Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Book of Accidents

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

61 reviews

annemariemulksibb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Even in expecting this book to be weird, I was perpetually surprised by what happened. I don't even know what else to say, but I really liked it.

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honeyenbee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ladygray_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

⚠️ CW: death, murder, child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, cannibalism, suicide, brief mentions of school shootings and sexual abuse ⚠️ Well this book was definitely one that flipped my brain upside down and inside out. This book follows the Graves family and their return to Nate's rural childhood home in Pennsylvania upon the death of his father who left him the house in his will. Now married to his wife, Maddie, along with their son, Oliver, all they want is some peace from city living but as they return their dark pasts come back to haunt them as supernatural happenings start taking place and a sinister battle of good versus evil comes knocking at their door. This book was a good read that makes you question all of the little things that happen in your life as it takes you on a sci-fi/occult twisting journey throughout generations and timelines in a mind melting rollercoaster ride, but it is so hard to review without giving spoilers. While the plot of this book was really interesting I struggled to follow it at times because there was just so much going on. Also throughout I found the pacing was quite off and went from being fast and page turning to slow and drawn out and due to this I think it made the end feel really rushed. Overall, I enjoyed this read and if you're looking for a intensely deep, twisting and terrifying horror then I definitely recommend picking up this book.

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spookshow's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

When Nathan was a child, he lived in the country, in a house with an abusive father. To this day, he's never told his family exactly what happened to him in that house. Maddie also grew up in the same town, she used to make dolls as a child, until one day, she saw something that she wasn't meant to see. Ever since then she's been trying to remember the lost traumatic memories through making haunting sculptures. Nathan and Maddie are now married, and after the death of Nathan's father, end up moving back to that country town, into the very house that Nathan lived his nightmare. All is fine, until the thing that used to stalk the tunnels and mines, living in the darkness underneath the town that can be found in rural Pennsylvania, has set it's sights on their son Oliver. A sensitive boy with strong empathy for everything around him. A strange boy befriends him, a boy with dark magic, and soon, the Graves family find themselves in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil. A battle where they are battling for their very souls, and possibly even the world. Is the love that they have for each other, enough to help tip the scales in their favour?

I had been seeing this book across bookstagram a lot, so I guess you could say that it was a bookstagram-made-me-buy-it book. I was super keen to get into it as I've been on a huge horror kick the last twelve odd months, and this one stood out and sounded so different to anything else I'd read. While this wasn't the book that I had hoped that it would be, it didn't disappoint me as such, it just turned out so totally different to what I was expecting and I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it. This ended up being more of a slow build cosmic horror, which isn't a bad thing by any means, I was just expecting something totally different. So I think my feeling of being slightly let down, is definitely a case of - it was me, not the book. I try not to put expectations on books before I read them because I've learned over the years that this can tend to lead to disappointment or feeling slightly let down when something doesn't turn out the way that I had envisioned in my head from the cover and blurb. Let's be honest thought, it's hard to NOT have a preconceived notion on what a book is going to be.

The story is told through mostly three alternating POVs, there are a couple of other's thrown in there throughout the book, but the three main points of view that we read through are Nath, Maddie and Oliver. The book opened on a pretty electrifying scene (pardon the pun, it was totally intended), and I was pretty intrigued by the first character that we meet. I enjoyed the characters of Oliver and Nathan the most. Nathan who is trying his hardest to not turn into the man who terrorised him his whole life, and trying to deal with that ingrained trauma to the point that he probably overanalyses pretty much every action or word that he has with his son. You can see right from the start that he is a genuine guy who managed to break the cycle. Oliver, oh Oliver, this boy was like a sweet beacon of shining light. He feels things too much, he feels EVERYTHING too much. His empathic abilities are off the charts and I couldn't even imagine feeling what he does on the daily. He just wants quite and he wants peace and kindness and I loved seeing that in such a young character. As the story progresses, with everything that happens to him and that he goes through, he never once has malicious or nefarious thoughts towards those who hurt him, he's forever wondering if there's a way that he could fix THEIR pain so that they wouldn't choose to hurt others. He came across as such a selfless character and I loved that about him. Maddie, I liked her enough, but for a huge chunk of the book she just annoyed me mostly. Yes she has trauma and yes she's trying to remember things that she knows are connected to what they're experiencing in present day, but she came across as so self centered to me, until probably the last 150 odd pages, I ended up liking her more by the end, so she did have a lot of redeeming qualities. One thing that bugged me a bit, and still kinda bugs me, is we meet a character pretty early on in the story, I was expecting this character to have a pretty pivotal role in the plot as a whole, but...they just didn't? Not in my opinion anyway. They sort of disappeared and briefly would pop in, but we mostly didn't see them again until the last part of the book and I'm still not overly sure of the point of their existence in the story. Yeah I get the overall thing with the big bad and that it wasn't just going to one person, but this character still seemed rather pointless to me, they just helped drive a part of another plot device. That's probably another "it's me not the book" things though. One thing I absolutely loved was when we meet an alternate version of a character, and my heart just swelled with how this person interacted with another character. I'm trying to be as vague as possible because I don't want to give to much away, but I feel like I'm just speaking nonsense.

The story itself was a twist and sometimes confusing one. There were a lot of strings in this story, and while, yeah, they did all kind of intertwine and have a point, there was a LOT going on. So at times I felt like I was just sitting in a giant pile of strings that were all twisted up and I couldn't find the end or the beginning and it was just a giant mess. Things did straighten out as the story progressed, as they normally do, but for a while there, it felt like a whole lot of nothing was kind of happening. Everything made sense in the end, and yes, everything had a purpose, but there is a lot of set up that is happening in this story, so be prepared for that. The pacing did fall flat for me a fair bit, which is why it took me so long to finish it I think. That and life. I was interested in the characters and where they were heading, it was just a slower paced novel than what I had anticipated it being. Again, not inherently a bad thing, just not what I was after I guess.

All in all, this was a horror novel that really stands out because it IS different to pretty much everything else I've read. And when you read as much as I do, that is refreshing. Wendig is great at writing and creating characters that you can really get behind and that you really hope will make it through the story unscathed as much as possible. I couldn't even begin to imagine how this story came to fruition as it's so complex and there is so much happening in it that I have no idea how Wendig was able to keep everything straight and tie it all up at the end in a way that was satisfying. If you're looking for a horror novel that has more than just the stereotypical cookie cutter characters, characters with flaws and depth and trauma, and a story that is just so different to most others, give this one a go. Don't let the page count or the slow pace put you off, stick with it, it really is a rewarding novel and honestly, I'm still thinking about it a month after finishing it.

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dandaloriian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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fortunavhs's review against another edition

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funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I both started and came away from this book with mixed feelings. On one hand the premise really appealed to me, however I had concerns it wouldn’t be for me due to the author working on Star Wars media - I feared this would have the same narrative shortcomings as most Disney products do. And while this was an enjoyable read, it unfortunately did and I grieve the potential that this book had.

That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot I did enjoy! There’s some great horror in this book, particularly surrounding mines which are a personal favourite horror setting of mine. There were some particularly nasty elements,

such as those black parasitic worms

that were delightful in how repulsive they were. Generally, I’m happy with the structure and pacing also - there was a moment where it felt a plot twist was revealed to the reader far too soon,

that being Jake’s ulterior motive

, but with the way the one lot developed it actually felt like the right part in hindsight.

If I had to make one overarching criticism of the novel, it would be that Maddie’s story arc didn’t get enough focus. It’s subjective of course - she happened to have the plotline most interesting to me. There was a *lot* going on in the book, also - content for several standalone novels, but I understand I like more detail and slower pacing than the average reader.

The other major criticism I have comes with some necessary caveats. I absolutely welcome humour and light hearted moments in all genres, and have no issue with cultural references whatsoever (particularly I oppose the idea that they would make a book dated/prevent it from being timeless), but this book is very heavy on the quips to a distracting degree. And there was one specific example that really bothered me:

when Olivier witnesses the different versions of himself and he compares it to a Sims game. I don’t doubt that a teenager might have a dissonant, fleeting thought during a terrifying moment, but from a reader’s perspective, it should have been, well, a terrifying moment and the comparison dulled the impact.

I just wish the horror concepts could have been explored without this joking facade. In the scenes with less tension, they helped humanise the characters but it felt like Wendig was afraid to include sincere emotion beyond that. This ties into how the reader is repeatedly assured that

this version of

the Graves family is a near perfect loving family - I was reminded of that tweet about characters talking like they want a good grade in therapy and so on. I admit I’m biased as a prefer stories about dysfunctional families and immoral people, but it often read as Wendig refusing to really explore the darker aspects of his main characters, or even just giving them less self awareness. He’s clearly a very competent writer - I just feel like he’s holding himself back too much and the story loses sincerity and nuance as a result.

One thing I’m always quite vigilant about is how realistically teenagers are written - it seems to be where a lot of authors falter. There were definitely times that veered into 80s movie archetypes in the high school scenes, as well as a little bit of the “how do you do, fellow kids?” type of approach, but on the whole, I felt like Oliver was a well written character. I do appreciate depictions of queer youth who have come to terms with their identity but not at a point of wanting to come out, as well as teen characters of any sexuality without a romantic subplot - just simply the acknowledgment that for many teens that’s not a priority whatsoever! In terms of other diversity, I’m less sure - there’s a lesbian character in a single scene whose sexuality only seemed to be brought up so Wendig could say he had lesbian representation, and the two main characters of colour both each have a line mocking white people - not that they can’t, but since they were created by a white man, it felt like he was patting himself on the back for being a good ally.

Tl:dr: There were absolutely elements to love about this book but I felt the author was restrained from exploring them fully and there was a lot of wasted potential for them. I would still recommend this to people who are fan of stories about familial love prevailing, but I’m a cold hearted edgelord (as the characters of this book would call me) and wanted more darkness.

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