realism, and a little disturbing. Everything the author aimed it to be, I'm guessing. While reading, I felt like I was in a dream, just floating in someone's memories. Everything around me disappeared, and that sensation is always something that I seek when reading. I want to experience something that I couldn't even imagine. The Accident Season accomplished it.

There is a twist/surprise element near to the end. A lot of people have said that they saw the twist coming, but for once, I didn't see it coming. It would be interesting to read the book a second time, now that I know what is coming. Would the book be still as mesmerizing and have the same kind of magical realism feel to it the second time around? Maybe, most likely not. That being said I think the book is best experienced knowing little as possible when going into the book. At best it surprises you and leaves you a bit hollow inside, in a good way. 

Now about the one element, a lot of people have very strong opinions on. It might be a small spoiler, but it is introduced very early on in the book: the romance between the main character Cara and her ex-stepbrother.  To be honest, I'm not sure myself yet what I think of this, I just finished reading the book. While I do not like the idea of sister/brother romance, this wasn't exactly it as they weren't related by blood. They both knew it was "weird" (as they put it) and they struggled against it, but does it make it acceptable? I don't know, but I'd really love to hear the author's thoughts on this. Why did Fowley-Doley decide to make the love interest ex-stepbrother? The romance wasn't the main theme in the book, but it was a significant part. The book is more about how broken we are, and how we can still live on despite it. But I think some readers might find the romance off-putting, this time it was ok, in my opinion. 

I find it very hard to pin-point the whole reading experience - did I just really read all of that? Did that all happen? Now, I can't say that book was 5/5 stars because sometimes the characters were a tiny bit too teenager-y (so angsty and rebellious) and while the writing was captivating, it tended to drag on at times. But I did like The Accident Season. It had a clear concept, it provoked so many emotions in me (both good and bad), I liked the surprise element, and I will remember the book for a longer than just this one evening when I read it. If you liked All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, The Accident Season is also for you. 

4/5 stars
☆☆☆☆