The Accident Season by Moϊra Fowley-Doyle Review

The Accident Season by Moϊra Fowley-Doyle  

“I think we all drown, in one way or another.”

The Accident Season is the story of one family who find themselves getting injured regularly every October with no explanation behind it. The story follows Cara a 17 year old who recognises something different this year which in hindsight releases the secret or mystery surrounding the Accident Season.  

There are many different characters in the book but the main characters are Cara, her older sister Alice, her ex-stepbrother Sam and her best friend Bea. Each character had their own subplot to give some background on them and develop their character which was nice as it showed the accident season affected more than one person. Cara was okay for a MC but she was kind of boring and tended to focus more on her own feelings towards Sam, she also idolised the other characters which didn’t help her be more interesting. Alice’s story is the saddest from them all as she goes through so much on her own and not many people can tell she’s broken and unhappy. Sam and Cara were very similar in the way they were written – I get that they’re supposed to be really close but Sam was like the male counterpart to Cara and as he’s the main male character it didn’t suit the book

I liked the writing style of the book it was easy to read and had a nice flow to it which suited the magical atmosphere in the book. The story had a prologue style first chapter which hinted to something that happened further on in the book but the event wasn’t really significant so I felt that the chapter was sort of useless.

There are quite a lot of plots in this book and most of them interlock and contribute to each other which is interesting. After Cara discovers that a student from her school – Elsie appears to be in every one of her photos and Elsie has disappeared with no trace and with no one really knowing who she is, Cara tries to find her. As she tries to find Elsie she discovers Elsie’s identity, the truth behind the Accident Season and her family secrets. We also find out Sam’s dad part in the story and it’s a major part.

The book is part mystery and has a hint of a magical aspect. The bad thing was that the mystery wasn’t build well and sometimes not at all – whenever new information/clues were given Cara immediately did something to dissolve the tension/mystery that could have been built up. So I wasn’t ever kept guessing on something except the major plotline. I liked the magical aspect as it fit nicely with the story especially the witch’s story.

Also the sexual tension between some characters was just awkward and cringe worthy to read.  

★★★☆☆