Review: The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Title: The Accident Season
Author: Moira Fowley Doyle
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Magical Realism
Release date: August 18th, 2015
Pages: 304 (Hardcover)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Publisher
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Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably accident-prone. Some years it’s bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it’s just a lot of cuts and scrapes. They know what they need to do—stock up on bandages and painkillers, cover sharp table edges with padding, banish knives to locked drawers, switch off electrical items. They buckle up, they batten down. 

But this accident season—when Cara; her ex-stepbrother, Sam; and her best friend, Bea, are seventeen—none of that will make a difference. 

Because Cara is starting to ask questions. And the answers were never meant to be found.

This Accident Season started out with a bang (literally) when Alice, Cara's older sister, was admitted to the hospital after a nasty spill down the stairs.  Their mother constantly tries to protect them, but in some ways, she know she can't.  Even the most impossible accidents tend to happen during October, and no one outside their family seems to understand, except Cara's best friend, Bea.  When a girl from school disappears, Cara and Bea team up to solve the mystery of why no one else seems to remember her.  Even though it's accident season, this group of teens take risks they're not supposed to and find something more haunting along the way.

Each relationship in this book was special in its own way, from the sibling ties to the strong friendship, adding a little budding romance.  Throughout the story, you get a look into their past and when the accident season started.  Could it be purely coincidence?  Superstition?  Readers learn that there isn't always a simple conclusion.  The accident season is a mix of all of those things and more.  As the story begins to unravel, so do the characters, learning more about themselves and each other than they thought they knew.

I really enjoyed this story.  Magical realism is one of my favorite genres and there aren't very many young adult books that dabble in it.  Cara and Sam were definitely my favorite characters, although everyone was quite unique, including the mother, who had an affinity for dying her hair crazy colors.  After losing three close family members in past accident seasons, it's clear that they're no strangers to heartbreak.  While this story may be confusing at times, the author wraps everything up nicely.  Not everything is as it seems, and that made the story worth the read.

This book was beautifully written, imaginative and even a little creepy at times.  Moira Fowley-Doyle explores magic and ghosts, showing the creativity behind our main character, yet doesn't stray too far away from the reality of the family's situations.  The twists may surprise readers, mostly because there are a lot of secrets that need to come to the surface in order to understand everything.  Overall, this story gave me chills and haunted my dreams.  I would definitely recommend it, especially around October!